Tried To Be A Man

Rickie Lee Jones

'Round here we don't need no one trying to set us straight
Heck, I got a red neck in plaid suit
And he's on TV real late balalaikas tolling
Sheba plays the flute
There's a communist and capitalists
They all think I'm cute

You know, I'm out of rehab
You know, I'm with the band
Anyway I think it's time to say
Exactly what I am
Cause I tried to be a man
But that's just not meant to be
You know I
Tried to be a man
That's not what I came to be

Well, there's seven years of famine
And seven years of drought
Seven years of Sam
And you know what I'm talking about
And it won't take very long before its hard to tell
If they're trying to take you back with him
To heaven or to hell
They make her so pretty
She won't be pretty long
She'll be rising out of the sea of planet Babylon

Cause she tried to be a man
That's not what she came to be
She tried to be a man
That's not what she came to be

She's living down on Bronson
She never blinks her eyes
The family in Wisconsin
Look like they're hypnotized
I get a strange sensation
When I lay down in my bed
In fact, if you could drop me on the corner
Here instead on planet Babylon
That's where they wrote the book
Hey there's something here about you
Come on and take a look
It says you tried to be a man
But that's not what you came to be
It says, it says, it says, it says
You tried to be a man
But that's not what you came to be
Came to be
What you came to be
That's not what you came to be.