Have your ever noticed that many of the songs from the 50/60’s had guys whining about losing a girl and begging her to take him back? I admit I did it once, big time, and I regret it to this day. What the girls wanted was a guy that would take charge, make decisions and not whine – ever.
Bacall says this song expressed what she was thinking before we met.
Johnny I said we were through,
Just to see what you would do.
You stood there, and hung your head,
Made me wish that I were dead.
Oh, Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad.
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had.
I want a brave man, I want a cave man,
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me.
Every time you dance with me,
You let Freddy cut in constantly.
When he does, you never speak.
Must you always be so meek?
Oh Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad.
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had.
I want a brave man, I want a cave man,
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me.
Every girl wants someone who,
She can always look up to.
You know I love you, of course,
Let me know that you’re the boss.
Oh Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad.
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had.
I want a brave man, I want a cave man,
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me.
It may be thought of as cave man mentality today, but it was what girls wanted then. The man was expected to decide where to go and what to do.
A niece told us she did not want a John Wayne man. She married a wimp. She walked all over him. That marriage lasted a year. She is now engaged to a John Wayne type with a Ranger scroll who hopes to make it to a Ranger Battalion.
Our Bottoms Burn 
Well let's just hope your niece's new husband is the type of man she needs and not necessarily a “John Wayne type”…………(a notorious philanderer who cheated on all of his many wives. And a hypocrite who evaded the draft so he could stay home screwing Marlene Dietrich, yet made his career out of playing war heroes. Oh, don't get me started. 😉 LOL )
Anyway, the whole 'what is it to be a man' thing for me comes down not to size, swagger, or the ability to dispatch sabre-tooth tigers, but the sense of honor that keeps a man doing what is right even as those closest to him abandon him. And this trait has always been in short supply …….in every generation.
Bacall and I liked John Wayne on and off the screen. We are not prefect either.
“There's right and there's wrong,” Duke said in The Alamo. “You gotta do one or the other. You do the one and you're living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but in reality you're dead.”
Hi Bogey –
Not familiar with that song. I think there is something generational about expectations of what men should act like in relationships. There was this push not to long ago for men and women to be equals in a relationship. The original point was to treat each other with respect (in particular treating women with respect) but it seemed like the scales tipped to the other extreme. There has to be mutual respect, but there also has to be a lead in any relationship.
Best,
Enzo
Definitely a generational thing. Too much is made of it today.
Indeed, mutual respect at all times. We have worked out sphere’s of who does what. Usually, we check in with each other before doing something, even when we think we already know the answer. I know her area’s of expertise and she mine and we consult on those.