Real World
Backstory
I really disliked almost everything about school. Packaging kids up working as mindless conformist robots for the work-‘force’. When I left school I worked in a bank for 18mths where I saw all that conditioning coming to bear and I how working was just the school straight jacket tightening around their necks. It really is a dangerous occupation. I left the bank and after 6 mths ended up a musician/producer.
Lyrics
When you started school they put you in a uniform
Read you out a list of rules, showed you how you must conform
'Cause that's the way life is in the 'real world'
You have to be prepared for living in the 'real world'.
Boys learn woodwork, girls do sowing,
It is so important to know you are going.
Worked your youth away learning useless facts by heart
Save it for a rainy day and if you pass they call you smart
And say that you are ready for the 'real world'
You're tailored to fit for living in the 'real world'.
Girls learned cooking, boys did rowing
It was so important to get where you were going.
But then you find that all this time
Was spent to bind your arms behind your back!
They put you in a straight jacket
Working for your pay packet
And you've got to build a reputation
To be a part of it all
It's such a dangerous occupation
Having your back to the wall
With nowhere to crawl.
Real world, real world, real world, real world, real world.
How do you think you do it
Staying all those years
At school looking up to your peers?
Were you really happy?
Are you happy now?
Do you think you'll ever be?
Do you know how???
And so you find that all this time
Was spent to bind your arms behind your back!
They put you in a straight jacket
Working for your pay packet
And you've got to build a reputation
To be a part of it all
It's such a dangerous occupation
Having your back to the wall
With nowhere to crawl.
Real world, real world, real world, real world!
Words and music by Jay Moxham © Copyright 1980
Arranged and produced by Jay Moxham © & ℗ Copyright & Publishing 2026