♫ Woman ♫

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My original intent was to play the song by the same name by Peter and Gordon, but when I Googled, this one by John Lennon came up before the Peter and Gordon one, and after listening to both, I decided to play this one, which I like much better, even though it was the other that was rattling about in my head as I vacuumed floors earlier today.  It turns out, and this I did not know, that Paul McCartney wrote the Peter and Gordon song!  Small world, eh?

Lennon wrote this song as an ode to his wife Yoko Ono.  Speaking with Rolling Stone just days before his death, Lennon said …

“Woman came about because, one sunny afternoon in Bermuda, it suddenly hit me what women do for us. Not just what my Yoko does for me, although I was thinking in those personal terms… but any truth is universal. What dawned on me was everything I was taking for granted. Women really are the other half of the sky, as I whisper at the beginning of the song. It’s a ‘we’ or it ain’t anything.”

In many ways, this song is Lennon’s apology to Yoko. In 1973, the couple was having problems in their marriage, so Yoko agreed to put their relationship on hold and let John sow his oats (she’s more tolerant than I, methinks). He did, taking up with his assistant May Pang and engaging in some unruly behavior. Lennon referred to this time as his “Lost Weekend” – it lasted about 18 months.

This was released as a single in January 1981, about a month after Lennon was murdered.

Woman
John Lennon

Woman
I can hardly express
My mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness
After all, I’m forever in your debt
And woman
I will try to express
My inner feeling and thankfulness
For showing me the meaning of success

Ooh, well, well
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo
Ooh, well, well
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo

Woman
I know you understand
The little child inside the man
Please remember my life is in your hands

And woman
Hold me close to your heart
However distant, don’t keep us apart
After all it is written in the stars

Ooh, well, well
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo
Ooh, well, well
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo

Well, woman
Please let me explain
I never meant to cause you sorrow or pain
So let me tell you again and again and again

I love you, yeah, yeah
Now and forever
I love you, yeah, yeah
Now and forever
I love you, yeah, yeah
Now and forever
I love you, yeah, yeah

Songwriters: John Lennon
Woman lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing

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21 thoughts on “♫ Woman ♫”

    • I fully agree, and I commented to another that “Imagine” is my all-time favourite. I have played it, I think three times already, and no doubt it will be in the line up again soon, along with Stevie and Paul’s “Ebony and Ivory”.

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  6. One of his greatest songs ever, but which one isn’t! The day he was murdered the world lost one of its greatest living beings. Yeah, he was a hellraiser, in may different ways, and some he needed to be condemned for. But he learned from his mistakes, which a large number do not do. Learning how to be a better being is the sign of a great life.

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    • This is one of his good ones, but as you say … which aren’t. My favourite, I think, will always be “Imagine”, for it is in that one that the good man, the humanitarian really shines. It is among my top 5 favourite songs of all time. This one I like … what woman doesn’t dream of a man caring that much for her? Sigh.

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