♫ Woman In Love ♫

Posted on by under music

Tonight a song was in my head.  The lyrics … echoed within the deep, dark rabbit hole … there is one who may understand … or not.

Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees wrote this song. After their wildly successful contributions to the 1978 movie Saturday Night Fever, they were asked to work on an album for Streisand, which became Guilty. It was Streisand’s best-selling album.  Two other songs from the album hit US Top 10, and both were duets with Barry Gibb: Guilty and What Kind of Fool. Guilty won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group. It is her fourth of four Platinum records, and is considered her greatest international hit.

In the UK this was Streisand’s first #1. Having made her British chart debut in 1966 with Second Hand Rose, the 14-year-279-day interval between her first chart appearance and her first number one was then the fourth-longest wait in UK chart history.

Streisand has openly stated that she does not like Woman in Love because she doesn’t believe in the meaning of the lyrics. She has rarely performed the song live.

Woman in Love
Barbra Streisand

Life is a moment in space
When the dream is gone
It’s a lonelier place
I kiss the morning goodbye
But down inside you know
We never know why
The road is narrow and long
When eyes meet eyes
And the feeling is strong
I turn away from the wall
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

With you eternally mine
In love there is
No measure of time
We planned it all at the start
That you and I
Live in each other’s hearts
We may be oceans away
You feel my love
I hear what you say
No truth is ever a lie
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

I am a woman in love
And I’m talking to you
You know, I know, how it feels?
What a woman can do
It’s a right
I defend over and over again

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again

Songwriters: Barry Alan Gibb / Robin Hugh Gibb
Woman in Love lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

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18 thoughts on “♫ Woman In Love ♫”

  1. In my mind, she took a mediocre song and made it grand. The lyrics are somewhat chauvanistic, the woman is expected to take the role of keeping the relationship strong and energetic, with the man reaping all the rewards. It is NOT Barbra. But the musicians give her a stage to show off her voice, the strength of her character, the passion in her heart.
    I like the sound, the song not so much.

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  3. In case I never mentioned this…I LOVE Barbra Streisand and I LOVE the “Guilty” album!! It appears, judging by previous comments, I am all alone in loving this song and even she did not love it. That said, Barbra could sing a menu and I would love it! I always thought of this song as looking back at a love that was lost and gone, not as a love in the present time. Probably just my perspective…”Life is a moment in space, when the dream is gone its a lonelier place”. Thank-you!

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    • Y’know … it seems that you may have mentioned that you sort of like Barbra a time or two. 😉 No, you weren’t completely alone … David & Jack both liked it, it seems. The others, maybe not so much. No matter … I play what I like, and I liked it!

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  5. I certainly remember this, but it was never a fave–the line about ‘right I defend’ always sounded clangy to me, and ‘hold you within’ plus ‘over and over again’ was amorphously smutty to me at the time! Isn’t it funny though, that certain songs and tv shows were things that the majority of people in the country at that time are familiar with, due to the limited range of tv and radio stations? Now I listen to celtic tunes on a Canadian online station, and old old blues by people like Fats Waller and lots of guys named Slim and other bluesmen on a station from Russia

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      • I think tastes just differ. It was probably partway for me because I worked in a chocolate shop where this was played 36475867564 times a day and I got tired of and a bit critical of some of the songs they considered ‘easy listening’–Bette Davis Eyes, some Hall and Oates, this, Neil Diamond, etc.

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        • To a large extent, tastes do definitely differ, and some of that is generational, some cultural. Haha … I would hate any song that I had to listen to more than 36 billion times a day! Yes, a song, like foods, can be overdone until you come to really dislike it.

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  7. I totally agree with Babs, the tune is strong and memorable but the lyrics are lacking. It really doesn’t convey the powerful emotions and yearning that Barbara conveys through her powerful singing.
    Reading the lyrics, they seem trite and superficial, a contrived love song which doesn’t match up with Bab’s delivery.
    Wish the lyrics were deeper more meaningful but the song overall is wonderful, Barbara is an awesome talent. ❤

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