♫ Woman ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

I’ve only played this once, back in August 2019.  I’m playing it again tonight in hopes of bringing a smile to the face of our friend, rawgod, who has some ‘stuff’ going on right now and isn’t smiling much.  Hugs to both you and Gail, rg!

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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16 thoughts on “♫ Woman ♫ (Redux)”

  2. I love this.
    Once upon a time, I crushed hard on John Lennon, though I was a child. When he married Yoko, I stopped, and fortunately, David Cassidy soon took that spot. I always cared, though, for Lennon, and for Yoko, who gained respect from me over her handling of John’s errancy. Later, I read the Playboy Interviews, and honestly, I crushed hard on Yoko, after that! I still follow the Imagine Peace tower work, and her other writings. She’s just amazing-no wonder he wrote this song! Thank you, Jill. Truly an antidote to the ugliness happening round and about, and also to my feeling way off after a COVID booster yesterday. 🥂

    Liked by 1 person

    • While most of my friends had huge crushes on Paul McCartney, my own crush was on the school maintenance man, a dude named Benito! Ahhhh … memories. Like the colours of my mind … hmmmm … is there a song in there? Barbra? Anyway … I’m glad you enjoyed this one, my dear friend! Hope you feel better today! Cheers! 🥂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. So cool! The writer’s here the reader’s over there. You know we are “seeing” each other a lot 😍You go from a beautiful love song to an essay of hate. I go from an essay on hate to a beautiful love song. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  4. You don’t get many more beautiful love songs than this. Truly heartfelt. It was first on the Double Fantasy album (UK and US #1) that came out three weeks before he was murdered. He had chosen this to be the follow up single to Starting Over, and they kept his wish. It was #1 in the US and #2 in the UK – behind Imagine.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Thank you, Jill. I love this song, and pretty much the whole album this comes from. I pity poor Pete, who is letting old feelings get in the way of the nessage of this song. Yoko did not break up the Beatles. The Beatles broke up the Beatles. They needed to go their own ways, being stilfled in trying to stay together. All four of them found greater success in solo careers, trying go make our world even better than we/they found it, in every sphere of human relations. This is a true love song; to hate it just seems so contradictory.
    And while it did put a momentary smile on my face, it ended up making me sadder. John was just reduscoveting himself, not as a star, but as a human bring when his life was cut short.
    If you were to ask me, the Assassination of John Lennon was the main event that triggered the change towards conservative hatred and power-grabbing. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 started a world war. The assassination of John Lennon started a world at war with itself! In my perspective…

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’m glad you enjoyed it. I wasn’t aware of that either until I first started researching the song. That’s what I love about doing these music posts … I learn so much!

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