Woman (John Lennon song)
January 16, 1981
Woman is a song by John Lennon in 1980, which was written by him and produced in cooperation with Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas. It appeared on the album Double Fantasy and 1981 as a single.
History
On the origin, John Lennon expressed among other things in an interview that he made on December 5, 1980 Jonathan Cott for the music magazine Rolling Stone. So had become to him on a " sunny afternoon in Bermuda " aware of how much women do for us.
" Anyway, in Bermuda, what Suddenly dawned on me what I was taking everything for granted. "
"What I Bermuda suddenly realized, was what I had taken everything for granted. "
In -depth interviews with David Sheff for Playboy magazine ( September 1980) and Andy Peebles for BBC Radio 1 (6 December 1980) John Lennon explained the background to the song. Among other things, he pointed out that it is a love song for Yoko Ono is on the one hand, on the other hand also a message to all women. Moreover, it was an admission of his own weaknesses and errors in the behavior towards women.
"My history of relationships with women is a very poor one - very macho, very stupid ... very sensitive and insecure but acting aggressive and macho. "
" My story concerns what relationships with women, is a very miserable - very macho, very stupid ... very sensitive and insecure, but represent the aggressive macho outward. "
Musically aroused the piece at Lennon memories of the Beatles. In the BBC interview with Andy Peebles he called it Beatley and compared it with Girl, a piece from 1965 from the album Rubber Soul. This comparison he also mentioned in an interview with Jonathan Cott, which he designated as Woman, " a grown-up version " of girl.
The song begins with Lennon's whispered words "For the other half of the sky. " ( German: " For the other half of the sky. "). In an interview for the BBC John Lennon provided an explanation for this introduction, which is a modification of a quote from Mao Zedong. For Lennon is the central message of the song: " All this talk about men and women is a joke. Both are nothing without each other. It was a different perspective on how I think about women and I can not express it better than in this song. "
The recordings took place in August and September 1980 at the studio "The Hit Factory " in New York. In addition to John Lennon (vocals, guitar ), Earl Slick were (guitar), Hugh McCracken (guitar), Tony Levin (bass ), George Small ( keyboards), Arthur Jenkins (percussion ) and Andy Newmark (drums) involved.
Publications
The release of the single was held on 16 January 1981. On the flip side, Yoko Ono Beautiful Boys composition was. It reached number one in the charts in Canada, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. In the U.S., the single reached the second place on the Billboard Hot 100 Woman was the second decoupled song from the album Double Fantasy and the first, which was published after the death of John Lennon on December 8, 1980.