Posted on 04/25/2022 1:38:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
On April 24, 1972, John Lennon released a new single: “Woman Is the ---- of the World.” Even at that time -- an era in which racial epithets were thrown around freely -- the title caused outrage.
Billboard called it “the most controversial record of the year,” with one jukebox programmer telling the magazine, “John Lennon should quit trying to make points with the American public and do his own thing, like go back to England.”
In a report issued at the time of the song’s release, the Los Angeles Times detailed that 300 stations across the U.S. had received the song. Only two were willing to play it. “With a normal Lennon record, all 300 stations would be playing it now,” noted Apple Records sales manager Tom Takayoshi.
Of course, Lennon didn’t use an inflammatory racial term in his song without reason. The former Beatle was trying to make a pro-feminism point, declaring that women were actually the most exploited members of society.
“I agree that a lot of people, Black and white, are slaves in the world,” Lennon explained, “but each of them has his own slaves and that’s usually the wife.”
Listen to 'Woman Is the ---- of the World'
The song’s title actually came from Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, who originally coined the phrase during a 1969 interview with Nova magazine. In May of ‘72, the couple appeared on The Dick Cavett Show to further defend the tune.
“There was a few people who reacted strangely to it, but usually they were white and male,” Lennon remarked, before admitting he too had dismissed the phrase when Ono first said it.
“At the time I was more of a chauvinist than I am now, and I must say I was saying, ‘Well come on, what about this? What about that?’ And I argued a lot,” he revealed. “But then as, like everybody else, we talked more and more about it in the last two years it became more of a thing, and I had to find out about myself and my attitude to women.”
The words “Woman is the ---- of the World” kept coming back to Lennon’s mind, so he eventually approached Ono to create the track (which would officially be a Plastic Ono Band release).
“I said, come on Yoko. Look, this is it. You’ve said it here. I agree with you now. I think she is. She’s the slave of a slave,” Lennon recalled. “So we sat down together and we wrote, we tried to write together the whole story as best we could in a three or four minute song.”
Lennon’s use of the n-word was defended by California congressman, Ronald Dellums, co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“If you define ‘----’ as someone whose lifestyle is defined by others, whose opportunities are defined by others, whose role in society is defined by others, the good news is that you don’t have to be Black to be a ---- in this society,” the politician remarked. “Most of the people in America are ----.”
Dellums’ comments echoed Lennon’s beliefs, and the rocker was happy to quote the congressman’s statement when defending his song.
“I think the word ---- has changed and it does not have the same meaning that it used to,” Lennon declared, reiterating that the song’s main point was to shine a light on women’s rights. “I really believe that women have the worst,” the former Beatle stated. “Whatever it is, however badly or poor people are, it’s the woman who takes it when they get home from work.”
“Woman Is the --- of the World” made it to No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, no mean feat considering the lack of radio airplay it received. Still, it ranked as Lennon’s lowest charting single in his lifetime.
Weird thing about the Beatles...everyone talks about everything about them except the fact that their music sucked...just like this song!
Lennon regularly beat women, putting both his wives in the hospital. He also beat his stage manager to the ground and kicked him until his spleen burst and he died. And, Lennon liked to go our after Beatles concerts and in his words, “Roll Queers.”
Lennon was a violent, nasty ass.
“an era in which racial epithets were thrown around freely”
No, they weren’t. More concerning is that it got so much fame and is such a wretched song.
Where did you ever hear this?
Another man who grew up not knowing his father. We all have talent and his came out in the most creative ways. Still one can see there was something missing.
I hear you. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song.
No, they weren’t. More concerning is that it got so much fame and is such a wretched song.
That's funny. I guess Corey Irwin doesn't spend much time hangin with the Hip-Hop lifestyle.
Thirty seconds of internet research reveals that Corey Irwin (the "Ultimate Classic Rock Journalist," according to himself) is a gen-X-er from the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco.
Judging from his pictures, he can't have been born before the mid-80s, and so wasn't even alive during the "era in which racial epithets were thrown around freely," as he puts it.
“I think the word —— has changed..”
No, it hasn’t.
Except it’s not a Beatles song. It was a 1972 single by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as Plastic Ono Band.
Here’s a more approachable tune from Lennon’s last solo album called “Woman”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0jTA0DtZvY
I've heard of it. I was under the impression that Yoko Ono had used the title in one of her "art" exhibitions, and John Lennon picked up on it.
Lennon was somewhat typical English youth of the time who got in fights. He described himself a fight where he beat someone with a shovel.
His first wife described him hitting her “really clouting her”.
This would be teens and early 20’s.
A more approachable tune and a bit less unnecessarily combative. But even so there are better songs on that album IMO.
The song — musically it’s not bad (Yoko does not sing on it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5RuCEhHcG4
<> Woman Is the _ _ of the World <>
Woman is the _ _ of the world
Yes she is, think about it
Woman is the _ _ of the world
Think about it, do something about it
We make her paint her face and dance
If she won’t be a slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While putting her down we pretend that she is above us
Woman is the _ _ of the world, yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slaves
Ah yeah, better scream about it
We make her bear and raise our children
And then we leave her flat for being a fat old mother hen
We tell her home is the only place she should be
Then we complain that she’s too unworldly to be our friend
Woman is the _ _ of the world, yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Oh woman is the slave to the slaves
Yeah, alright
We insult her everyday on TV
And wonder why she has no guts or confidence
When she’s young we kill her will to be free
While telling her not to be so smart we put her down for being so dumb
Woman is the _ _ of the world, yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slaves
Yes she is, if you believe me, you better scream about it
We make her paint her face and dance
(Repeat 5 times)
We are far worse off because no one will print that damn word. Lots of racist or offensive words, and if they were part of a story they just printed it. Didn’t make the word any more polite but didn’t elevate it to some kind of taboo.
I recall this started with the OJ trial and the news wouldn’t repeat the word.
Well there ya go, he got attacked because he was an epic simp who let his wife put him in terrible positions just because she could and because she got off on knowing that she had all the power. Just like Jada Pinkett Smith and Megan Markle. Yoko gets a lot of heat but she's far from the only woman to do this sort of thing to men. There are men that put similar power trips on the woman in their lives, of course. It's not a female thing. But the public humiliation thing seems to be something that toxic women go for more than their male equivalents do.
Explain to me how John Lennon got six bullets in the chest, and Yoko was standing right next to him and not one bullet!
Not only that, she was cheating on him their entire marriage. She left him after a few years of marriage to someone else, but came back after her lover refused to marry her. She was cheating on him in the years before he died, and he knew it it. She was giving that person his property, and the man moved into their shared domicile the day after he was killed.
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