Women in Songs You'd Share

[Soandso]

Women have been a subject of song since before recorded music. Here's a chance to post some you heard and like for whatever reasons.

I'll start with jazz musician Oran "Hot Lips" Page's (1908-1954) short (2:50) humorous recording "The Lady In Bed" which explains "My gal … They call her The Lady in Bed … She's even too tired to yawn …."

 

[mhardy6647]

With her killer graces
And her secret places
That no boy can fill
With her hands on her hips
Oh, and that smile on her lips
Because she knows that it kills me
With her soft French cream
Standing in that doorway like a dream
I wish she'd just leave me alone
Because French cream won't soften them boots
And French kisses will not break that heart of stone
With her long hair falling
And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
O-oh, she's the one

 

[Jim Taylor]

An apt description of one particular woman I knew ......

 

[Soandso]

A big early jazz celebratory woman hit that was recorded almost 100 years ago by several groups is "The Wah-Wah Girl In Agua Caliente" about how "There's a girl … in Agua Caliente … I think you'll like her plenty …."

 

[Fahzz]

Tall and tan and young and lovely...

 

[somebodyelse]

There probably aren't many songs about women who are serial killers. Here's one about Mrs. Amelia Dyer, executed for the killing of one child, but with 5 more confirmed, and suspicion that the true number was in the hundreds.

Mrs. Dyer the Baby Farmer, from Big Machine by Eliza Carthy & the Wayward Band

 

[Soandso]

2 nice versions of "Ain't No Sunshine" … " when she's gone…and she's always gone too long …." First below is musically enjoyable Caribbean Latin style and the following in a tamer Brazilian Samba style.

 

[Soandso]

As ASR member somebodyelse points out above not all songs about women are happy. For example Ella Speed was the New Orleans mistress of bartender Luis "Martin" Martinez who shot her in 1894. Here's the New Orleans old timer "Papa Jack" Laine's (1873-1966) version of the song "Ella Speed Blues" that grew from the scandal.

 

[mhardy6647]

So many Marys...

Mary-Anne

Mary Jane

Mary, Mary

 

[mhardy6647]

speaking of erstwhile Monkees...
Joanne

 

[mhardy6647]

And then there was Gordon Lightfoot's nemesis, Sundown.

 

[Soandso]

So many Marys...

Molly is a nickname for Mary. Bob Wills' had a popular record "Miss Molly" where he declares "…I'll trade my horse and saddle, Cow-drivin' I'll resign, If only Miss Molly, Will say that she'll be mine …."

 

[mhardy6647]

Good golly.

My two favorite Warren Zevon songs are about women (and, no, not headless Thompson gunners!).

I hear mariachi static on my radio
And the tubes they glow in the dark
And I'm there with you in Ensenada
And I'm here in Echo Park...

The name of the woman in the other song isn't shared, but she has had a rough go of things in LA

When the lights came up at two
I caught a glimpse of you
And your face looked like something death brought in his suitcase
Your pretty face
It looked so wasted
Another pretty face
Devastated...

 

[Soandso]

New Orleans trumpeter Louis Prima (1910-1978) fell into a trap when his "gal" got into some new music. Released after his death is the record he left "I Beeped When I Should Have Bopped" … remembering "… We got along swell, 'Till she suddenly fell, For the music that's known as Bop… Oh I tried to be hep for her sake,'Till one day I made my fatal mistake, I 'beeped' when I should have 'bopped' …

 

[Good Vibes]

They don’t make them like this anymore. Fantastic.

 

[somebodyelse]

"Barbara Allen" deserves a mention as "far and away the most widely collected song in the English language—equally popular in England, Scotland and Ireland, and with hundreds of versions collected over the years in North America."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Allen_(song)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ar...ollected-ballad-has-been-around-for-450-years
There are many variations on the lyrics, sung to several different tunes, by a great many performers. I rather like the version from Blue Horses off Dragon's Milk & Coal.

 

[mhardy6647]

One'll never go wrong with Louis Prima!

May I take the liberty of dropping another Lady into this thread? I thought this was a great song when I was... what? ... a tween, I suppose.

Styx

 

[Soandso]

Sergio Mendes' (1941-2024) Brazilian style drum driven song "Magalenha" lyrics are somewhat hard to make out so below is their read out. Ostensibly about a woman preparing the fire it's a lover urging his woman to get intimate using a play on Portuguese words with Brazilian colloquialisms. Loosely the synopsis theme is her last name is "Rojao" (firecracker) and she's to "traz" (bring) the "lenha" (kindling) to "fazer" (make) an "armacao" (frame) for the "fogao" (cook stove) being "coio" (silly, goofing around) on a "sol" (sunny day) you sweetheart ("xodo") as "dever" (called for) by this "verao" (warm time).

 

[Robin L]

A song about a daughter, invoking Joni Mitchell, written and sung by a woman:

 

[Good Vibes]

The incredible Paolo Nutini accompanied by the BBC Ochestra, have something for all those Julianne’s out there.