Oh Woman, Oh Why?

[BananaLouie]

This has got to be McCartney's greatest rare gem, This obscure song is awesome, I rediscovered it lately after buying yet another copy of Ram and it's a bonus track that was the b-side of Another Day, great bass, effects, vocals, great song.

[matt-zeus]

Not a fan of his vocals on this, I don't like it when McCartney starts squealing, ie: Oh Darling!
But I dig the Beach Boys Love You vibe on Smile away.

[1-1-wonderful]

I don't know why I ever bought the 'Another Day' single, but I played the grooves off 'Oh Woman, Oh Why'. Wish I knew what happened to my 45....

[MBE]

good song

[b.dfzo]

Great song.

[BananaLouie]

Not a fan of his vocals on this, I don't like it when McCartney starts squealing, ie: Oh Darling!

Actually I usually feel the same way, Mccartney's screaming can be grating but in this song it works.

[b.dfzo]

The obvious example of his grating screaming would be..."Hey Jude".  He's almost a little desperate, in the worst way.

[CosmicDancer]

I actually like his screaming in songs like Oh Darlin' and the end of Hey Jude.   Different strokes for different folks though, right?

[richardsnow]

Love that song.

I used to sample the bass and snare drum off that record all the time when I first started record ( Ninteen eighty blahhh)

[Yorick]

His screaming is godlike!

[b.dfzo]

Now I am compelled...this is a loop made from the end bit that was improvised, and usually Paul's improvs are cool, but it just doesn't work...it sounds like a cross between a screechy Muppet and a little kid throwing a temper tantrum at a department store.

Enjoy.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=A91046A6313A8653

[Daniel S.]

That's awesome. 

[Yorick]

Agreed, when you take such a tiny bit of a song it doesn't really stand up on it's own. But you should see it in context of the song. It goes from the most balladlike singing at the start to this strange screaming you looped and that way it works amazingly well!

[pavlos brenos]

Macca's most impassioned singing would have to be the embryonic version of "Get Back" when he was singing about not digging "Pakistanis takin' all the peoples jobs, so get back...".  John took the meaning as being about Yoko (she is Asian, and Pakistanis are Asian in UK parlance); 'til his last utterances, John was convinced that Paul had it in for Yoko and that "Get Back" was directed at her.........

[richardsnow]

John took the meaning as being about Yoko (she is Asian, and Pakistanis are Asian in UK parlance); 'til his last utterances, John was convinced that Paul had it in for Yoko and that "Get Back" was directed at her.........

John must have been paranoid from the drugs!  Japenese people aren't Pakistanis to Uk people at all. Pakistanis are people from Pakistan.

[b.dfzo]

I think John was paranoid because Paul would look at Yoko when he sang the hook: "Get back to where you once belong".  I've never heard of Pakistan/Japan relation.

And I say "Hey Jude" is a great song, SAVE that one part.

[king of anglia]

Macca's most impassioned singing would have to be the embryonic version of "Get Back" when he was singing about not digging "Pakistanis takin' all the peoples jobs, so get back...".  John took the meaning as being about Yoko (she is Asian, and Pakistanis are Asian in UK parlance); 'til his last utterances, John was convinced that Paul had it in for Yoko and that "Get Back" was directed at her.........

All of that is complete bollocks.

[pavlos brenos]

All bollocks? No!
1) "No Pakistanis" is an embryonic version of "Get Back".
2) McCartney is singing with considerable forcefulness at times in the performance, as if making and emphasising a point (he has said in later years that he was singing about the sort of racist treatment that Pakistani and Indian immigrants suffered; this may well be the case). Taken at face value and taken literally though, it sounds like racist hectoring.
3) Yoko was a deeply unpopular person in most corners (i.e. all but John's) of The Beatles' inner sanctum.
4) Paul is known to have made comments about Yoko being an undesirable "Oriental influence" at Beatles sessions: she was a quietly forceful person monopolising John's attentions while the other Beatles were trying to make some music. Paul simply wanted her to get back.
5) John never forgave the racist and sexist attitudes that he felt (and felt is the operative term here) coming from some of his colleagues.
John took certain inferences from "Get Back" (rightly or wrongly); nonetheless he enjoyed playing the familiar version of it (and was proud of his solo on it!)

[b.dfzo]

This doesn't explain the Pakistan/Japan connection. 

[pavlos brenos]

I wrote my original post with a "bellyful of wine", so I was perhaps less careful with my words than I was with my second post. I didn't mean to convey a direct or specific connection of the Japanese-born Ms Ono with Pakistani immigrants; it takes some lateral thinking to make the connection. I think "No Pakistanis" could well be a swipe at immigration (and by extension, at Yoko, however oblique it may seem). We have to accept and understand that John, Paul and George often wrote songs about themselves and each other, especially in the fractious days before and after the break-up. Paul was prone to send John messages in his songs (or John at least received some of Paul's songs as messages: remember, John took "Hey Jude" very personally, thinking that Paul was writing about him). I wouldn't be surprised if "Teddy Boy" was about John (John was the Teddy Boy of the group and the story told in the song is a bit like John's story, especially his parents separation et cetera). John took "Dear Boy" and "Too Many People" to heart and wrote "How Do You Sleep?" in riposte; Paul wrote the conciliatory "Dear Friend" to stop the cycle of nastiness between the two.

[b.dfzo]

It pushed them to each write some great songs, though!

"That was your first mistake..."

LOL

[pavlos brenos]

Absolutely! George wrote "Not Guilty" as an answer to "Sexy Sadie" and he wrote "Wah Wah" after he stormed out of the "Get Back" sessions. (When George left the studio that day, Yoko sat on George's seat and did some of her wailing with John doing some feedback guitar and a brief version of "A Quick One While He's Away"!).