Released as a 1972 single and on the album Some Time In New York City, ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ was John Lennon’s take on feminism and women’s rights.

The next song is one of those many songs of ours that get banned. It’s something Yoko said to me in 1968; it took me until 1970 to dig it.

The phrase had been coined by Yoko Ono during an interview with Nova magazine published in March 1969. The magazine’s editors found the comment so striking that they used it on the front cover.

Ono later explained that it had been inspired by the London music scene: “When I went to London and got together with John that was the biggest macho scene imaginable. That’s when I made the statement ‘woman is the n—-r of the world’.”

Ono’s sentiment was led more by frustration than militancy. By the time she and Lennon had moved to New York City and become engaged in the politics of the New Left, however, the phrase was perfect for their particular brand of sloganeering.

Of course, Yoko was well into liberation before I met her. She’d had to fight her way through a man’s world – the art world is completely dominated by men – so she was full of revolutionary zeal when we met. There was never any question about it: we had to have a 50-50 relationship or there was no relationship, I was quick to learn. She did an article about women in Nova more than two years back in which she said, ‘Woman is the n—-r of the world’.
John Lennon, 1971
Red Mole magazine

Although Ono had tamed Lennon’s worst misogynistic excesses, he remained a womaniser throughout much of the 1970s. He was, however, open to new ideologies and possibilities, and female emancipation and equality fitted in with his radical outlook in 1972.

The women are very important too, we can’t have a revolution that doesn’t involve and liberate women. It’s so subtle the way you’re taught male superiority. It took me quite a long time to realise that my maleness was cutting off certain areas for Yoko. She’s a red hot liberationist and was quick to show me where I was going wrong, even though it seemed to me that I was just acting naturally. That’s why I’m always interested to know how people who claim to be radical treat women.
John Lennon, 1971
Red Mole magazine

Before Lennon recorded the song he asked several civil rights activists whether they understood his use of the word ‘n—-r’, and if it would cause offence. Among them was comedian Dick Gregory, who appeared with Lennon and Ono on the 26 October 1972 edition of Jet magazine, underneath the strapline “Ex-Beatle tells how black stars changed his life”. Clearly Lennon was prepared to go to great lengths to avoid charges of racism.

Lennon recorded a first demo of ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ in the summer of 1969, shortly after the publication of Ono’s interview in Nova. However, at this stage it had half-sung lyrics and an ill-formed melody, a far cry from the call to arms that would be released in 1972.

Another home demo was taped towards the end of 1971. It was one of a number of political songs that Lennon was working on at the time, including ‘John Sinclair’, ‘Free The People’ – later recorded as ‘Bring On The Lucie (Freeda Peeple)’. This recording was later released on the John Lennon Anthology box set and the Acoustic album.

Between 14 and 28 January 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show in the US; their appearances were broadcast from 14-18 February. During their stint they invited a number of political figures and musical heroes on as guests, and also débuted several songs that they were planning to record.

Their backing group on the show and the album was Elephant’s Memory, a New York group which had previously performed on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. The group turned in a forceful version of ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’, doubtless affirming Lennon’s hopes that it could be a hit single.

Some Time In New York City was recorded between 13 February and 8 March 1972, with Phil Spector co-producing the sessions. ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ was selected as the album’s lead song and the only single to be issued from the collection.

On 5 May the Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band appeared on The Dick Cavett Show on US TV. They performed ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ and another Some Time In New York City song, ‘We’re All Water’. Cavett was forced by the ABC network to apologise in advance of the performance of ‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’, in case it caused offence. The edition of the show was broadcast on 11 May 1972.

‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ was issued as a single in the United States, with ‘Sisters, O Sisters’ on the b-side. It was released on 24 April 1972 as Apple 1848, and peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A major contributory factor to its poor chart placing was the refusal of radio stations to play it, as the word ‘n—-r’ was judged to be a step too far. Furthermore, Apple’s US promotions manager Pete Bennett hated the song and refused to promote it.

I told him that I wouldn’t promote it. So John says to me, ‘Well, you’re our promotions man, you have to listen to us, we pay you… I’m the president of Apple.’ I said, ‘John, I don’t care what the story is, I don’t want the record – I’m not going to promote it. If I don’t like it I won’t promote it.’ So John says, ‘I’ll tell you what – I’ll promote it, and if I make this record number one, that means you’re not the number one promotions man in the business.’ I said, ‘John, you got a deal… but if the record doesn’t happen [in the charts] I want you to kiss my butt and double my salary and expenses.’ So he says, ‘You got a deal… but I’m gonna make it number one.’

Without John knowing I checked out all the radio stations and they said they weren’t going to play it. So John called all of the stations himself and he tried to do a promo job. He was so happy and he came back to me and said, ‘We still got that bet?’ I said, ‘John, God bless you, we still have that bet and you better kiss my butt if you lose, and if you win, you can tell me, Peter, you’re s**t, and if you don’t want me to work with you any more, that’s it.’ ‘Well, you’re gonna lose,’ he told me, because he had called Chicago, he called San Francisco, and he talked to the program directors, and they were so nice to him, they took interviews with him. The thing was, the stations put him on tape, and while they played the record in the studio, they never put it on the air. What happened was that a few idiots played it on FM – but at that time FM was nothing, it couldn’t sell two records – and all the top stations wouldn’t play it. Apple sent out 30,000 records and about 15,000 came back.

Pete Bennett

A single was also planned in the UK, to be issued on 5 December 1972, but was cancelled. ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ had been released the previous month, and it is likely that Apple didn’t want sales to be hurt by a second release. The fact that it had peaked at number 57 in the US may have also been a factor.

‘Woman Is The N—-r Of The World’ was performed at the One To One concerts on 30 August 1972 at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The afternoon performance was included on the Live In New York City album in 1986, and the evening version was released on the John Lennon Anthology box set in 1998.


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