Oh Woman, Oh Why

Written by: McCartney
Recorded: 2, 3 November; 6-11 December 1970; 26, 27 January 1971
Producer: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

Released: 19 February 1971 (UK), 22 February 1971 (US)

Available on:
Ram (reissue)
Twin Freaks

Personnel

Paul McCartney: vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, gunshots, percussion
Linda McCartney: vocals
Hugh McCracken: electric guitar
Denny Seiwell: drums, percussion

‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’ was the b-side of ‘Another Day’, Paul McCartney’s debut solo single.

The songs were both recorded during the Ram album sessions, but were kept aside for the standalone single.

Ram had a mostly laid-back, bucolic sound, and the bluesy rocker ‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’ would have sounded out of place. As a b-side, however, it was perfect, and it remains one of McCartney’s lesser-known and underrated tracks.

It remains one of my favorite tracks from that period. The drums’ sound was amazing, one of the best from CBS Studios. It was not a jam, Paul brought the tune in and Spinozza [sic] played electric. Then Paul and I played shakers and percussion.

A subgenre of the blues I really like is the ‘woman, you done me wrong’ song. I don’t know whether all these bad things could really have happened to all these blues players. It does seem that there are an awful lot of wrongdoing women out there. I suspect there might be a few wrongdoing men too!

This is a song that’s somewhat in the vein of ‘Frankie And Johnny’, a tale of dirty doings that has innumerable manifestations, sung by innumerable artists, including Lead Belly’s version of 1935…

I was plugging into that system of imagery when I wrote, ‘I met her at the bottom of a well’. I thought that was a more interesting image than, say, ‘I met her on Bourbon Street’ or ‘I met her in a brothel in Paris’. I like to be direct but not necessarily literal.

The well itself is more associated with the folk tradition. There’s an erotic subtext to the image of the well. I think of William Bell’s ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’. The other reason I gravitate towards these songs is that I’m looking for a vehicle for my voice. I want to get dirty with my voice, and I want to make a nice dirty backdrop. I try to let my voice have a go at singing something more bluesy rather than trying to hold a melody. It’s nice to cut loose on the vocals.

In the studio

McCartney brought ‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’ to New York’s Columbia Studios on 2 November 1970. It was rehearsed with guitarist Hugh McCracken and drummer Denny Seiwell, but no successful take was recorded.

The backing track was completed the following day. Overdubs were added from 6-11 December, again at Columbia, followed by final touches at A&R Studios in NYC in January 1971.

On 26 January 1971 Paul and Linda McCartney added vocals, and Paul recorded a maracas part. The song was completed the following day, when Paul overdubbed the sound of gunshots, firing blank rounds from a revolver. Six shots can be heard in the final recording.

‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’ was remixed in 2005 for the Twin Freaks album.