Norwegian Wood is so obviously about a women trying to sleep with him not the other way around. She implies that he sit on her bed but instead he sits on the floor. The “I lit a fire” line is not about him setting her house on fire, it is him lighting a cigarette. The lyrics are so clear I am not sure how someone could take the song as sexist.

I personally found that song rather consoling when I was desperately trying to get over a friend/crush who was being a dick and playing mind games with me, pretending to be my friend and then talking about me behind my back, during my senior year of high school. It vocalized a lot of my frustration at the way my “friend” was treating me and helped me to get over him pretty fast. So I suppose that the song, despite its clear misogyny, will have a special place in my heart if only for that reason.

It’s fun to think, too, of how these songs would sound if the genders were reversed. If I ever do get a rock band started of my own like I’ve wanted to since age 12 (I’ve got the musical skills, just not bandmates), I’ve toyed with the idea of doing “Under My Thumb” with a female speaker talking about a boyfriend she’s “tamed.”

Given how young and untravelled they were when they started writing, I’m pondering whether the lyrics owe more to their musical influences than their life influences. You can tell that they probably listened to a lot of the American country and western songs of the period, and I wonder if they simply thought that’s what songs are supposed to be about: she broke my heart. Now let’s work on the chords.

Now I’m torn between continuing to play them to develop my little boy’s ear, and the fear of developing his place in the patriarchy.

But a couple of years ago, Yoko went out to Liverpool and saw a fashion show of Stella’s, and then to Paul’s concert afterward. She was there sitting next to him in the audience, and they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, which was really odd. Then at the concert, Paul performed A Day in the Life, the first time a Beatle had ever performed the song live, as a dedication to John, and Yoko seemed to really appreciate that. That was the first time I remember thinking “wait, what, this is totally new.” I thought it would pass, and they’d be at each other’s throats again soon, but so far so good. They seem to show up and do a lot of things together that they never would have before. Like Paul’s Meat Free Monday initiative — Yoko flew out to help him launch that and promote it last week! A couple of years ago, Paul never, ever would have invited her (he didn’t invite her to his wedding to Heather Mills! He also wasn’t at the dedication for the Imagine Peace Tower, and while some have claimed it’s because he had a court date, I call bullshit). And if he had, she probably would have er, had to be somewhere else. Then they both ended up doing the 64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi thing. And that was totally Yoko’s deal first, and way more her area, and so I can only assume that she told Paul about it and got him involved.

It’s kind of cool. Because, I’ll admit, I did used to get a fair amount of amusement out of Yoko suing Paul when he totally deserved it. And Paul trying to make excuses for his being a douche, and Yoko responding with gracious statements that were sweet as pie and made him look even more like an ass. But I like the two of them getting along way better. It’s probably a million times more healthy for them. It’s great to contrast the 1994 pictures of Paul and Yoko at John’s induction for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and how awkward and displeased they look to be in each other’s company, and see the tons of photos of them now greeting each other with wide smiles and big hugs. They seem really genuine, and after all this time, I don’t know why they’d bother to start faking it now.

Anyway, end of that novel. As for Paul’s admitted misogyny . . . unfortunately, as most of these things are, it’s scattered all over a bunch of different interviews and such. I’ve read a lot fewer Paul books than I have John books, though, so I might just not know a place :) But there was a section in this little book all about the song Yesterday, called Yesterday and Today, where Paul talks about his relationship with Jane and how he was a dick, and while it makes the “that’s how it was” excuse, talks about how he used to feel that women were there to tend to their men and stay at home and cook and clean for them and not have jobs of their own, and admits “I was a bit of a chauvinist.” Most of the other places I know of are just other people reporting on his misogyny third hand.

(And yes, my first instinctual thought was “oh for fuck’s sake, I’m still getting more of these????” LOL.)

George having no women at all in his concert for Bangladesh is pretty telling of the attitudes I suspect. The segment of the Anthology that I’m referring to, if you ever want to look for it, is pretty much all about Elvis. How he influenced them and their thoughts on him in the later years. It might be a chapter on the DVD.
I didn’t know Paul and Yoko were friends. That is really cool. Linda and Stella must have totally schooled him (though I’m still not sure about that Heather Mills thing). I’d like to hear more about Paul’s later admitted misogyny, if you can point me in the right direction.