Warning: this is another one for the completists out there–the folks who want to hear everything Bruce has ever played at least once, regardless of quality.
If you’re still with me, you’re my kind of people.
“She’s a Woman” hails from the Bruce Springsteen Band period that spanned from the summer of 1971 to the summer of 1972. Bruce is known to have played it at least three times, but only the first of those was recorded and is in general circulation.
And it ain’t pretty. Which is too bad, because “She’s a Woman” sounds like it must have been a pretty funky set piece for the band. Take a listen, and do your best to pick out the lyrics (I’ve taken a stab at it after the audio).
Lyrically, we can make out enough of “She’s a Woman” to get a sense of the song. There’s not a lot of substance here: if we compare it to “She’s the One,” which he’d write only three years later, we find a similar theme but a complete lack of imagery.
Whoever this woman is, Bruce seems more obsessed by her effect on him rather than on anything about the woman herself. “She’s a Woman” is more about wordplay and guitar jams than it is a tale, romantic or otherwise.
She brings me down, she sends me down
She brings me down, she’s my woman
Now she’ll pick me up, she picks me up on Saturday
She drinks me up, oh but my woman…
She lays me down, she plays me down, she weighs me down
She’s my woman, she’s my queen, she’s my woman
She makes me smile, she drives me wild
She ???, she’s my woman
She cries “Where you been?”
She can make you grin
She can put you in, I’m her partner
She weighs me down, she blows me down, she slays me down…
(I’m certain many of these lyrics are at least partially incorrect, so feel free to take your own stab at them.)
Reportedly there’s a recording of The Bruce Springsteen Band’s final known performance of “She’s a Woman” circa Valentine’s Day 1972, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to acquire it.
Anyone wanna hook me up? 🙂
She’s a Woman
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: December 17, 1971 (New Brunswick, NJ)
Last performed: February 17, 1972 (Freehold, NJ)
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