Peak
23
Weeks
20
Score
2,851
Chart Year
1997
Music video The accompanying music video for "Your Woman" was produced in black and white silent film style. Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Derby. In the video, there are numerous elements of acting, cinematography and editing that suggest an old fashioned film style. The exaggerated gestures of Chloé Treend, the hat wearing woman, helpless and fearful, and those of her quick tempered lover hint at the acting style from 1920s expressionist films. The ostensive metaphors, such as the use of hypnosis on the woman by the man or the recurring shots of crossroad signs bearing names of romantic relationship related attitudes, remind of the 1920s and 1930s efforts to express subjectivism in film. The use of circular masks, as to emphasise focal points or for a mere elegant look, also belongs to the aforementioned period. At the point where the woman first enters the man's bedroom and in the final rope scene, match cuts are used in a manner resemblant of that from silent experimental films. Mishra can be seen for brief moments on television screens in the background. There is also a scene where the woman closes the door on the man's arm, as she tries to escape from his advances. This is a direct reference to scene from Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's surrealist film Un chien andalou (1928).
White Town is Jyoti Mishra, who sings and records dance music using synthesizers and samples. "Your Woman," which was a #1 hit in his native UK and charted all over the world, is by far his best-known song. The trumpet riff that powers this song (which sounds a little like the Imperial March from Star Wars) was sampled from a 1932 song called "My Woman" by the British bandleader Lew Stone, who recorded it with his Monseigneur Band with Al Bowlly on vocals. Mishra heard it on the soundtrack to a BBC TV series called Pennies From Heaven. In the song "My Woman," the guy is hopelessly in love with a woman who has a heart of stone and treats him like dirt. The lyric was written by Bing Crosby, who recorded the original version earlier in 1932. This is a breakup song, with the woman telling the man they're through. Mishra explained: "The lyrics are very nasty and, from a certain perspective, misogynist. I thought it might be an interesting twist to sample the spooky part and write a song around it that had different perspectives. The music was done fairly quickly - the lyrics took bloody ages!" Jyoti Mishra (White Town) is male, but sings the song from a woman's perspective, making it a rare example of a hit record with a gender reversal (Prince explored this territory on his 1987 song "If I Was Your Girlfriend"). Mishra doesn't identify as gay, straight, or anything in between, believing that people are just sexual, and that everyone has a right to their sexual freedom. Mishra recorded this on an 8-track in his spare room in Derby and played it to his girlfriend, who encouraged him to do something with it. He could only afford to press five copies, and he sent one of them to the DJ Simon Mayo at Radio One, who started playing it. It became the most requested track of the week and as a consequence he landed a deal with EMI. It sold 165,000 copies the week it was released shooting to #1 despite his refusal to appear in a video or on British TV to promote it. Report an ad Lyrically, there are a lot of concepts floating around in this song, particularly when we find out the guy in the song has "highbrow Marxist ways." Mishra was influenced by the authors Andrea Dworkin and Wilhelm Reich, and on his website explained that the song is about, in part: 1) Being a member of an orthodox Trotskyist / Marxist movement. 2) Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian. 3) Being a gay guy in love with a straight man. 4) Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-ass Marxist. 5) The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideals. He says the first two came from personal experience. Jyoti Mishra was born in India but moved with his family to England when he was 3 years old. He took the stage name "White Town" because he grew up in a very white area. This was used in the 2000 episode of Daria, "Legends Of The Mall," and in the 2018 movie Under The Silver Lake. The video is shot in the style of a 1920s silent film and shot in Mishra's hometown of Derby. It visualizes the story as a race between two women who are trying to win the affection of a man who may not be worth it. Along the way, they face signs pointing in different directions, like "seduction," "relationship," "expectation" and "independence." It was directed by Mark Adcock. Dua Lipa used the same horn sample, but at a faster tempo, on her 2020 song "Love Again."
Just tell me what you've got to say to me I've been waiting for so long to hear the truth It comes as no surprise at all you see So cut the crap and tell me that we're through Now I know your heart, I know your mind You don't even know you're bein' unkind So much for all your highbrow Marxist ways Just use me up and then you walk away Boy, you can't play me that way Well I guess what you say is true I could never be the right kind of girl for you I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman When I saw my best friend yesterday She said she never liked you from the start Well me, I wish that I could claim the same But you always knew you held my heart And you're such a charming, handsome man Now I think I finally understand Is it in your genes I don't know But I'll soon find out, that's for sure Why did you play me this way Well I guess what you say is true I could never be the right kind of girl for you I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman Well I guess what they say is true I could never spend my life with a man like you I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman I could never be your woman Writer/s: Bing Crosby, George Clinton, Irving Wa
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 29, 1997 | 42 | 84 |
| 2 | Apr 5, 1997 | 32 | 94 |
| 3 | Apr 12, 1997 | 31 | 95 |
| 4 | Apr 19, 1997 | 26 | 100 |
| 5 | Apr 26, 1997 | 25 | 101 |
| 6 | May 3, 1997 | 23 | 103 |
| 7 | May 10, 1997 | 27 | 99 |
| 8 | May 17, 1997 | 28 | 98 |
| 9 | May 24, 1997 | 23 | 103 |
| 10 | May 31, 1997 | 24 | 102 |
| 11 | Jun 7, 1997 | 23 | 103 |
| 12 | Jun 14, 1997 | 25 | 101 |
| 13 | Jun 21, 1997 | 27 | 99 |
| 14 | Jun 28, 1997 | 29 | 97 |
| 15 | Jul 5, 1997 | 33 | 93 |
| 16 | Jul 12, 1997 | 34 | 92 |
| 17 | Jul 19, 1997 | 41 | 85 |
| 18 | Jul 26, 1997 | 46 | 80 |
| 19 | Aug 2, 1997 | 52 | 74 |
| 20 | Aug 9, 1997 | 56 | 70 |