Confusing lyrics..

[Alan Wanwierd]

Had a debate the other day about the Bob Marley classic song: "No woman, no cry"..

As far as I can tell, the title of this song makes no sense and is only quasi-English.. There are at least 2 perfectly valid interpretations with radicaly different meanings:

1) "Woman - dont cry".. reassuring and comforting and I suspect the intended sentiment.

2) "No woman?, No reason to cry!" .. Perhaps a more modern (and less politicaly correct)sentiment about how batchelorhood is care free and only when relationships with 'the emotional sex' get involved do people start getting upset!

Can anyone think of any other great songs with a similar ambiguity to them? Or any other possible interpretations of this songs title?

[Jim Yingst]

1) "Woman - dont cry".. reassuring and comforting and I suspect the intended sentiment.

I agree with this interpretation. I've heard this song described as "misogynist" (presumably using interpretation #2 above) but to me, this seems completely baseless. Subsequent lyrics towards the end seem to leave little room for ambiguity:

No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
Woman, little darlin', say don't shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry.

Eh! (Little darlin', don't shed no tears!
No, woman, no cry.
Little sister, don't shed no tears!
No, woman, no cry.)

[Max Habibi]

I've believe this song was written for wife, after they found out that he was dying.


I remember when-a we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown.
And then Georgie would make the fire lights,
As it was logwood burnin' through the nights.
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,
Of which I'll share with you;
My feet is my only carriage,
So I've got to push on through.
But while I'm gone, I mean:
Everything's gonna be all right

[Helen Thomas]

from the Modest Mouse:

as life gets longer awful feels softer
well it feels pretty soft to me
and if it takes shit to make bliss
then i feel pretty blissfully
[ August 17, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]

[Richard Hawkes]

Originally posted by Adrian Wallace:
1) "Woman - dont cry".. reassuring and comforting and I suspect the intended sentiment.
2) "No woman?, No reason to cry!" ..

It has to be number one.

Last year in a bar in Turkey this song was playing and the waiter was singing, "No woman, no sex".

You had to be there.

[Deepak Mahbubani]

You mean in Turkey there are no gays ?