'Woman Is The Nigger Of The World' written and performed by John Lennon from the album 'Some Time In New York City' 1972.The phrase had been coined by Yoko during an interview with Nova magazine published in March 1969.The magazine's editors found the comment so striking that they used it on the front cover.Yoko later explained that it had been inspired by the London music scene: "When I went to London and got together with John that was the biggest macho scene imaginable.That's when I made the statement 'woman is the nigger of the world'."Before John recorded the song he asked several civil rights activists whether they understood his use of the word 'nigger', and if it would cause offence. Among them was comedian Dick Gregory, who appeared with John and Yoko on the 26 October 1972 edition of Jet magazine,underneath the strapline "Ex-Beatle tells how black stars changed his life".Clearly John was prepared to go to great lengths to avoid charges of racism.John recorded a first demo of Woman Is The Nigger Of The World in the summer of 1969,shortly after the publication of Yoko's interview in Nova.However,at this stage it had half-sung lyrics and an ill-formed melody, a far cry from the call to arms that would be released in 1972.Another home demo was taped towards the end of 1971.It was one of a number of political songs that John was working on at the time,including John Sinclair,Free The People - later recorded as Bring On The Lucie (Freeda Peeple).This recording was later released on the John Lennon Anthology box set and the Acoustic album.
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