The Philosophy of Modern Song: I got a woman (and Just like a woman)

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Tony Attwood

A personal reflection on the songs Bob selected for his publication, upon being given the Nobel Prize for Literature….

By Tony Attwood

Music, as I have indeed said before, can trigger memories, and that is certainly the case here, for this recording that Bob chose in his Philosophy selection was released in 1958.  And indeed that is when I most likely must have first heard the song (at the age of 11).  Of course, at that age, the notion, “I got a woman” would have been quite alien to me, not least when one has just moved from hubbub of inner London to the open landscapes of Dorset, and indeed when one has left all of one’s friends behind in so doing.

I don’t recall ever having a copy of the record, but I am sure it got played on Radio Luxembourg a lot, and probably popped up on Radio Caroline, which began broadcasting six years later (these being the stations that we could hear popular music on – the UK being a very long way behind the USA and other countries in terms of having popular music on radio stations).

The song itself is a variation on the 12-bar blues, using just the three chords that we associate with that format.  But it is also a variant on an earlier song “It must be Jesus” – which has almost identical music to “I got a woman”.

Now the problem here is that “I got a woman” is about as secular and explicit as was allowable when the record was released in 1956, two years after “It must be Jesus,” but the message of the songs is still utterly different in each case.   The original (“It must be Jesus”) has an utterly clear religious message, whereas Ray Charles’ reworked version is as secular as you can get.

What is interesting in terms of the copying of one song by the writer of another, is just how quickly it happened in this case.  It is difficult to pin down exact dates as sources vary in their reporting, but everyone agrees that Ray Charles heard “It must be Jesus” (which would probably have been in October 1954) and then recorded “I got a woman” the following month.

Now I can’t find any details of subsequent lawsuits or payments in compensation, so maybe Ray Charles got away with it.  And he is reported as having said that he had been singing the song for about a year before he recorded it.  So it is just possible that the copying went the other way around, and Charles decided to record his version, having realised that the religious community was using it with new lyrics.

All I can say is that having read my way around the topic, I can’t be sure – people writing about these things just seem to assert, without giving much in the way of evidence.

But what we do know is that Ray Charles recorded it in November 1954, and it was his first hit – (with Ray Charles saying that he had been playing it in clubs for about a year before making that recording,) and indeed it did make the Billboard 100 Greatest chart for a while.

The song’s structure and lyrics are simple, as was in part demanded by the fact that 78rpm records struggled to deal with recordings of more than two minutes 30 seconds.  The full lyrics are…

I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me, oh yeah
Say, I got a woman, way over town, good to me, oh yeah

She give me money when I'm in need,  she's a kind of friend indeed
I got a woman, way over town that's good to me, oh yeah

She's there to love me, Both day and night
Never grumbles or fusses, Always treats me right
Never runnin' in the streets, And leavin' me alone
She knows a woman's place, Is right there now in her home

She saves her lovin', early in the morning just for me, oh yeah
She saves her lovin', early in the morning just for me, oh yeah

She saves her lovin', just for me ah, she love me so tenderly
I got a woman, way over town That's good to me, oh yeah

I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me, oh yeah
Say, I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me, oh yeah

Oh, she's my baby, Oh, don't you understand?
Yeah, and I'm her lover man
I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me, oh yeah

Oh, don't you know she's alright, Oh, don't you know she's alright.

Never people to let a good song be missed, Elvis Presley’s management persuaded him to record the song very soon after Ray Charles version was released.  Very interestingly, although Presley regularly performed the song, the recording didn’t make the top 40 charts, presumably because those attracted by the music had by then alreadly got the Ray Charles version.  In France, Johnny Hallyday issued a version in 1962 in English with “B3e Bop a Lula” on the B side.

But if I may, let me divert slightly to note the sexism in the lyrics.   The possession implied by the title, and the concept that it is the woman’s duty to be “good to” the man really does seem (to me at least) pretty appalling.  And yet somehow it all seemed to be fine at the time, for the philosophy of modern song reflects the dominant views of society at the time.  Or perhaps someone spotted the irony of having “Come back baby” as the B side of the Ray Charles single, suggesting the guy doesn’t always have it his own way.

And yet, as I listen to the recordings of this song, my mind is somehow drawn to “Just like a Woman”.  It is utterly different of course, and written 12 years later.  It has been suggested in several sources that Dylan improvised the lyrics to his song in the studio, while making the record, and generally, we find such improvisations do draw heavily on previously heard songs.

I suppose what leads me down that possible path is that both “Just Like a Woman” and “I got a Woman” have been criticised for the misogyny in the lyrics.  I’ve no evidence, and it is just a rumination, nothing more.  But I do know this young street performer in Lodon (who I have featured before) has an incredible voice, and perfect sense of timing…

Previously in this series

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