Lyrics for Woman In Chains as interpreted by Willowbear

Woman In Chains Lyrics
You better love loving you better behave
You better love loving you better behave
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains

Calls her man the Great White Hope
Syas she's fine, she'll always cope
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains

Well I fell lying and waiting is a poor man's deal
And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel
It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains

Trades her soul as skin and bone
Sells the only thing she owns
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains

Men of Stone
Men of Stone

Well I feel deep in your heart there are wounds Time can't heal
And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe
Well you know what I mean
It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains

It's under my skin but out of my hands
I'll tear it apart but I won't understand
I will not accept the Greatness of Man

It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains

So Free Her
So Free Her

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  • 24 Comments
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Marle
03-30-2003

Rated 0 
What a beautiful song full of such meaning and emotion. :)

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uthdentroll
04-23-2003

Rated 0 
love the song....haunting.....
a question.......anyone can tell me what is the song REALLY about?? the bit about a womans suffering.....i know......but what else?
thanks.....

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cheeniecoo
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
Ok, this song is about a woman thinking that she needs to give everyone everything, (Trades her soul as skin and bone -Sells the only thing she owns") and she's in denial because she thinks that it's not hurting her....yet, she's a woman in chains. And i guess someone is noticing it, and he sees that ..."And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe." That's what i get from it. It's such a great song....

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Baked
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
I have one word to describe this song:
in-fucking-credible!!!!!!!!!!

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Baked
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
perfect

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rayner1965
10-03-2004

Rated 0 
my wife and i really love this song, its our wedding song. the way we see the song is..... a couple who really love each other but the man is a jealous and percessive person and the woman is a strong independent person. but every time the ugly word jealousy creeps up, there argument is like a battle. but because they love each other so much. neither one knows what to do. the end of the day or just like the end of the song, when he sings ( so free her )... they are a couple that even though there rows are very bad they still really love each other .

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rayner1965
10-06-2004

Rated 0 
from above..... and the end of the day its blinding song and very cleverly wrighten. did you know that roland done 11 versions of the song before he chose this way. also phil collins played the drums on this song. and it doesnt matter how many times i hear this song ( and ive heard it thousands of times) i still love it.

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Daed_choice
12-19-2004

Rated 0 
I think this is about some woman who is being abused by his lover, she does everything for him, and she's trapped in that relationship.
I feel that maybe he's telling her she could do better with him "Well I fell lying and waiting is a poor man's deal
And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel " but she won't take him
Eventually, he gives up on her.. but don't give up on her to be set free. He's sings "so free her", to the abuser, so that at least, she's to be set free. I don't know, maybe i've got it all wrong, but it's a great song and i love it

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coryoon
03-09-2005

Rated +1 
I think this song also alludes to broader social concepts, chiefly the woman being held down by man in society - "Woman in Chains."

It suggests elements of abuse, which can be taken indivudually or culturally. "Calls her man the Great White Hope" - this is an allusion to boxing, which in this case suggests physical abuse of women.

It also alludes to prostitution as perhaps the worst example - "Trades her soul as skin and bone, sells the only thing she owns." This can be taken literally, or figuratively in the case of a relationship where a woman feels she's "selling herself" to a man who beats her down (emotionally and/or physically) and doesn't truly care for her.

"You better love loving, you better behave" - suggests something like, "You're here for sex, so you should get used to it and like it." A truly disgusting line, yet sadly very true in the minds of many men, and very important in introducing the message of the song.

"Men of Stone" - "Stone" can refer to the hearts of men who keep the women down, who indulge in them for superficial pleasures, who don't treat them as humans. "Stone" also refers to what the chains are tied to - Woman is tied to Man.

"And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel" - I think this refers to what the woman feels on the receiving end, never getting a chance to voice herself, and it also applies to any men who understand her plight and agree something should be done (namely, the songwriter)

"It's a world gone crazy keeps Woman in Chains" - People see this in society, men and women alike, yet since it is just one of a multitude of serious social problems, they just let it happen.

"Well I feel lying and waiting is a poor man's deal" - in other words, if we understand what's going on, men and women alike, and we do nothing about it, we are "poor" - in other words, poor in spirit, poor in integrity.

"I will not accept the Greatness of Man" - This is the songwriter saying, "I don't care that man has achieved so much in society if it means that he has to keep woman down." Or in other words, something must be done about this.

"So Free Her" .... a hopeful ending to a very beautiful, and sadly very true, song.

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nocheapthrill
08-04-2005

Rated 0 
Roland Orzabal has said of this song:

"The song is an anthem for the women's movement, if a man can write such a thing...

But the song is also about how men traditionally play down the feminine side of their characters and how both men and women suffer for it. I think that a lot of the spiritual side of men and man's soul are seen as feminine qualities. I think it's sad cos we miss out."

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capturedenadream
04-03-2006

Rated 0 
i think that this song is about a girl who feels like she has to give everything she is..because thats the only way she can feel loved. when it says "you better love loving you better behave, woman in chains" shes a girl just looking for somebody to free her...because shes lost shes trapped in this world where she feels nobody can free her...because her eyes are soo sad that the world is a mad world the world is crazi insane and she knows this she feels it...and the person realizes that she is feeling like she's alone. she isnt fine...she wont cope..she wants to be heard she wants to feel like somebody out there is listening...and then it says "i feel that somebody somewhere is trying to breathe" she's trying shes gasping for air...but she's sinking..shes a woman trapped in chains...deep in her heart are wombs that time cant heal of the many many years shes gone thru a pain n her life...just free her...

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sillybunny
08-07-2006

Rated 0 
Converged upon by angels with an agenda, they leaped into this song to tell the story of a love goddess they are holding prisoner in hopes that she will assist them in their plight so in their fairy tale, she is the woman in chains—talking a blue streak to those who feel that lying and waiting is assuredly a poor man’s deal while they feel hopelessly weighed down by her eyes of steel that are not intentionally so but hey …

The Great White Hope is her obsessive possessive bodyguard and while she is not always okay, she is whenever anyone checks on her and she insists that despite the rigors of the flight, she’ll be fine.

And in the story, she trades her soul as skin and bone—furiously selling the only asset she has—love—to little or no effect—hence the men of stone. And such a mission is not easy—leaving the wounds that seemingly time can’t heal while those who want to play peace are trying to breathe in a world gone crazy with fears of war.

And being a love goddess, in the tale, she gets under people’s skin but what she says is tough to buy because it hints at so much that wasn’t common knowledge before.

It goes with a paraphrased poetry fragment that I hope I recall correctly—Night fell. “Kill it,” they screamed and burned it like a witch. And why do I say all this? Light is dawning as a woman dancing barefoot on the edge of a knife. Perhaps we’ll open the days doors …

The “free her” has to do with tilting the balance away from a patriarchal society, not back to a matriarchal society but rather to something in between that celebrates both sexes more equitably. It also has to do with freeing love and I’m not certain this has happened yet. But of course, I’m being silly. The story is silly. What do I know?

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Mrs_Orzabal
09-14-2006

Rated 0 
Beautiful song - perfect in every way.

The video depicts domestic violence which I believe to be at the heart of this song.

Roland also looks very tasty in the video too!

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dreamer85
09-23-2006

Rated 0 
I also believe this song is about women being treated less than men. Coryoon has said it all. The woman in the song has to sell her body. Pretends everything is alright. But inside she's dying like so many women in this world. This song is not about one woman. It's about every woman in this world that has to cope with men's so called superiority. Love this song.

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imagodoc
10-30-2006

Rated 0 
Yup, Coryoon nailed this one. IMHO.

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forest29
01-04-2007

Rated 0 
It's about the oppression of women, in all it's many forms. End of story.

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spanglemaker
07-31-2007

Rated 0 
I was fortunate enough to FINALLY see TFF tonight, and Roland dedicated this song to his mum. And the female singer did a marvelous job.

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eowyn20uk
03-18-2008

Rated 0 
This song is lovely. Maybe not a lovely subject matter as its about the oppression of women etc but it sounds so good!

There is redemption at the end of the song though, Roland's not gonna take any shit and is gonna let women's voices be heard. Go him!

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suijuris
04-04-2008

Rated 0 
Calls her man the Great White Hope
... this woman still waits for her knight in shining armor...

Syas she's fine, she'll always cope- probably lives in pretention... pretending that she's fine.

Well I fell lying and waiting is a poor man's deal
And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel - the singer feels the pain behind the pretention... he describes it as:

Well I feel deep in your heart there are wounds Time can't heal
And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe

It's under my skin but out of my hands - singer knows he can't do anything...

... not realizing that he actually can do something.

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4S4K3N
08-19-2008

Rated 0 
It's difficult to believe that, if one puts the individual lines in to the context of the over all song, the this is about any one woman.

Over all, it seems obvious that coryoon and nocheapthirll have got it right. At least this is what I've always believed the meaning behind the song is ^_^

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tessilo
11-11-2008

Rated 0 
for every one who loves this song - check out Xavier Naidoo's cover! it's beautiful!

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spanishrock
06-09-2009

Rated 0 
your right on target,coryoon. great insight.

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matt1618
06-25-2009

Rated 0 
I like coryoon's post too. Christopher West, in his book <> (revised ed., p.85) answers the question, "What's the big deal about pornography?" Namely, why is it wrong? He says:
"No amount of rationalization, no number of excuses that 'it's normal' or that 'men will be men,' can change what pornography is and what is does to the way men think of women (and women think of themselves). If men are to be men, they must learn how to love women. They must learn how to see them not as *things* for their sexual gratification but as *persons* made in the image of God."

In a footnote to this he says:
"Since most men in our culture have been so conditioned by pornography, and by the media image of women in general, women are put under a tremendous burden to measure up in order to be found attractive. Most of these portrayals of women aren't even real. They're altered by computers to remove every trace of 'blemishes' (in essence, every trace of normal humanity)."

"So women are left trying to reach a standard of 'beauty' that is quite literally impossible to reach. The rise in various eating disorders among women and even young girls is one pointed example of the effects that a pornographic media culture has on the female psyche. Plain and simple, pornography degrades women terribly."

"The band Tears for Fears once wrote a song called 'Woman in Chains' that captures remarkably well the way men's lusts affect women. If you can find a copy, it's well worth pondering the lyrics: 'Deep in your heart there are wounds time can't heal,... it's a world gone crazy, keeps woman in chains.'"

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1 Reply
Voodemar
08-30-2009

Rated 0 
The message of the song is clear: time to finish with patriarchal society to make a better world.

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