Decoding James Brown's "It's a Man's World"

We explore James Brown's famous song "It's a Man's World" to uncover deep truths about gender roles and relationships. The lyrics reveal that despite all of men's achievements and creations, life is meaningless without partnership with women.

• Equal sharing in relationships means equal portions, not just having a part
• The lyrics of "It's a Man's World" acknowledge man's incompleteness without woman

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The views and opinions expressed on this
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necessarily reflect the officialpolicy or position of A Queen's
Opinion.
Any content provided by ourbloggers or authors are of their
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(00:26):
anything.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to A Queen's Opinion.
My name is Queen, my voice, myopinion and your listening ears
this episode.
We are analyzing the song.

(00:52):
It's a Man's World.
What does a man's world looklike with a woman?
Few people get the opportunityto experience that everlasting
love that till death do us partlove.
Why, I am not sure why, butfrom this woman's perspective,
sharing life together with apartner is love.
The word sharing means to havea portion of something with

(01:18):
another or others.
I would elaborate on thedefinition by adding the words
equal portion.
It's the equal portion that issignificant.
I was told as a young woman thatthe man is the head of the
house, the king of the house,the big dog in the family.

(01:42):
In the family, I was told thatit is up to them, as men, to
provide everything for survivalin this life.
And by saying this we are notacknowledging the significance
of the woman's role.
There is a reason why God chosea woman to carry life in her

(02:04):
womb.
In the beginning, god createdman and took a piece of man to
create the woman.
I like to think that somewherein God's thinking that by
creating the woman he createdthe whole man, that's, w-h-o-l-e

(02:25):
.
Whole man.
This is an example showing thatman is incomplete without a
woman.
Now, together, let's take a fewminutes to listen to the lyrics
of that famous song it's aMan's World and let's see if we
can hear the significance of awoman's role.

(02:47):
Many people understand and getthe meaning of the song by James
Brown it's a Man's World.
I want to just take a fewminutes to express my opinion of
the song.
Come on, just walk with methrough the lyrics.
Right up front, his chorus saysthis is a man's world, but it

(03:10):
wouldn't be nothing, nothing,without a woman or a girl.
I like this.
This chorus backs up my opinionthat man is incomplete without
a woman.

(03:31):
Now, in the first verse he saidyou see, man made the cars to
take us over the roads.
Man made the train to carry theheavy load, heavy load.
Man made the electric light totake us out of the dark.

(03:52):
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark.
I really like this verse.
You see, he implies that manmade a way for the woman.
I like the fact that he talksabout transportation.
We no longer have to walk onthe long roads and carry the
heavy loads because the manprovided cars and trains.

(04:15):
Line three implies that weshould not be scared of the
darkness anymore.
Man created the light to get usout of the dark.
But my favorite line is thefourth line.
He said man made the boat forthe water like Noah made the ark

(04:38):
.
Now, if you have ever attendedany Sunday school, you know how
important it was for Noah tocreate the ark and have two of
everything.
Now, it didn't say why it wasimportant to have two of
everything.
But here again, I would go onto say that you need two of

(04:59):
everything to procreate.
So when the water receded andthe land was available again,
all creatures could procreate,since they had traveled in pairs
that could reproduce, whichmeans that you must have a boy

(05:26):
and a girl, a male and a female,to continue to reproduce life.
Once again, this course backsup my opinion that we need each
other to reproduce and feelcomplete.
This is a man's world, as Jameswould say, but it wouldn't be
nothing, nothing without a womanor a girl.

(05:47):
Now, in his second verse, hesays man thinks about our little
bitty baby girls, our baby boys.
Men make them happy because menmake them toys.
And after men make everything,everything he can do you know

(06:12):
that man makes money to buy fromanother man.
Well, verse two tells us thathe thinks about the children and
what he can do to make thechildren happy.
So man created toys.
The verse goes on to say thatman has created everything.
Man has met all therequirements of taking care of

(06:43):
the woman and the children andthere is nothing else he needs
or can do.
He tells us that man even madethe money, literally made the
money and once the money wasmade he just bought and sold
goods to another man or men.
Just like the first verse, hefollows it up with the chorus
line and the outro.
The chorus again says this is aman's world, but it wouldn't be

(07:07):
nothing, nothing, not onelittle thing without a woman or
a girl.
The outro goes on and says he'slost in the wilderness, he's
lost in bitterness, he's lost,lord, have mercy now in

(07:28):
loneliness.
I think James Brown realizedwhen he was writing this song,
although he may have had anargument or disagreement with
this woman, that he still neededher.
I think somewhere in thosedisagreements that he's probably
told the woman many times thateverything you have, everything

(07:51):
you needed and everything youwanted I have provided for you
and the kids.
Sometimes, when we have thesedisagreements and arguments with
our spouse, we say some hurtful, harmful things we didn't even
mean at the time.
The words came out of our mouthin the heat of the moment.

(08:15):
I think James Brown wanted hiswoman to know that, even though
he's done all these things fortheir family, for her, for their
relationship, that none of thatmeans anything.
None of that means nothing ifshe is not with him.

(08:35):
In the outro, he tells us thatman is lost, lonely and bitter.
Why?
Because, after all, man hascreated and done.
It means nothing without awoman by his side.
Now, I don't know if James Brownis praying or not in the song,

(08:57):
but he calls on the Lord askinghim for his mercy in times like
this.
If he is a praying man and ifhe is praying in the song, that
is the type of man I want to bewith in a relationship.
A good man knows that there isonly one person you can call on

(09:19):
for help.
I want a man that has arelationship with the creator,
the most high king, the king ofkings, my Lord and savior.
I want a man to know that allour help comes from the Lord.
You see, if you have a man thathas a spiritual relationship

(09:40):
with the Lord, then you can workit all out.
There is nothing you can't workout together.
What does a man's world looklike without a woman?
Well, james Brown used thewords lost, lonely and bitter.
I say lost because to me, thisindicates an emptiness inside,

(10:06):
with no place to call home andfeelings of incompleteness,
feelings of loneliness, no oneto share the good and tough
times in life, which, over time,builds a bitterness of a life
built without a partner to sharewith.
My outro for this episode isthis what does a man's world

(10:32):
look like with a woman Happy,loving, fulfilling and complete?
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(10:53):
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(11:18):
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(11:42):
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Thank you for taking time outof your day.
I hope you join me for our nextepisode.
Until then, goodbye.