"There's A Woman"

"There's A Woman" Posted on Jul 17, 2010 at 01:21 PMJuly 17, 2010 at 1:43 pm

{UPDATE: August 3, 2010: the multi-track version of this was added to the site! The version I'm discussing in paragraph two is a live version, the second link below.}

www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4776854 for a multi-track version with the full intro.

This is a song written about 1983 or so. One memory I have is showing it to a lot of LW types either at Sharon's? or Carole's? or Joyce's house? (All I know is we had bahklava!!) I remember saying something like, "Have you ever heard a rock song about the Blessed Mother?" They loved the song - I think!

This song was one of those we recorded on multi-track 'in the basement' at 505 Pleasant. It was GREAT! Dave and Greg came up with that awesome ride in the instrumental bridge which they improved later in concert. Pepi and Jim at the sound board would echo "Woman" and "Child" at the end. Loved it. (By the way, have you ever heard a hookier, cooler bass riff than this?)

Where did this come from? I had been reading the U.S. Bishops letter on Mary in the Bible and John Paul II's Redemptoris Mater. Those letters really showed me how BIBLICAL Mary's role in the Church is. No, we don't 'worship' the woman who called herself a "lowly servant", but we do accept the gift of her as a spiritual mother from Jesus on the Cross. Everywhere else in John's Gospel the "beloved Disciple" represents us and our response, so, when Jesus says "There is Your Mother" it's for us like it is everywhere else. She was there at the birth of the Church. (You may notice the three-fold bridge of Joy, Sorrow and Glory in the middle bridge as in the Rosary.) God "sends her through the skies': just about every country has their apparition or version of how real her motherhood is.

One historical incident in particular drove this song. Francis Borgia, a rich, young, spoiled BORGIA lived at court in Spain in the 1500'. The King married a beautiful new Queen. Francis became totally infatuated with her beauty and then she died at 24. He saw the body after four days. You know what? She didn't look so good anymore. And he had to ask himself, WHAT was I so infatuated with? How shallow am I? His thoughts led this spoiled, shallow man to become one of the first Jesuits and change the world. This is what I was thinking of in the first verse.

The picture with the song is the miraculous image from Guadalupe. That particular incident REALLY shows a personal care from Mary that's unmatched. If you don't know the story, you should read up on it. Some utterly amazing things that science has been able to back up.

Love, Joy and Peace!

Mark L.