White Town: Your Woman

This is a track that I have loved for a long time. It has such a cool little groove going on. I thought I would take a peek into who is "White Town" and the background of the song "Your Woman".


Firstly White Town is one guy Jyoti Mishra.
Here is a pic of Jyoti



This is not what I imagined him to look like.
From the stuff that I have read about Jyoti he seems like a funny self deprecating chap.
Here are some things that he has been quoted as saying.


After being asked if he would tour:
"White Town is just me, Jyoti.
I *do* want to play live but I currently have no live incarnation.
Plus… how do I do it? Watching a fat bloke prod a synth and peer at a laptop isn’t exactly high drama, is it?"


About being a one hit wonder:
"Better than being a no-hit wonder!" (Indeed Jyoti..indeed.)


Lastly this is what Jyoti wrote after being asked if "Your Woman" would make it to iTunes
"Heh! Good question - first iTunes take their cut and then EMI... and then I have to wait for the royalties to filter through. But I'll probably get enough for a packet of biscuits in the end."


Just as a note White Town have toured since Jyoti wrote that comment.


I thought I would address the lyrics of "Your Woman" because it is a guy singing "I will never be your woman".


Jyoti is a happily married straight man so he gives some thoughts:


"Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian.
Being a gay guy in love with a straight man (not tried this one yet).
Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-ass Marxist.
The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideals"


I knew that there was some sampling in "Your Woman" but until I did a little research recently I had no idea about the history of the track. It begins with a song called "My Woman" by Bing Crosby. There was a cover of the Bing Crosby song performed by Lew Stone and the Monseigneaur band in 1932.


Jyoti heard this song after watching a TV show called "Pennies from Heaven". He then took the trumpet riff and sampled it for "Your Woman".


So no, Jyoti wasn't ripping off the "Imperial March" from Star Wars.
It's funny though that so many people mention Star Wars when referring to the track "Your Woman".
Even on Jyoti's website he gets asked about Star Wars. So I will link the Imperial March and you can make up your own mind.


While I am on the subject, some smarty pants has mixed in the "Imperial March" into "Your Woman" on Youtube.
I'm not going to embed it but if you want to take a listen you can go here


So here are the tracks in order:


"Your Woman" by Whitetown
"My Woman" by Lew Stone and the Monseigneaur band
and "The Imperial March" by John Williams