I Want a Woman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I Want a Woman"

Single by Ratt
from the album Reach for the Sky
Released	1988
Format	Vinyl LP, Cassette, CD
Recorded	1988
Genre	Glam Metal
Length	3:58
Label	Atlantic
Producer(s)	Beau Hill
Ratt singles chronology
"Body Talk" (1986)	"I Want a Woman" (1988)	"Way Cool Jr." (1989)

I Want a Woman is a song by glam metal pioneers Ratt. It is the second track on their fourth album Reach for the Sky and the first single released by Atlantic Records to promote the album. The song can also be found on their greatest hits album Ratt & Roll 81-91.

The song's somewhat derisive lyrical focus is directed at the materialistic, self-minded, and mostly teenaged groupies the band had encountered throughout the years in which they enjoyed chart success.

Paradoxically, the entirety of the video produced for the song features a seemingly endless stream of young groupies at a Ratt concert. Many within the fanbase of the group posit that this was yet another display of Ratt's infamously ironic sense of humor. Detractors, however, point to the band's decadent history as indicative of the song's hypocritical (and the band's underlyingly misogynistic) nature.

There was certainly a vocal sector of the public that felt cheated and lied to by Stephen Pearcy's lyrics. This would precipitate the band's detachment from its fans, as well as the record buying public's disillusion with glam metal in general. These factors proved vital in the success of the grunge and alternative genres a few years later, as those genres espoused decidedly more low-key and even defeatist worldviews diametric to the flamboyant and self-assured glam metal of the 1980s.

Nevertheless, the band scored another hit with this glam metal classic. Over the years, the song has featured prominently on the band's set list as well as many a play list across the globe, including that of acclaimed television series Beavis and Butthead in 1995. The song has proven itself to be of continuous cultural relevance as it is still heavily debated over in music and pop-culture circles. It is also cited as a sterling example of how deep-grooved blues and hard rock can coexist harmoniously within the parameters of a song.

"I Want a Woman" was composed by Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, bassist Juan Croucier, drummer Bobby Blotzer, lead singer Stephen Pearcy and producer Beau Hill. It is interesting to note that guitarist Warren DeMartini did not contribute any input into the writing of the song. During this era of the band's history, DeMartini had asserted himself as the primary songwriter over fellow guitarist Robbin Crosby. However, it was this Crosby inspired gem that was chosen as the strongest single from the album by the rest of the band as well as the record company.