“Women In Love…” is the ninth track on Van Halen II.
Eddie: “‘Women In Love’ is a trippy one. If you follow the lyrics you can look at it two ways. It’s about a guy going out with a chick and, as opposed to the conventional way of losing a chick to a guy, he loses his chick to another chick. If you don’t listen carefully it sounds like “Woman In Love,” about a chick just running off with another guy. A little extra twist to it.”
“There are some harmonics I do on the intro which I really like. It sounds different and I double-track it too, so it sort of sounds like what a harmonizer does. It sounds like I used a harmonizer, but I didn’t; all I did was double it. I used a regular Strat on that and it sounds real neat. That’s the only other guitar I used, besides my main guitar [the striped one pictured on the cover of the first album]. I put it together myself and it has a Telly pickup in the back, and a Fat Strat pickup and something else. I just had a junk body laying around and I threw it together in a day. I had a DanElectro neck I put on it. I only used it for that one part because my other guitar is too ballsy-sounding to play quiet.”
The title also is also the name of a book by D.H. Lawrence and David Lee Roth is known to be an avid reader.
Guitar World:
Along with the same album’s “Spanish Fly”, the unaccompanied guitar intro to “Women In Love…” Is a rare early documentation of EVH’s stunning technique stripped of amp distortion. The 30 seconds of clean-toned, tap-harmonic-infused lines display yet another tool in the guitarist’s seemingly bottomless arsenal, while the song’s lyrics detail a rare instance in which David Lee Roth actually loses the girl… but at least it’s to another girl.
Lyrics:
My heart, you’re breakin’ my heart.
Girl, you better start thinkin’ somethin’ real.
Seems like loving you is just a crazy dream, but do as you feel.
All these crazy women, one more crazy night.
But one night’s all we’re given, so, baby, leave me alone, or, baby, stay the night.
(oh, women in love)
Oh baby, make up your mind.
(make up your mind)
I know you’re in love, so, baby, make up your mind.
Scream, go on and scream that your love is all you’re knowin’.
But, honey, if you’re needing a woman just as bad as me, you ought to be goin’.
All these crazy women, one more crazy night.
But one night’s all we’re given, so, baby, leave me alone, or, baby, stay the night.
(oh, women in love)
Oh baby, make up your mind.
(make up your mind)
I know you’re in love, so, baby, make up your mind.