'I Learned to Stutter'/Coffin Car
Yoko Ono Lyrics


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Recorded live 3 june 1973 at the first international feminist conference, harvard university, cambridge, ma.

While john is setting up the amp...
What happened to me was that I was living as an artist and, who had relative freedom
As a woman and was considered the bitch in the society.
Since I met john, I was upgraded into a witch and I was...and I think that thats very flattering.
Anyway, what I learned from being with john is that the society solely treated me as a woman, as a woman who belonged to a man who is one of the most powerful people in our generation, and some of his closest friends told me that probably I should stay in the background, I should shut up, I should give up my work and that way Ill be happy.
And I got those advises, I was luck, I was over thirty and it was too late for me to change,
But still, still, this is one thing I want to say, sisters, because, with the wish that you know
Youre not alone, i...because the whole society started to attack me and the whole society wished me dead, I started accumulating a tremendous amount of guilt complex and in result of that I started to stutter. and I consider myself a very eloquent woman and also an attractive woman all my life and suddenly, because I was associated to john, that was considered an ugly woman, ugly jap, who took your monument or something away from you.
And thats when I realised how hard it is for woman, if I can start to stutter, being a strong woman and having lived thirty years by then, learn to stutter in three years of being treated as such, it is a very hard road.
Now the next song is called coffin car and this is a song that I observed in myself and also in many sisters who are riding on coffin cars.

Okay

Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car,
She likes to ride a coffin car.
People watching her with tender eyes,
Friends whispering in kindly words,
Children running, waving hands,
Telling each other, how pretty she is.

Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car,
She likes to ride a coffin car.
Friends making ways for the first time,
People throwing kisses for the first time,
Showering flowers, ringing bells,
Telling each other, how nice she is.

Coffin car, she likes to ride a coffin car,
Shes riding a coffin car.
Wives showing tears for the first time,
Husbands taking their hats off for the first time,
Crushing their handkerchiefs, rubbing their nose,
Telling each other, how good she is.

Half the world is dead anyway,
The other half is asleep.
And life is killing her,
Telling her to join the dead.

So evry day, she likes to ride a coffin car,
A flower covered coffin car,
Pretending she was dead.

Coffin car,
A flower covered coffin car,




A flower covered coffin car,
A flower covered coffin car.

Overall Meaning

The song 'I Learned to Stutter/Coffin Car' by Yoko Ono was recorded live at the first international feminist conference at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA on June 3, 1973. It is a powerful testimony of Yoko's experience as a woman living in a society dominated by men. In the first part of the song, Yoko discusses her role as a woman who was objectified and belittled by society due to her association with John Lennon. She shares her frustration and how it led her to stutter, which was a physical manifestation of the guilt complex she accumulated as a result of society's attacks on her.


The second part of the song 'Coffin Car' is a metaphor for the way society views women. Yoko talks about a woman who likes to ride a coffin car, which represents her desire to escape from the confines of her societal role as a woman. People watch her with tender eyes, whispering in kindly words, and children run and wave their hands, telling each other how pretty she is. But at the same time, half of the world is dead, and the other half is asleep, and life is killing her, telling her to join the dead. The woman riding the coffin car is pretending she was dead because of the oppressive society she lived in.


The song is a powerful commentary on gender roles and the limitations put on women by society. It speaks to the struggles they face, the guilt they feel, and the desire to break free from societal expectations.


Line by Line Meaning

While john is setting up the amp...
As John Lennon sets up the sound equipment, Yoko Ono reflects on her experiences as an artist and a woman who has some degree of freedom but is often marginalized by society.


What happened to me was that I was living as an artist and, who had relative freedom As a woman and was considered the bitch in the society.
As an artist with some degree of freedom, Yoko Ono was often marginalized by society and was seen as a 'bitch' because of her independent spirit and her gender.


Since I met john, I was upgraded into a witch and I was...and I think that thats very flattering.
Yoko Ono feels that her relationship with John Lennon has given her a kind of power and independence that is often associated with witchcraft, which she considers a positive thing.


Anyway, what I learned from being with john is that the society solely treated me as a woman, as a woman who belonged to a man who is one of the most powerful people in our generation, and some of his closest friends told me that probably I should stay in the background, I should shut up, I should give up my work and that way Ill be happy.
Yoko Ono learned from being with John Lennon that society sees her primarily as a woman who belongs to a powerful man and that some of his friends advised her to give up her own work and stay in the background.


And I got those advises, I was luck, I was over thirty and it was too late for me to change, But still, still, this is one thing I want to say, sisters, because, with the wish that you know Youre not alone, i...because the whole society started to attack me and the whole society wished me dead, I started accumulating a tremendous amount of guilt complex and in result of that I started to stutter. and I consider myself a very eloquent woman and also an attractive woman all my life and suddenly, because I was associated to john, that was considered an ugly woman, ugly jap, who took your monument or something away from you. And thats when I realised how hard it is for woman, if I can start to stutter, being a strong woman and having lived thirty years by then, learn to stutter in three years of being treated as such, it is a very hard road.
Despite taking those advisers, Yoko Ono had accumulated a tremendous amount of guilt complex and as a result, she started to stutter. Being associated with John Lennon put her in the public spotlight, but it also subjected her to a great deal of criticism and even hatred. This experience led her to realize how hard it is for women in society, especially strong women who are marginalized and criticized for their accomplishments and independent spirit.


Now the next song is called coffin car and this is a song that I observed in myself and also in many sisters who are riding on coffin cars.
Yoko Ono introduces her next song, 'Coffin Car,' which is about the feeling of being so marginalized and oppressed that one feels like a passenger on a hearse.


Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car, She likes to ride a coffin car. People watching her with tender eyes, Friends whispering in kindly words, Children running, waving hands, Telling each other, how pretty she is.
The lyrics describe a woman who likes to pretend she is dead, riding in a coffin car and being admired by those around her. However, this is a fantasy and a way of coping with the pain of feeling marginalized and oppressed.


Half the world is dead anyway, The other half is asleep. And life is killing her, Telling her to join the dead.
The lyrics express a sense of hopelessness and despair, as Yoko Ono feels that half the world is dead and the other half is asleep, with life itself contributing to her pain and making her feel like death is the only answer.


So evry day, she likes to ride a coffin car, A flower covered coffin car, Pretending she was dead. Coffin car, A flower covered coffin car, A flower covered coffin car, A flower covered coffin car.
The song ends by repeating the image of the 'flower covered coffin car,' which represents the feeling of being marginalized and oppressed to the point of feeling emotionally dead. The woman in the song pretends to be dead by riding in the coffin car, but this is a way of coping with her pain and hoping for change.




Contributed by Michael J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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Comments from YouTube:

Secular Guy

Awesome, love her! Thanks for posting

Mia L. Bergman

Thanks for the very few people who don't hate Yoko. We'll keep supporting her

Topazthecat

Yoko is strong,brilliant and beautiful.And she thankfully turned John into a feminist and a nurturing house husband and father to her and their son Sean.Yoko sang this song very good and her voice sounds pretty.She always had such a sweet sounding voice when she speaks.

Topazthecat

@lali tubino Yes and this is exactly the reasons John definitely did become a feminist thanks to Yoko John Changed A 180% For The Better & Became An Outspoken pro-feminist and Nurturing Feminist House Husband and Father to Yoko and their young son Sean amazingly in just a few years,and when John was a very young guy he was a psychologically messed up (from the many traumas he had as a child and teen), drunk guy often getting into fist fights with men and hitting girlfriends,not wives though.



John still obviously had his Y chromosome,and a lot more testosterone than women,because he became a feminist at only age 29,he became a house husband at age 35 and reversed gender roles with his wife Yoko who worked in their business office,and sadly,he was tragically shot and killed at only age 40 by a crazy horrible one time big Beatles fan just hours after John was kind enough to give him an autograph for his new Double Fantasy album,



John Lennon Became A Feminist Nurturing House Husband & Father Thanks To His Relationship With Yoko Ono



Here is my new blog about this,





John Lennon Became a Feminist & Nurturing House Husband & Father Thanks To His Relationship With Yoko Ono


johnlennonbecameafeminist.wordpress.com



In Part 3 Of John Lennon's Last Radio Interview just hours before he was tragically killed by the crazy horrible fan December 8,1980, He Said That He's more Of a Feminist now than When he sang woman is the N***er Of The World,that he was intellectually a feminist then but now he's at least put his body where his mouth was and really try to live up to his own preaching. He was referring to the fact that he and Yoko reversed gender roles and he became a nurturing house husband and father to Yoko and their son Sean for the first 5 years of Sean's life until he died.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgRprphFmn4



John Lennon said in his very last radio interview (just hours before he was so cruelly, insanely shot and killed by a crazy,horrible piece of sh*t who used to be a big Beatles fan since he was 11, and John was his favorite Beatle and he said years later that he met and shook John's then 5 year old Sean just two days before he irrationally shot and killed his father right in front of Yoko,that Sean was the cutest little boy he ever saw,and that it never occurred to him that he would never see his father again and and John was nice enough to take the time to autograph his album just hours before he killed him) that like most young men he was more involved with his career than with his children,and he said he regretted not spending enough time with Julian. He also said that he and Julian would have a relationship in the future but sadly they both were deprived of this.



And John didn't do the same horrible thing to Julian that his father did to him. John's father literally totally abandoned him and literally didn't see, or talk to John from the time he was 5,until he was a successful famous 24 year old.John did see Julian sometimes, and spoke with him on the phone and sent him post cards,birthday and Christmas cards and presents and he bought Julian a guitar when he was 11 as a Christmas present. John's father never did any of these things and John said it was like his father was dead.



And Cynthia Lennon said that John only hit her twice before they were married when he was a 19 year old guy,and Cynthia always said that she would always be in love with john and she was married 3 times after him.

lali tubino

Thanks for commenting! I have my doubts about Lennon ever becoming a feminist, but Yoko
was definitely an eye-opening badass influence on him as an artist and on his perception
of white male privilege, women, masculinity and society in general.

Topazthecat

In this 2002 great interview with May Pang who was John Lennon's girl friend during his separation from Yoko she was asked as the last question,what would she most like the world to know about John,and she said the fact that he was a kind sensitive man who was insecure in his personal life.The interviewer also says how John's guitar playing has always been underrated and May talks about this too.



http://articles.absoluteelsewhere.net/Articles/may_pang_int.html

An Interview with May Pang - John Lennon


articles.absoluteelsewhere.net


An Interview with May Pang about the making of Mind Games...and a whole lot more.

Topazthecat

Barbara Graystark of Newsweek interviewed John September 1980 and part of what she said to John is,You've come a long way from the man who wrote at 23,''Women should be obscene rather than heard.'' And she asks John how did this happen? And John said that he was a working-class macho guy who was used to being served and Yoko didn't buy that.


John then said that from the day he met Yoko,she demanded equal time,equal space,equal rights.He said that he said to Yoko then,don't expect him to change in any way and don't impinge on his space.John said that Yoko said to him then she can't be here because there's no space where you are everything revolves around him and that she can't breath in that atmosphere. John then says in this interview that he's thankful to her for the ( meaning feminist) education.


http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1980.0929.beatles.html

Topazthecat

Yoko Ono and John Lennon June 1973 radio interview about how feminism has changed John for the better,he says he learned how to cook,and that most men don't do it, and how most women are brought up not to know how to work tape recorders or fix their bikes,most men are brought up not knowing how to cook or take care of themselves.

The interviewer Danny Schechter asked John if besides sharing work,if John had been going through his own changes about his own role,about his relationship to Yoko,to other women,and to other men,and John said,it's completely changed it's been a process of about 4 or 5 years,John said it was like having 1 eye shut and that once you start acknowledging that women are oppressed slaves you can never go back . John was the only man to attend the first international feminist conference when this interview took place. Two years later when he and Yoko's son Sean was born John became a househusband,changed Sean's diapers,cooked & Yoko worked in their business office.


http://wbcnthefilm.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/2/3/2823775/mixdown_3.mp3


http://archive.is/hVghp

Topazthecat

I really didn't want to link to this article because unfortunately it says it appeared in Penthouse, the sexist,woman-hating,degrading and violent pornographic magazine in 1984,but I can't find the full interview anywhere else.This is a great interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono at The St.Regis Hotel in September 1971. And Yoko was asked if she knew about what really went on during The Beatles tours,and she says she had thought that he's an artist I'm sure he has had a few affairs, and she said she was really shocked and she said Oh God! when John told her the whole story about what he called all of the raving that went on their tours,Yoko said she had never heard the word groupie before.And Yoko was no innocent either,John was her third husband,she had a daughter with her second husband,and she had quite a few affairs and even abortions in the 1960's.



John is also asked if playing 8 hours a night from 1960-1962 as The Beatles did in Hamburg Germany improved their playing and he said oh amazingly because before that they had only played bits and pieces but in hamburg they played for hours and hours and hours together and that's how they developed their rock n roll sound and playing and he said that every song was 20 minutes long and had 20 minute solos in them.He also mentions how they took (meaning speed pills) to stay awake playing so long.




He also said in this interview that he treated Yoko the same as other men, he found himself being a chauvinist pig with her,then I started thinking,well if I said that to Paul or asked Paul to do that or George or Ringo they'd tell me to f*ck off and then you realize you have this attitude toward women that is just insane! Then John said it's beyond belief the way we're brought up to think of women. He said much the same things minus the F word when he and Yoko were co-hosting the Mike Douglas show in January 1972 after Mike Douglas asked Yoko if John's attitude towards her had changed because of the women's movement ,and at first yoko said John's attitude was the same as when they first met but John was honest enough to say,No I was a chauvinist,I was chauvinist,then he said to Yoko can I just say what you taught me?





John then said in this September 1971 interview,And I had to keep saying,well would I tell a guy to do that? Would I say that to a guy? Would a guy take that? He then said,Then I started to get nervous, I thought, f*ck I better treat her right or she's going to go, no friend's going to stick around for this treatment.



John also said,It took me a long time to get used to it,any woman I could shout down,most of my arguments used to be a question of who could shout the loudest. Normally I could win whether I was right or wrong,especially if the argument was with a woman,they'd just give in but she didn't.She'd go on,and on, and on until I understood it,then I had to treat her with respect.



http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1971.0905.beatles.html

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