top of page

Deep Purple - Woman From Tokyo 1973




"Woman from Tokyo" is a song by the English rock band Deep Purple. It was first released on their 1973 album Who Do We Think We Are, and later as a single that became a hit, as it reached No. 6 on the Dutch MegaCharts.


Deep Purple was one of the first rock bands to perform in Japan in the early 1970s. As a tribute, the band wrote the song "Woman from Tokyo." It was one of the final songs to feature singer Ian Gillan, who departed in 1973 to pursue a solo career. The song features Japanese imagery such as "the rising sun" and "an Eastern dream," and its lyrics are about a Japanese woman whose charms fascinate the narrator. "Woman from Tokyo" grew to be one of the band's most popular songs and received heavy radio airplay. Despite this, the band did not like the song much and only began playing it live when they reformed in 1984.


The admiration of Deep Purple for progressive rock is reflected in the long dreamy break that occupies the middle of the track. This break appears only on the album version and is missing from the single, which explains the sharp difference in duration between both versions.





Lyrics


Fly into the rising sun,

Faces, smiling everyone

Yeah, she is a whole new tradition

I feel it in my heart


My woman from Tokyo

She makes me see

My woman from Tokyo

She's so good to me


Talk about her like a Queen

Dancing in a Eastern Dream

Yeah, she makes me feel like a river

That carries me away


My woman from Tokyo

She makes me see

My woman from Tokyo

She's so good to me


But I'm at home and I just don't belong ...


So far away from the garden we love

She is what moves in the soul of a dove

Soon I shall see just how black was my night

When we're alone in Her City of light


Rising from the neon gloom

Shining like a crazy moon

Yeah, she turns me on like a fire

I get high


My woman from Tokyo

She makes me see

My woman from Tokyo

She's so good to me


Comments


bottom of page