Sometimes life gives you a two-fer, and you had best jump on it in full appreciation for its gift of grace. The two-fer I’ve been offered and am now sharing with you is the happy accident of looking for a song on You Tube earlier this week, title now lost to the ether, when off to the side, there flickered a surprise blurb for John Gorka., one of my favorite singer-songwriters, singing a cover of another of my favorites—another John with the last name of Stewart, and his treasure of a song, “July, You’re a Woman.”
Stewart first recorded “July, You’re a Woman” in 1968, a year after he finished his six-year stint as a member of the iconic American folk group, the “Kingston Trio.” He was 29 at the time, fresh off his “Daydream Believer” song that vaulted to a No. 1 hit in a cover version by “The Monkees.” That kick-started a 40-year, middlingly successful solo career that Stewart would parlay into some 600 songs spread over more than 40 albums, ending only with his death from a stroke at age 68 in 2008.
We are in mysterious waters now…and we’re not sure whether July should be alarmed and we should call the state trooper on her behalf.
Like Stewart, Gorka writes and sings most all his own music and does only very occasional covers, so I was intrigued to see him pick up on “July You’re a Woman” just last year, at age 65. The song serves as a kind of urgent testimonial of love, desire and need by a young, admittedly flawed man for a woman named July, whom he is driving down the highway to an unstated destination.
Giving voice to that as a 29-year-old and at age 65 are bound to be very different experiences, as we will see below.
Stewart sings it with all the high-voltage, galloping energy it suggests for the ne’er-do-well narrator, who lays his heart and almost desperate desire bare through the song’s first two stanzas:
I can’t hold it on the road
When you’re sittin’ right beside me
And I’m drunk out of my mind
Merely from the fact that you are here
And I have not been known
As the Saint of San Joaquin
And I’d just as soon right now
Pull on over to the side of the road
And show you what I mean
Then we get a chorus, the “La, da, da…” melody of the first two lines admittedly lifted almost directly two years later by Paul Simon for his huge hit, “The Boxer,” though he did change the verbiage, as it were, to “Lie-la-lie…”
And in the concluding two lines of the chorus, a statement of pure admiration:
July, you’re a woman,
More than anyone I’ve known
The three stanzas above are repeated in the second half of the song, but the following two are not. One follows from above, suggesting a not impassive July in the seat next to him:
And I can’t hold my eyes
On the white line out before me
When your hand is on my collar
And you’re talking in my ear
Which begets a sudden in-breaking of memory to the narrator, who is unclear on why it has descended upon him. But he is at its mercy nevertheless, just as he is with July:
And I have been around
With a gypsy girl named Shannon
Daughter of the devil
It is strange that I should mention that to you
I haven’t thought of her in years
We are in mysterious waters now with this introduction of the “daughter of the devil,” and we’re not sure whether July should be alarmed and we should call the state trooper on her behalf. Our narrator is merely befuddled with Shannon’s intrusion, but in his soul-baring state, he is simply compelled to spill it out.
From there, the first two stanzas and the chorus repeat in the latter part of the song, which still moves briskly along toward a classic reflection on male desire that in its most profound sense, involves a kind of worship and surrender to the divine feminine ideal.
Let’s listen to Stewart give voice to that here in the original recorded version with some fun visuals by a devoted fan. We’ll then turn our attention to Gorka’s very different take at a different stage of life, along with another much later gem by Stewart himself down below that.
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I will be brief here with the Gorka, especially given that it marries up to a degree with the other Stewart version that I found late in the creation of this post. Like Stewart before him (though their careers later overlapped), Gorka has built a fiercely devoted fan base attracted to his intricate lyrics and soulful, soothing delivery. That has translated to a lifetime of touring in small-to-medium-size clubs and music halls rather than arenas and featured slots on “Saturday Night Live.”
Gorka slows the pace of “July, You’re a Woman” way down (3:50 to Stewart’s 3:12), his gentle guitar strumming helping inflect the lyrics not so much with desire for July’s body, but a plea for her very soul. He’s a little weary now, our not-young man is. His voice is more tender than desperate, less blindly driven. More fourth chakra than second, for you Hindu-inclined out there.
Espying the Gorka cover on You Tube, I had to think his decision to cover the song was a way for him to pay homage to Stewart as one of his musical tribe. Stewart’s stalwart devotion to his craft and fans no doubt helped both inspire and pave the way for the kind of music Gorka has committed to over his now nearly 40-year career. That was confirmed with a note appended by Gorka at song’s end, reflecting back 42 years when his youthful “Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band” allowed him to sing lead for the first time to…“July You’re a Woman.”
He then added, “Now I can’t get the song out of my head!”
Me neither, Bro. Maybe it has something to do with a gypsy girl named Shannon?
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I came upon this very “alternate” Stewart version late and long into my You Tube scrolling and writing, and don’t know anything more about it than what I hear, given no notes or details of its recording are appended. But it is Stewart obviously late in his life, injecting the song with a heavy dose of pathos, all the vigor of the original lost to time, now replaced by memory alone. What was, what isn’t now, and will never be again—all of it straight from and to the heart, piercing like an arrow…
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As it happens, I wrote about both Stewart and Gorka in a post a dozen years ago that mined their songs of poisoned politics, longing and loss. Had not intended to reunite them again, but they apparently had others plans, and they prevailed….
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Ah, John Stewart! That takes me back about 60 years to a Kingston Trio album College Concert, performed at UCLA without a shadow of a doubt the finest university in America. On that album, he sang “Chilly Winds”, a song he co-wrote with Mamas and Papas’ John Phillips, and today remains my personal Stewart favorite. Moreover, his California Bloodlines was one of those albums I turntabled into scratchdom (not a real word but sounded good) while residing at Dykstra. The fact that I remember “July, You’re a Woman” is side 2, track 5 might give one some idea how often I played it. I’ve never heard John Gorka’s “July, You’re a Woman” rendition, but it’s very faithful to the original and that ain’t a compliment to be sneezed at. Incidentally, the fact that Stewart never recorded “Chilly Winds” for a solo LP echoes my favorite Phil Ochs’ song “Changes”; its beauty can only be heard on his Phil Och’s in Concert album. As always, thanks for another brilliant song entry.
I played a crappy guitar in my late teens, early 20’s, and this was on my “set list”. I kept wondering if July was a symbolic theme for the protagonist passionately reaching out for a new life or thing he was chasing, but really I knew, at that early age, it was probably about a young guy in a pickup truck with a girl, and the hope of young love. The Doors, LA Woman, I used to take literally, thinking they were singing about a female from LA. Took a few year to get the obvious theme it was a homage to the City itself. (Of course, subtle was never my strong suit)
Thanks for bringing this up, and now I can’t get it out of my head!
You’ve got it exactly right, Robert, about “July, You’re a Woman”(‘s) placement on the California Bloodlines album, which also gives me a chance to cite the title cut from that album as one of the all-time great Stewart songs. I first came across “July” on his “Phoenix Concerts” double album in 1974, but I think three years before that, I saw him in Royce Hall at a concert I think you attended as well. A very, very long time ago, my friend…
Moon, I am terribly impressed you were at least trying to fake John Stewart songs in your teens. I get how The Doors might have cracked you open and quickened your pulse at the time, but Stewart was a folkie at heart, trying to lift up the world—pretty rarefied territory for a teen boy in those years!
Yes, I don’t remember the song that much, but I do remember the introduction to the song. I went to one of his concerts with his biggest fan John Abrahmson. Here is the intro…. https://youtu.be/k9pm6TDi0r4?si=wkwCNDEfOgWaeAM0
I was 11 years old, lived in Japan, we had to take the bus to the Yokosuka Naval Base Elemantary school. My friend had a wire recorder/player and we would sing Kingston Trio songs on the 45 minute ride to school. Our favorite song….. MTA…..
Well did he ever return?
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned (what a pity)
He may ride forever
‘Neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man, who never returned
Two-fer indeed!! Thanks for this wonderful post, my friend. As mentioned by Kirk Thill below, I, too, was introduced by John Abramson to his musical hero, John Stewart. Being a British Invasion rock n’ roller, with some soul, R&B & Buddy Holly mixed in, I missed much of the folk renaissance (until it was embraced by the likes of the Eagles, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Neil Young, and others, i.e., “folk rock”). I wound up seeing John Stewart a bunch of times with a full touring band and years later in NorCal by himself with barely any voice left, but his heart remained strong! He was a true folk/country troubadour. Ironically, his biggest-selling song by far was Day Dream Believer selling some 5 million copies for the Monkees (1967). I must confess to never being the huge fan my pal John Abramson was, but I did like him, especially in his later years, touring with just a bass player and his long-time sweetheart and eventual wife, Buffy Ford. I agree wholeheartedly with Robert Spencer’s take (and yours, Drew) that Gorka’s version is faithful to Stewart’s while putting his own mark on the song. Thanks so much for another fine addition to “brilliant songs”!!