The song is written in the key of
E-flat minor. The lyrics, which
Rolling Stone characterized as "biblically
chauvinistic", attribute all the works of modern
civilization — the car, the train, the boat ("Like Noah made the ark"), and the
electric light — to the efforts of men, but claim that it all would "mean nothing without a woman or a girl". The song also states that men made toys for the baby boys and girls, and comments about the fact that "Man makes money" to buy from other men. Before the song's fade, Brown states that man is lost in his bitterness and in the wilderness. Brown's co-writer and onetime girlfriend, Betty Jean Newsome, wrote the lyrics based on her own observations of the relations between the sexes. Newsome claimed in later years that Brown did not write any part of the song, and she argued in court that he sometimes forgot to pay her
royalties. In May 1966,
Record World magazine reported that Brown,
King Records and Dynatone Publishing were being sued by Clamike Records for alleged copyright infringement of the Betty Newsome song "It's a Man's World (But What Would He Do Without a Woman)". The composition of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" developed over a period of several years. Tammy Montgomery, better known as
Tammi Terrell, recorded "
I Cried", a Brown-penned song based on the same
chord changes, in 1963. Brown himself recorded a demo version of the song, provisionally entitled "It's a Man's World", in 1964. This version later appeared on the CD compilations
The CD of JB and
Star Time. Les Buie (guitar) and
Bernard Odum (bass) performed on the 1964 song. The released version of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was recorded quickly, in only two takes, with a studio ensemble that included members of Brown's touring band and a
string section arranged and conducted by
Sammy Lowe. A female chorus was involved in the recording sessions, but their parts were edited out of the song's final
master. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" became a staple of Brown's live shows for the rest of his career. Its slow, simmering
groove and declamatory vocal line made it suitable for long, open-ended performances incorporating spoken ruminations on love and loss and sometimes interpolations from other songs. It appears on almost all of Brown's live albums starting with 1967's
Live at the Garden. Brown also recorded a
big band jazz arrangement of the song with the
Louie Bellson Orchestra for his 1970 album
Soul on Top.
Cash Box described the song as a "slow-shufflin' emotion-charged item which points out that men are quite incomplete without women to love 'em." Brown would later duet on the song with opera star
Luciano Pavarotti at a 2002
Pavarotti & Friends concert benefiting Angolan refugees. While Brown sang the original lyrics, Pavarotti sang a new verse of related lyrics, written in Italian. In 2004, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was ranked number 123 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of
the 500 greatest songs of all time. In 2010, the 1966 James Brown recording was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame. == Personnel ==