Lonely Woman (Guryan)

'Lonely Woman' is a 1959 instrumental jazz piece by Ornette Coleman. It was the opening track on his Atlantic album 'The Shape of Jazz to Come'. Alongside Coleman's alto saxophone, the recording featured Don Cherry on cornet, Charlie Haden on double bass and Billy Higgins on drums.

Lyrics were added slightly later by Margo GURYAN:

Lonely in the night she wanders, who can she tell of her heartache
They that listen, do not care, they don't share heartache
She is a lonely woman, no one to cry to, at all

Once she wore a smile of gladness, now on that smile there are teardrops
They that knew her didn't care, wouldn't wear teardrops
They left the lonely woman, to wander alone, through the darkness

Once she loved a man, don't bother to imagine how she loved him
You'd never guess at all, she never told the secret of her sorrow
And yet there was someone who knew

He had eyes that saw her sorrow, he heard the sound of her sadness
When he called her, no one came, but the same sadness
He calls the lonely woman, but never again, will she hear him


Recordings exist by Chris Connor (1962), Freda Payne, Helen Merrill w/ Dick Katz, Karin Krog, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Soesja Citroen w/ Nico Bunink Kwintet, Sigrid Meyer & Serene, Radka Toneff, Susanne Abbuehl, Hanne Boel, etc.