Women

Hey Zoo Freaks, the Crew just dropped the needle on Foreigner cranking out “Women” from their 1979 album Head Games, and man, that strutting riff still cuts through like a hot rod on the open highway. Mick Jones wrote the whole thing by himself, and when they put it out as a single in early 1980 it climbed to number 41 on the charts. The lyrics just roll out one line after another about women behind bars, women in fast cars, women who satisfy, women you can’t buy, women in magazines, women that stab you in the back with a switchblade knife. Lou Gramm delivers every phrase with that raw power in his voice, building the intensity as the track drives forward with a little Southern rock flavor and some boogie piano underneath. Critics back then had plenty to say. Some called the words the dumbest on the album or plain chauvinistic, while others thought the repeated structure was actually the most interesting cut because Gramm gave it life and force. Rolling Stone even labeled it a tongue-in-cheek misogynous chant powered by Jones’ jackhammer riffing.

The band took the heat and answered it straight. In a 1979 interview Lou Gramm said the song used female stereotypes in a way that “couldn’t be more tongue-in-cheek.” Years later Mick Jones told interviewers the same thing, calling it a fun song with a nice little strut to it. He said it stayed one of the band’s favorite songs to play through all the years, and the fans still bring it up. That attitude fits the whole Head Games package. The album cover showed young actress Lisanne Falk looking surprised while wiping graffiti off a wall in a men’s restroom, and plenty of stations and stores wanted nothing to do with it. Some radio outfits refused to spin anything from the record, and there were even reports of folks tossing the albums into bonfires. Lou explained the cover was meant to be cute and cartoonish, the girl caught being naughty, and the band kept saying they love women and a lot of their songs flatter the ladies. The whole record sold strong anyway, going multi-platinum, and “Women” sits right in the middle of that grittier, rawer sound the guys were chasing after Double Vision.

Jones has talked about wanting Head Games a little heavier and more street than the polished earlier records, and “Women” delivers that uni-directional drive with no real verse-chorus setup, just the riff and the list and Gramm’s vocals climbing. The producers were Roy Thomas Baker along with Jones and Ian McDonald, and the track still feels like it belongs on a biker bar jukebox or a late-night freeform radio show. Fans kept requesting it live even when it dropped out of the set for long stretches. Then in 2026 the current lineup pulled it back out on the road, saying they had a blast and it had never been performed live in some of those stretches before. The Crew loves spinning deep cuts like this for the Zoo Freaks because it shows the band stretching out beyond the big radio hits.

All that energy traces back to how Foreigner got started in the first place. Mick Jones came out of England, born in Portsmouth, and started playing guitar young. He cut his teeth in bands like Nero and the Gladiators, then headed to France where he backed Johnny Hallyday, the French Elvis, and even crossed paths with folks who later formed Humble Pie and played sessions that involved Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones before Led Zeppelin. He spent time in Spooky Tooth with Gary Wright and later joined the Leslie West Band. By the mid-seventies he was in New York, low on money, almost ready to pack it in and head home to England. Instead he started writing songs in an apartment, coming up with riffs like the one for “Feels Like the First Time.” He figured he needed a band to bring them to life, so he put the word out and began rehearsing in a storage space in a Manhattan office, pushing file cabinets aside.

Jones recruited multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald from King Crimson, keyboardist Al Greenwood, drummer Dennis Elliott, and bassist Ed Gagliardi. The missing piece was the singer. He had heard Lou Gramm’s voice on a Black Sheep album from Rochester, New York, and tracked him down. Lou was working construction, carrying bricks up a ladder, when the call came. Jones persuaded him to come to the city, they ran through some tunes, and the chemistry hit hard. The original name was Trigger, but an Atlantic executive suggested something better. With three Brits and three Americans in the lineup, Jones settled on Foreigner because no matter which side of the ocean they played, half the band would be foreigners. They signed to Atlantic, released the debut in 1977, and the hits started rolling. By the time Head Games arrived in 1979 the lineup had Rick Wills on bass, and the songwriting tandem of Jones and Gramm was locked in, even on tracks Jones handled solo like this one.

That journey from session work and French stages to arena rock still shows up in the music. You can hear the apprenticeship in the tight arrangements and the willingness to take a playful risk on a song like “Women.” The Zoo Crew keeps the spirit alive spinning these records freeform for the Zoo Freaks, just like the old KZEW days. Check out the band’s official site at foreigneronline.com for the latest on tours and releases. Catch them on Facebook at facebook.com/Foreigner, on Instagram at instagram.com/foreignerlive, and on X at x.com/ForeignerMusic. There is also an active fan page called the Official Past and Present Foreigner Fan Page over on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/286666961482508 where folks swap stories and keep the catalog alive. Stay tuned to THE ZOO for more deep cuts and the stories behind them, Zoo Freaks. Keep the rock rolling.