bonus track
No Woman Died Today
lyrics/ellen kaye-music/ethan fein
Song Stories
album liner notes
This is a bonus track on our Old Bones Odyssey album.
In this series of Song Stories we’re taking you behind the scenes of each song.
Coming soon: we’re creating a podcast that dives deeper into the stories and history behind our songs.
Listen
Lyrics
No Woman Died Today
“I woke up this morning
Here’s what the world said to me
I woke up this morning
It was in my NY Times and on my TV
Against all odds no woman died today”
– Lyrics/Ellen Kaye
Ellen C Kaye – Lead Vocal
Ethan Fein – Guitar
Andrew Drelles – Tenor Sax
Koa Ho – Electric bass
Zach Mullings – Drums
© 2022 Ellen C Kaye
and Ethan Fein.
All rights reserved.
I woke up this morning
Here’s what the world said to me
I woke up this morning
It was in my NY Times and on my TV
Against all odds
No woman died today
So how can it be?
When I read every obituary
I’m asking how can it be?
When I read every single obituary
Seems mighty strange to me (that)
No woman died today
Tell me who decides this?
Who tells us who is dead?
Tell me who decides this
And what the paper says
It’s happening all around us
But they say it isn’t so
I guess it’s some kinda way to tell us
No woman died today
A senator died this morning
A farmer died last night
A poet died in China
But that just don’t make it right
Tell me how can it be?
You go ahead and count those
obituaries
Ohh, it just can’t be
Why don’t you go ahead and count
those obituaries?
If women are half the people of
the earth
Tell me why, oh why
Did no woman die today?
I guess we should all be happy
‘Cause the good news is
No woman died today
Ellen C Kaye – Lyrics
Ethan Fein – Music
Recorded/Mixed/Mastered by Bill Moss
Outlier Inn Recording Studio – Woodridge, New York
Ellen C Kaye, Ethan Fein, Bill Moss, Alan Joseph–Producers
(c) 2023 A Repair With Gold Production LLC SM
The Story
“…the fire, the fury, the feeling of rage…”-Ellen Kaye
“Pretty much everytime I come back to this song, it reignites the fire, the fury, the feeling of rage over the neglect and straight up suppression of women’s stories. I wrote “No Woman Died Today” about 10 years ago. Sick and tired of reading the obit page, seeing no women there. The whole thing drove me mad. In those days I hadn’t been reading the obits for very long. And boy, it struck me hard. I thought it was unbelievable. Where the hell were the women? So I wrote this song with Ethan Fein.
A few years later, in 2018, the New York Times started their “Overlooked” project. It was a good step forward but just a small part of what we need to change here in America and around the world. Women’s lives continue to be valued as less worthy than men’s. It’s unbelievable that we have not gained equality. I guess I never get enured to this crap. So it felt really good to turn it into a song. And even better to sing it, then record it, and now release it.”
Photo Credits: One thing I love about the New York Times “Overlooked” project is you can see the extraordinary achievements of women in one place, a kind of archive, a slice of women’s history. It’s soul stirring. So we’ve put some of the women they’ve featured into the cover artwork for this song, mixing their portraits in with women in our “Old Bones Odyssey” story world. Please see photos in our slideshow above.”
Slide Show Photos: Ada Blackjack, Ida B. Wells, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, Hazel Ying Lee, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Susan Peerce, Alice Kalminowitz Peerce, Alice Earnhardt Courtney, Mystery Burwell Ancestor, Jovita Idár, Nella Larsen, Anne Mesavage, Mitsuye Endo, Faith Courtney Burwell Jr., Cruz Alejandrina Defanti, Annie Kalminowitz, Dr. Mabel P. Lee, Mystery Love of Issak Chertok-Chertoff, Forough Farrokhzad, Ethel Burwell, Maye Oldin, Lila Bell Burwell, Faith Burwell Sr., Qiu Jin, Lila Bell Burwell, Iris Seay, Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.
An Interview With Ellen
no woman died today
I wrote “No Woman Died Today” because I was sick and tired of reading the obit page and seeing no women there. It drove me mad. I hadn’t been reading the obits for very long. And boy, it struck me hard. No one had ever mentioned this to me. I thought it was unbelievable. Where the hell were the women? So I wrote this song with Ethan Fein.
A few years later, in 2018, the New York Times started their “Overlooked” project. And that was a good day.
When we went to record Old Bones Odyssey, our new album, we decided to record “No Woman Died Today.” Its ideas belong to Old Bones. At its core the song is about forgotten bones. Discarded bones. Bones that are deemed unworthy. And I wanted to ask who the hell decides this stuff? And why do we all go along with it?
I’m not naive. And I am miserably aware of women’s standing in the world. But no obits about women on any given day makes no damn sense of any kind. I guess I’m still furious. About it all. We still have such a terribly long way to go.
Angry. Refusing to accept the status quo. Ready to fight.
“If women are half the people of the earth
Tell me why, oh why did no woman die today?
I guess we should all be happy
‘Cause the good news is, no woman died today”
Reading the paper every morning for most of my adult life, I was never interested in the obits section. My older relatives always read them and would send me an obit from time to time. They were always compelling. But it wasn’t till my fifties that I started to read them on my own. And I was just gobsmacked when I saw it was a regular thing not to have any women in the obit section. I guess I never get enured to this crap. It felt good to turn it into a song. And even better to sing it.
Ellen C Kaye
Singer/songwriter, producer, podcast maker, mom, born and bred in NYC. Night Club singer at heart.
