LISSA · NEUMAHN RECORDS
That Woman
A single from Lissa.
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Behind the song
Liner Notes
That Woman begins in the brutal power struggles of ancient Rome. After Julius Caesar's assassination, Cicero's attacks on Mark Antony helped make him a target. The ancient historian Cassius Dio later told the lurid story of Antony's wife Fulvia piercing Cicero's severed tongue with a hairpin. The song imagines Fulvia answering the man who tried to reduce her to a contemptuous label.
But this is not just a song about Rome. The grandstanding, the manufactured grievances, the followers who applaud every contradiction, the loud man who confuses his own outrage with authority—it should all sound disturbingly familiar. Two thousand years later, politicians still cultivate resentment, portray themselves as victims while wielding power, and depend on loyalists willing to excuse almost anything.
Fulvia's voice and the precise scene are dramatic interpretations, not a historical transcript. The uncomfortable parallels with the present, however, are deliberate.
Words & meaning
Lyrics
Lyrics by Douglas Petercsak
Illa mulier
Curia steps stained white with chalk Weak men cower when loud men talk He shakes his fist from the Rostra high Selling grievance and rage to an angry sky That woman he sneers playing victim and king While terrified cronies bow down to his ring Let him preach to the Forum let him scream to the wind He forgets where the limits of power begin
Call me a shadow call me a curse Every lie that you spit only turns more perverse You rule with an echo I strike with the facts No circus you stage can create what you lack Talk while you can let the sycophants cheer The louder you lie the closer I draw near
Ink on the parchment names in a row Antony's absent but Octavian knows A line through his name in indelible wax No filing or delay can counter this tax He fled in a litter he ran for the sea Did the great slanderer think of me The soldiers caught up where the cypress trees grow A very short speech for a very swift blow
Call me a shadow call me a curse Every lie that you spit only turns more perverse You rule with an echo I strike with the facts No circus you stage can create what you lack Talk while you can let the sycophants cheer The louder you lie the closer I draw near
A heavy wet burlap sack Carried through the dark and back A severed head upon my knee Cold and pale no longer free Tangled strands of golden hair Frozen in an empty stare No roaring crowd to buy your spin I draw the heavy golden pin Straight through the quiet lying tongue Where all your poisoned venom sprung
Call me a shadow call me a curse Every lie that you spit only turns more perverse You rule with an echo I strike with the facts No circus you stage can create what you lack Talk while you can let the sycophants cheer The louder you lie the closer I draw near
That woman Keep lying