undead_drummer May 10th, 2006 09:02PM  
This basically refers to the time of the cold and Vietnam wars when America tried to get Canada to adapt nuclear missles and join. When the singer refers to the American Woman, it is America.

"Don't com hangin' around my door
I don't wanna see your face nomore
I got more important things to do
then spendin my time growin old with you"

This is basically saying that Canada has its own troubles that they have to deal with and they don't need to get into some wars over opinion with the US

"I don't need your war machine" - nuclear weapons

"I don't need your ghetto scenes" - the after math of the explosives

"colored lights can hypnotize" - explosions of the bombs

"sparkle someone esle's eyes" - basically piss off and bother someone else lol

anonymous February 22nd, 2009 01:10PM  
They actually preformed at the White House but we not allowed to preform this song. it is refering to the statue of liberty as the american woman. some lyrics were also inspired by the bands complications with canadian borders and united states drafting for the vietnam war.

Winnipegger September 16th, 2009 03:31PM  
Actually, Dr. Winston is almost right on.

The song was more or less improv on the spot, and was "created" at a concert in Kingston, Ontario. I'm not sure that Burton was necessarily mingling with some chicks, but he was at least observing some, and (according to him) in his mind, he was saying, "Canadian Woman, I prefer you". The band was onstage waiting for him and was playing filler music including the guitar riff that defined this song.

Instead of singing something positive about preferring Canadian girls, he instead started singing lyrics that were negative toward American girls. What he actually sang on that occasion is lost in the mists of time, and it is possible that they bore no resemblence to the final lyrics.

According to Jim Kale, the Guess Who's bassist, and co-author of the song:

"The popular misconception was that it was a chauvinistic tune, which was anything but the case. The fact was, we came from a very strait-laced, conservative, laid-back country, and all of a sudden, there we were in Chicago, Detroit, New York — all these horrendously large places with their big city problems. After that one particularly grinding tour, it was just a real treat to go home and see the girls we had grown up with. Also, the war was going on, and that was terribly unpopular. We didn't have a draft system in Canada, and we were grateful for that. A lot of people called it anti-American, but it wasn't really. We weren't anti-anything."

Randy Bachman has claimed that the American woman referred to in the song is in fact the Statue of Liberty, furthering the anti-war theme."