“American Woman” by The Guess Who: Why is considered a protest song? When you first listen to the song, you might think that it’s about a guy telling a girl, whose trouble, that he doesn’t want to get involve with her or maybe a patriotic song that pays tribute to the women of America. This is not the case for this song. This song wasn’t made by an American band, but by a Canadian band, The Guess Who. By the lyrics you might think it’s a protest song against the United States, but in reality this song was made by complete accident and not intentionally. But people still took it as a protest song. Even when the band was asked to performed at the White House, they were not allowed to play “American Woman” for President Nixon because of its supposedly “anti-American” lyrics. The origins of this song go back to the 1969 when the band was playing at a club called the Broom & Stone in Ontario, Canada. After the band had played their first show, the band members we’re either preparing or just doing their thing before the second show. Guitarist Randy Bachman broke a string off his guitar and so he had to tune a Les Paul he had as back up. He played a riff and it caught the audience’s attention. While this was happening the lead singer, Burton Cummings, was trying to cut a deal with some guy over some records he wanted to get for his collection. He hears the riff Bachman was playing and he realized it was time for the second show. Cummings then starts singing some random lyrics, “American woman, stay away from me!” That was the first time they played that and thought that it was the last. Luckily, there was a kid in the audience who was recording the whole show as