Joan Baez - Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word Lyrics






Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she occurred
That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rattling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word

I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word

Strange it is to be beside you
Many years and tables turned
You'd probably not believe me
If I told you all I've learned
And it is very, very weird indeed
To hear words like forever plead
Those ships run through my mind, I cannot cheat
It's like looking in the teacher's face complete
I can say nothing to you but repeat what I heard
That love is just a four-letter word





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Joan Baez Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word Comments
  1. c.... ....

    very beautiful ~ thank you

  2. D.... S....

    Joan Baez is my icon

  3. G.... K....

    nostalgia, such a sweet sorrow

  4. A.... F....

    Joan Baez has lived her life by just one Light, regardless of the consequences....

  5. b.... ....

    In Portuguese too A M O R - 4 letter...

  6. M.... S....

    That's a '59 Ford at 1:59.

  7. K.... O....

    "Paganmaestro," you deserve a Peabody Award.

  8. p.... ....

    Not Suze, no.

  9. C.... M....

    Is that also Suze at 0.14?

  10. R.... E....

    She sure can sing like a bird. Her recordings of Dylan songs were spot-on, but her career encompasses so much more than that. She is an Icon.

  11. m.... s....

    i love this beutiful song , sang by a beutiful lady , takes me back a long long way

  12. M.... ....

    people check this out Clawfinger - four letter word Thumbs up!!!

  13. D.... C....

    WOW says it all

  14. T.... M....

    * * * * *
    GREAT

  15. D.... H....

    I finally understand, tired of failing

  16. x.... ....

    Bob never recorded a version of this song.

  17. r.... ....

    In a documentary about Dylan I saw, Joan said that she was in a room with Dylan who was writing and she sang this song. Dylan turned to her and said, "That's good, who is it by?" approximate quote. He had forgotten that he had written it.

  18. D.... ....

    She played and sang and still does make Bob's music more appealing, not that Bob needs that, but she made me think more deeply and then i heard Bob's version and man i'm torn between them both.

  19. M.... d....

    yes, that is a Coral Sitar guitar...from the '60's. GREAT sound.

  20. j.... ....

    Beautiful, thanks so much.

  21. C.... R....

    Bob wrote this song about his relationship with Sara Lowndes, "the father of her kid," who became Bob's step-daughter.

  22. C.... ....

    It sounds like a sitar-guitar (one of those silly things they did in the Sixties).

  23. n.... ....

    The 1967 documentary "Dont Look Back "

  24. t.... ....

    It's impossible to have one favorite Bob Dylan song! Right?
    Also very hard to pick, let's say... just 5 favorite Joan Baez songs!!;)
    Though this song sung by her & their duo of ''Forever Young'' are in my top 100!:)

    I really enjoyed the video. Thank You!

  25. w.... l....

    Joan she the best

  26. T.... H....

    "Traps are only set by me."

    Dylan, the accidental Buddhist.

  27. r.... ....

    I remember her saying that in a documentary program. She said that she sang the song in a room with Bob and he said that's a good song, where is it from?

  28. p.... ....

    That's what Dylan said when Joan sang it for him. He had forgotten that he wrote it!

  29. T.... ....

    One of the best songs Body Dylan ever wrote, but for whatever reason he never recorded it. Shame. Structurally it's simple and intelligent, and the lyrics are insightful on the falling in/out of relationships. The speaker goes progressively from naive to mature to cynical. "I could could only think in terms in me but know I understand." God, so true.

  30. B.... B....

    fantastic

  31. T.... ....

    Back in the 60's and 70's I was in love with Joan but she didn't know it!

  32. n.... ....

    "you were talking while i hid, to the one who was the father of your kid"
    i think he was writing about sara again
    it would be nice if dylan wrote a song for joan...i think she deserved one beautiful song in her honor

  33. T.... H....

    One of Dylan's great love epics. It's like a premonition of "Blood on the Tracks."

  34. w.... ....

    What great singer, one of the best ever...& a nice person as well....

  35. M.... V....

    Absolutely beautiful, I first saw her live 1968, and I here she is going to be visitin my area next month, sure hope to see her. Thank you so much for posting this, I watch it over and over




  36. D.... ....

    "Hey, that's a great song!"

  37. n.... ....

    @pattycrowe
    maybe dylan wrote this song about Rotolo

  38. J.... ....

    the greatest Bob Dylan song to never have been recorded by him!

  39. p.... ....

    @pattycrowe - Yes, that's Suze at 2:38 or so. Suze's book is a good read.

  40. p.... ....

    Beautiful montage. One of the images is not Joan, (the one of Suze Rotolo with Bod Dylan) but beautiful nonetheless. Thank you for posting this.

  41. J.... ....

    One of the most beautiful songs ever made....Period

  42. M.... H....

    i would do anything to have heard the dylan version of this

  43. a.... ....

    beautiful, mahalo nui loa, aloha

  44. M.... T....

    Nice images, and also nice how sequenced everything.

  45. D.... H....

    A powerful performance and it has not diminished with time. As always, your selection of images add to the mix. Love it!