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Joan Baez — Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word
Album: Baez Sings Dylan
Avg rating:
5.9

Your rating:
Total ratings: 211









Released: 1968
Length: 4:23
Plays (last 30 days): 0
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Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
Who 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 forth into 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, it's 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
Comments (34)add comment
I always like the "Alt- Country"/ Sitar sound behind this song.
Very eclectic.
Posted 3 years ago by KurtfromLaQuinta    [ Reply ]
soul music......{#Sunny}
Posted 11 years ago by oldfart48    [ Reply ]
 oldman wrote:
I don't have the proper drugs for this any more.

 {#Lol} 


These are the songs my parents listened to when I was a kid.  Have great memories of laying down next to the big speakers we had and falling asleep to this album.
Posted 11 years ago by netstv    [ Reply ]
Sort of a Buck Owens vibe in that guitar riff that we hear from time to time.
Posted 11 years ago by Geecheeboy    [ Reply ]
 MiracleDrug wrote:
she sings like a goat...

 
You're kidding, right?



Try Dust and Diamonds. it's another revenge song. 
Posted 11 years ago by TerryS    [ Reply ]
 Lazarus wrote:

This song is good for the ears...
 

 

Absolutely.

Sends me floating far above the earth.


Posted 11 years ago by westslope    [ Reply ]

This cover is good for the ears...
 
Posted 11 years ago by Lazarus    [ Reply ]
I like it for the memories... riding my Schwinn Sting Ray to the record store in old downtown Anaheim. Spending my saved lunch money on the 45.
Still have my Schwinn and the 45.
Posted 11 years ago by KurtfromLaQuinta    [ Reply ]
Her silken voice soothes the Soul.
Posted 11 years ago by jadewahoo    [ Reply ]
I don't have the proper drugs for this any more.
Posted 11 years ago by oldman    [ Reply ]
Wow!
Posted 11 years ago by dragonlady    [ Reply ]
These wonderful old songs just prove the political adage that no matter what good you have done in life, if you live long enough you will become a non-person, a target for the slings and arrows of an ignorant and petty public. 
Posted 12 years ago by old_shep    [ Reply ]
 d-don wrote:

I fully disagree, but by God, that is one funny comment {#Lol}
 
Agreed.  I like this song, but what a funny comment, well done!
Posted 12 years ago by markander33    [ Reply ]

Make Joan Laugh


Posted 12 years ago by Kaisersosay    [ Reply ]
 johnjconn wrote:


When your right, your right.

Freeking horrible.
Burn it Bill.

(ps - shit is a four letter word too)
 
I fully disagree, but by God, that is one funny comment {#Lol}
Posted 12 years ago by d-don    [ Reply ]
 MiracleDrug wrote:
she sings like a goat...
 


Posted 12 years ago by kurtster    [ Reply ]
Better than half the folksy stuff played on RP...shit I cannot remember the specific singers but I'll get back to you!
Posted 12 years ago by Shesdifferent    [ Reply ]
{#Group-hug}
Posted 12 years ago by Mari    [ Reply ]
Now try to tell us how you really feel!

tutakea wrote:
joan baez shouldn´t be singing, anyway. dylan or not. i appreciate her polital commitment very much, but speaking in musically terms almost everything she did is poor. even her best efforts are weakened by the fact that she has one of the flattest voices of any female singer ever, without any possibility of transporting any emotion whatsoever.
and examples like this dylan-version here are simply unbearable, and should be reason enough for going to court against her for serious injury
 


Posted 12 years ago by C57BL6    [ Reply ]
joan baez shouldn´t be singing, anyway. dylan or not. i appreciate her polital commitment very much, but speaking in musically terms almost everything she did is poor. even her best efforts are weakened by the fact that she has one of the flattest voices of any female singer ever, without any possibility of transporting any emotion whatsoever.
and examples like this dylan-version here are simply unbearable, and should be reason enough for going to court against her for serious injury
Posted 12 years ago by tutakea    [ Reply ]
 NeilBlanchard wrote:
I could do without the dueling twangy instruments — one or the other would be fine.

Joan Baez is great.

Neil
 

great at singing like a goat...
Posted 12 years ago by MiracleDrug    [ Reply ]
I could do without the dueling twangy instruments — one or the other would be fine.

Joan Baez is great.

Neil
Posted 12 years ago by NeilBlanchard    [ Reply ]
Nice track.
 
Posted 12 years ago by CamLwalk    [ Reply ]
 aelfheld wrote:
Is Joan Baez any relation to Axl Rose?  That vibrato - irritating right down to the soles of my feet.
Well that's interesting, because I rail in a furor over vibrato from the likes of the Be Good Tanyas. So I sympathize with your plight. But somehow I can give a pass to Joan Baez. Her voice, her songs, her lyrics are so iconic for me. And she does the vibrato with strength and subtlety. I guess I am inconsistent...
Posted 12 years ago by FlatCat    [ Reply ]
Is Joan Baez any relation to Axl Rose?  That vibrato - irritating right down to the soles of my feet.
Posted 12 years ago by aelfheld    [ Reply ]
I've always liked this song and just about any of her other Dylan interpretations.  Great voice.
Posted 12 years ago by bachbeet    [ Reply ]
I always have to check out the comments when RP plays Baez...people either love her or hate her!
Posted 12 years ago by esacconcia    [ Reply ]
NASTY
Posted 12 years ago by hubcapsally    [ Reply ]
she sings like a goat...
Posted 12 years ago by MiracleDrug    [ Reply ]
Love Baez.  More.
Posted 12 years ago by westslope    [ Reply ]
Freekin horrible is right!
Posted 12 years ago by nzspida    [ Reply ]

Joan Baez - Love Is Just A Four Letter Word, Live

There has been no better interpreter of Bob Dylan's songs than Joan Baez. "Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" is from Any Day Now, her album of Dylan covers released in 1968 on the Vanguard label. It is available on CD.  

 I also remember Joan Baez in a live performance in Austin
(1990's) singing Bob Dylan's "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word".

"Dylan wrote this song, but I don't think he ever recorded it. She did a great job making it her own though."    larkinoshea

"Not particularly a Joan fan, but this song blows me away. What a voice, what a guitar player—doesn't get any better. The young man playing acoustic is absolutely staggering. Thanks for posting this."     hurricanekiki





Posted 13 years ago by calypsus_1    [ Reply ]
Love her!
 
Posted 13 years ago by LizK    [ Reply ]
Freekin horrible, yep, it's Joan Baez.
Posted 13 years ago by sirdroseph    [ Reply ]