Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word

"Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" is a song written by Bob Dylan, and long associated with Joan Baez, who has recorded it numerous times, and performed it throughout her career. Written by Dylan somewhere around 1965, Baez immediately took to the song, and began performing it, even before it was finished. (In the film Don't Look Back, a documentary of Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK, Baez is shown in one scene singing a fragment of the song in a hotel room late at night. She then tells Dylan, "If you finish it, I'll sing it on a record.") Baez first included the song on Any Day Now, her 1968 album of Dylan covers; she has since recorded it three additional times. Her 1968 recording was also released as a single. Dylan himself appears to have never recorded the song.

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