Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word
Encyclopedia
"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 Dont 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.
documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home
, Baez told a story of how she was with Dylan, when he first heard her recording of "Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" on the radio. He commented on it, "Hey, that's a great song!", apparently having forgotten that it was he who'd written it.
The title line "Love is just a four-letter word" derives from a line in the Tennessee Williams play Camino Real
.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and long associated with Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, 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 Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back is a 1967 documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in the United Kingdom.In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically...
, 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.
Trivia
In the 2005 PBS American MastersAmerican Masters
American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home
No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his...
, Baez told a story of how she was with Dylan, when he first heard her recording of "Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" on the radio. He commented on it, "Hey, that's a great song!", apparently having forgotten that it was he who'd written it.
The title line "Love is just a four-letter word" derives from a line in the Tennessee Williams play Camino Real
Camino Real (play)
Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...
.