« Bob Dylan has composed and recorded a lot of marvellous songs – but Just Like A Woman is really moving. When he played his songs for me in a hotel room in 1966 he seemed very shy – and I was very shy too, so we didn’t say anything to each other. At the time, my English was worse than it is today, so I didn’t really understand the words for Just Like a Woman. I only understood,
“You make love just like a woman/Then you ache just like a woman/But you break just like a little girl,”
which was moving to me, very sentimental. He was impressed with me – but not by the singer, by the girl, I think. He had a kind of romantic fixation on a photo of me – but I didn’t take it too seriously at that time. Recently, I got two drafts of letters written by him for me – and I finally realized that he was very serious about this fixation when he was very young. It moved me deeply when I read those letters »
– Françoise Hardy, 2018 (Pitchfork Magazine)
well can you blame him?
Untitled 2
for françoise hardyat the seine’s edgea giant shadowof notre dameseeks t grab my footsorbonne studentswhirl by on thin bicyclesswirlin’ lifelike colors of leather spinthe breese yawns foodfar from the belliesor erhard meetin johnsonpiles of loversfishingkissinglay themselves on their books, boats.old menclothed in curly mustachesfloat on the benchesblankets of touristin bright nylon shirtswith straw hats of ambassadors(cannot hear nixon’sdawg bark now)will sail awayas the sun goes downthe doors of the river are openi must remember thati too play the guitarit’s easy t stand heremore lovers passon motorcyclesroped togetherfrom the walls of the water theni look across t what they callthe right bankan envyyourtrumpetplayer
From The Bob Dylan Centre
The original typescript for the poem is on display in our Columbia Records Gallery. Two years later, Hardy and Dylan finally met in Paris during Dylan’s chaotic 1966 European tour.
Bob Dylan - Just Like a Woman - Take 1
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