Joan Baez - Love Is A Four-Letter Word

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 I heard
That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
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 the tables turned
You'd probably not believe me if told you all I've learned
And it is very very weird, indeed
To hear words like "forever" plead
so ships run through my mind I cannot cheat
it's like looking in a teacher's face complete
I can say nothing to you but repeat what I heard
That love is just a four-letter word

Joan Baez - Less Than The Song

I am less than the song I am singing
I am more than I thought I could be
Spent some time as a child in day dreaming
As a young one I sailed on the sea

So come stand by my side where I am going
Take my hand if I stumble to fall
It's the strength that you share when your growing
That gives me what I need most of all
That gives me what I need most of all

Diffrent minds, diffrent ways
Diffrent reasons to believe
Some far journeys we have taken
Some sweet dreams we've had to leave

And I want you to be happy
And I hope you always will
Or I cannot rest easy
Till all your dreams are real
Till all your dreams are real

Joan Baez - Gossamer

When I was young then all my boughs
were thickly hung with glittering hopes.
But one by one they've blown away
and only one remains today.
It flutters out upon the air,
one hope all pinned on gossamer.

What are all lives but gossamer
in one lacy cobweb crossed?
Yet strand by strand we tear at it
until the pattern's lost.
And one by one hopes blow away
till only one remains today.

I hope the forest will return
to climb the mist-hung morning slopes.
Where falling leaves deep-banked in fern
may meet the water ouzel's hopes.
But one by one they've blown away
and only one remains today.

And when the condor opens flight
on crystal air not cracked or stained
by any fallen angel's flight,
these glittering hopes may be regained.

When I was young then all my boughs
were thickly hung with glittering hopes.
But one by one they've blown away
and only one remains today.
It flutters out upon the air,
one hope all pinned on gossamer.

Joan Baez - Diamonds And Rust

Well I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall

As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed

Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
Because I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid