Mojo - The Music Magazine

News

The 20 Greatest Dylan Songs!? #10

2:30 PM GMT 30/06/2009

The 20 Greatest Dylan Songs!? #10

...SEE NUMBER 9

10. Just Like A Woman
(Blonde On Blonde, 1966)

Baby's got new clothes, but Bob can see right through them. Or at least he claims to.

Jimmy Webb
: "This was when I understood how deep Dylan's well really was. It wasn't a folk song, it wasn't protest, it was just a great love song. What a fortuitous nexus of rhyme and purpose is the chorus: 'She takes just like a woman / She makes love just like a woman / Then she aches just like a woman / But she breaks just like a little girl.' As songwriters we live for the moment when words to fall together like that, as if they've been waiting for just that arrangement. The way everything leads toward that last line is masterful. That would be enough for most writers, but the third verse reveals Dylan's strategy to be much larger. When he says 'Please don't let on that you knew me when / I was hungry and it was your world,' he steps on-camera and addresses this person directly to deliver one final twist. There's a lifetime of listening in these details and layered subtleties."

To post your Dylan Top 20, join us here...

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 2:30 PM GMT 30/06/2009


Related MOJO content:

Bob Dylan

Comments

Comment on this post


Click here for House Rules

Comment on this post

end of body content back to top

end of footer back to top

Back to top