Walt wrote:
>The questions: > >(1) This may be an old discussion for some of you, but the song "Just Like >Me" almost seems like Joni's answer to the song (almost certainly by Dylan, >but I seem to remember quite a few other people sang it, even at least one >woman) that went: > >"She [blanks] just like a woman, >She [blanks] just like a woman, >And she [blanks] just like a woman, >But she breaks (just) like a little girl." > >My memory of this song is obviously sketchy, but it came back to me when I >heard Joni's "Just Like Me" (in which Joni describes the object of her >affections as doing certain things, often confusing behavior, making him >"Just Like Me"), which seems to be almost an answer to the (Dylan?) song. Is >that possible? I don't know the chronology of the two songs, when each was >written. Any comments? I know that Joni has at best mixed feelings about >the Women's Movement, etc., but maybe she was fed up with lyrics like the >above, in which underneath every together woman, there's a breakable little >girl, and this was her response. Just a thought. The song is "Just Like a Woman" by Bob Dylan, that originally appeared on Blonde on Blonde. Although the lyrics have gone through some revisions over the years, the original chorus went: She takes just like a woman, yes, she does She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does And she aches just like a woman But she breaks just like a little girl. I don't see any correlation between Bob's song and Joni's "Just Like Me." >(2) Another Oldie: "The Wizard of Is" reminds me, musically, of "Suzanne", >you know, the one that starts "Suzanne takes you down/to a place by the >river/..." I don't know who wrote it -- it may even be "traditional", but >many artists have covered it. Anyhoo, "TWoI" reminds me musically (i.e., as >opposed to lyrically") to the Suzanne song -- not exactly, but there are a >lot of parallels. Anybody else think so? My apologies to those who haven't >heard thre songs -- at least the lyrics to them are (I think) at jmdl.com. "Suzanne" is by Leonard Cohen and appears on his first album. Originally published as a poem. I don't know "The Wizard of Is" -- it's not at jmdl.com -- although I am reminded of a song by Tom Rapp (Pearls Before Swine) -- "down misty rivers of because/into the Land of Was." Obviously this is of very little help indeed. Gil
