The songs Bob Dylan wrote about Joan Baez
What is the point of a love song if it doesn’t come with an equally heart-rending story of romance behind it? Quite frankly, they’re a cornerstone of music across every era. However, without becoming too controversial, the legions of male rock stars who produce them would be nothing without their female counterparts. Yoko Ono, Linda Ronstadt, Marianne Faithfull – but rising above them all as the shiniest beacon is Joan Baez.
As one half of the most prolific ‘will they, won’t they?’ couples in all of music, Baez is no stranger to having a song or two directed in her orbit. But as her relationship with Bob Dylan demonstrates only too well, these things were never quite straightforward, and through the highs, lows, and everything in between, the pair often became each other’s sonic subjects when writing of their desires – and, sometimes, hatreds.
For the part of Dylan himself, as a man who has never been shy of an epic ode or two, writing about love has almost become his sixth sense. Add Baez into the mix and, well, it’s almost always the recipe for a masterpiece, whether it came at the expense of his various heartbreaks over the years or not. In this vein, the songs they each wrote about each other could be the subject of a dissertation-worthy deep dive, but in the respect of Dylan’s own discography, it’s clear that Baez has never been far from his sights.
In a back catalogue as expansive as Dylan’s, there are a myriad of potential songs with hidden meanings or messages centred on Baez. But within this, there are four songs that stand out as among the most obvious odes to his most prophetic, if dizzying, relationship. The first of these was ‘To Ramona’ – even if, at the time, Dylan was a little guarded on the song’s true subject, simply saying of the 1964 tune: “Well, that’s pretty literal. That was just somebody I knew.”
But that cover was shortly blown by Baez, who confirmed speculations by writing in her autobiography And a Voice to Sing With that she was indeed Dylan’s certain “somebody”, as ‘Ramona’ was a nickname he gave her in the early days of them knowing one another. But the writer himself was never so forthcoming, because even though he seemingly became more possessive of Baez at the height of their relationship in the mid-‘60s, he would still avoid overtly naming her.
This is reflected most expressly in ‘She Belongs To Me’, a song Dylan penned in 1965 as a proclamation of his adoration of Baez in all but name. Speaking of an “Egyptian ring” and the fact that: “She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist / She don’t look back,” the singer was trapped in the complex love web imaginable, between girlfriend Suze Rotolo and his secret marriage to Sara Lownds. But through it all, Baez remained the North Star; the woman who was his guiding light, and the one who kept his passions stirring even when he could be blindsided.
In some capacity, Dylan’s desires did become somewhat clearer in the preceding years as he then put his pen to the page with ‘Visions of Johanna’ in 1966, with a titular character whose name is a little more similar to Baez’s own. Depicting the trials and tribulations of his own love triangle, the singer noted as the song concludes that “And Madonna, she still has not showed,” referencing Baez’s nickname of the ‘Barefoot Madonna’. As already proved on ‘She Belongs To Me’, despite the multitude of romantic offerings being thrown his way, Dylan’s main focus was always Baez – even if at some points, it was as harrowing as it was heart-warming.
There was nothing that epitomised this more than Dylan and Baez’s call and response ‘Oh Sister’ and ‘O Brother’ from 1976. With Dylan having turned his back on political songwriting and instead narrowing his focus on his relationship troubles, in many ways, ‘Oh Sister’ was seen as his call to arms to Baez, who by this point was freshly divorced, and he too was in the 11th hour with Lownds.
Pining for her love and care, as if all the tensions of the years before could suddenly melt away, Dylan was laying his cards on the table to his Barefoot Madonna. But in her typical blazing style, Baez was having none of it – “You’ve done dirt to lifelong friends / With little or no excuses,” she snapped in her response – and with that, the lore of the two songwriting lovers was left as little more than a fantasy.
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