Just Like a Woman

“Just Like a Woman” is Track 11 on Street Angel, Stevie Nicks’ fifth solo album. It is a cover of Bob Dylan’s Top 40 single from his 1966 album Blond on Blond.

About the Song

“Bob Dylan and I met about eight years ago. I went along on a tour he did with Tom Petty when they went to Australia. My friend Rebecca and I just decided we were going to watch because we knew Tom wasn’t even going to get a microphone, that anything he sang he’d have to sing with Bob. This was going to be an incredible blending of egos. So I went there for 32 days and became good friends with Bob — as good a friend as you can be with Bob, that is. He’s very much a loner, very much by himself. You don’t run up to Bob and say, ‘Hi, Bob.’ You kind of wait for him to even notice that you’re in the room. You just let him come to you at his own time.

“During that period, I told him that I was going to do ‘Just Like a Woman’ one day, and I don’t think he believed me. He just said, ‘Cool. If you can do it from a woman’s point of view, then great.’ So I called him when the song was pretty much done and he came down to the studio to listen to it. I said, ‘You hate it, right?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t. I really like it.’ I said, ‘Well, would you consider singing on it?’ And he said, ‘No, I won’t sing on it, but I’ll play some guitar and maybe some harmonica if you want me to.’ And I thought, ‘Well, praise God.’ It was really important to me that he liked it. I never would have put that song on the record if I didn’t think he was pleased.” (Boston Globe, 1994)

Lyrics

Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand outside the rain
Everybody knows that baby’s got new clothes
But lately he sees her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls

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

Queen Mary, she’s my friend
Yes, I believe that I’ll go see her again
Nobody has to guess that baby can’t be blessed
Till she finally finds out that she’s like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamines, and her pills

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

It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what’s worse is this pain in here
I can’t stay in here
Ain’t it clear

That I just don’t fit
Yes, I believe it’s time for me to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Well, please don’t let on
That you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world

Oh, I fake just like a woman
Yes, I do and I make love just like a woman
Yes, I do and I ache just like a woman
But I break, yes I break, just like a little girl

(She takes just like a woman)
She makes love
(She makes love just like a woman)
She takes love
(She aches just like a woman)
Oh, but she breaks
Yes, she breaks

(She takes just like woman)
Yes, she does and she
(She makes love just like a woman)
Yes, she does and she
(She aches just like a woman)

(Bob Dylan) © 1966 Dwarf Music (ASCAP)

Musicians

Reference

Morse, S. (1994) Stevie Nicks: ‘Angel’ on her own. Boston Globe.

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