On June 11, 2024, France’s beloved melancholic singer, actor, fashion icon, and subject of Bob Dylan’s poetic infatuation left this world. Françoise Hardy died of laryngeal cancer at 80 years old. She left behind a decades-long career of musical hits like “Tous les garçons et les filles” and “Mon amie la rose,” countless instances of style inspiration, and a wake of mourning fans and admirers.
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Among them was the American songwriter Bob Dylan, who, for a brief time in the 1960s, penned poems and romantic letters about his affections for the French multi-hyphenate artist.
Bob Dylan’s Poetic Infatuation Is Immortalized On An Album
From her angelic voice and melancholic performances to her stunning looks on- and off-screen, Françoise Hardy captured hearts worldwide during her ascent to fame in the early to mid-1960s. Bob Dylan, a man famous for keeping his cards close to the chest, was among Hardy’s lovelorn admirers at that time. Dylan immortalized his affections for the French singer in the liner notes of his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan.
For Françoise Hardy at the Seine’s edge, the poem starts. A giant shadow of Notre Dame seeks t’ grab my foot. Sorbonne students whirl by on thin bicycles, swirlin’ lifelike colors of leather spin. The breeze yawns food far from the bellies or Erhard meetin’ Johnson. Piles of lovers fishing, kissing, lay themselves on their books, boats. He ends the poem, I look across t’ what they call the Right Bank an’ envy your trumpet player.
Dylan also expressed his feelings toward Hardy more privately through letters she briefly described in a later interview, via Clash. “I can say that the two drafts are very moving. But I cannot reveal what they say. Also, I don’t understand everything of what he has written. I do think, from the poem he wrote, which I did not take too seriously at the time, and now these letters, that I had quite a place in his mind at that time and even in his heart. I think maybe I was very serious for him, and it moves me very much.”
Music Transcended Language Barriers During Their Shy Meeting
Bob Dylan’s poetic infatuation with Françoise Hardy started around the time the pair first met while the American songwriter was performing at the Paris Olympia. Dylan was struggling through his performance, and before he came out for the second half of the set post-intermission, he said he would only perform if Hardy agreed to see him after the show. In a 2018 interview with Uncut, Hardy recalled going to Dylan’s hotel room with other French artists. “Usually, I never do this,” she said. “It’s very embarrassing! Bob Dylan was already in his room. He wanted me to come in, and he played me two songs from his last album, which wasn’t yet released in France.”
The album in question was Blonde on Blonde, and the songs Dylan chose to play during his private performance were “I Want You” and “Just Like a Woman.” Speaking to Pitchfork, Hardy said, “When he played his songs for me, he seemed very shy, and I was very shy, too. So, we didn’t say anything to each other. At the time, my English was worse than it is today. So, I didn’t really understand the words for “Just Like a Woman.” I only understood, You make love just like a woman, then you ache just like a woman. But you break just like a little girl, which was moving to me, very sentimental.”
“He was impressed with me, but not by the singer,” Hardy mused. “By the girl, I think. He had a kind of romantic fixation on a photo of me.” The singer-songwriter said that when she read the letters Dylan penned to her all those years ago, she “finally realized that he was very serious about this fixation when he was very young. It moved me deeply.”
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