Tangled Up In Blue
Bob Dylan
Blood On The Tracks (1975)

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
he was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said their lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.
And he was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on his shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows he's paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.

She was married when they first met,
Soon to be divorced.
He helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But he used a little too much force.
They drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at him
As he was walkin' away
she said: "This can't be the end, . . . this ain't the end,
We'll meet on another day, on the avenue," We'll meet again some day . . .
Tangled up in blue.

He had a job in the old north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But he never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell.
Well, he drifted down to L.A.
Where he reckoned to try his luck
Workin' for a while on an airplane plant,
Loading cargo onto a truck
But all the while he was alone
The past was close behind,
He seen a lot of women
But she never escaped his mind, and he just grew
Tangled up in blue.

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept looking' at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear.
And later on, as the crowd thinned out
I's about to do the same,
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, "What's your name?"
I muttered somethin' underneath my breath,
She studied the lines on my face.
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
Tangled up in blue.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type."
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.

He was always in a hurry,
too busy or too stoned,
And everything that she ever planned,
just a-had to be postponed.
She thought they were successful,
She thought they were blessed, He thought . . .
with objects and material things,
but I never was impressed.
And when it all came crashing down,
I became withdrawn,
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on
Like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue.

So now I'm goin' back again,
I got to get to her somehow.
All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians
Some are doctors' wives.
Don't know how it all got started,
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.