Tangled Up In Blue

I was laying in bed


Wond'ring if she'd changed it all


If her hair was still red


Her folks they said our lives together


Sure was gonna be rough


They never did like Mama's homemade dress


Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough


And I was standing on the side of the road


Rain falling on my shoes


Heading out for the East Coast


Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through


Tangled up in blue.




She was married when we first meet


Soon to be divorced


I helped her out of a jam I guess


But I used a little too much force


We drove that car as far as we could


Abandoned it out West


Split it up on a dark sad night


Both agreeing it was best


She turned around to look at me


As I was walking away


I heard her say over my shoulder


"We'll meet again someday on the avenue"


Tangled up in blue.




I had a job in the great north woods


Working as a cook for a spell


But I never did like it all that much


And one day the ax just fell


So I drifted down to New Orleans


Where I happened to be employed


Working for a while on a fishing boat


Right outside of Delacroix


But all the while I was alone


The past was close behind


I seen a lot of women


But she never escaped my mind and I just grew


Tangled up in blue.




She was working in a topless place


And I stopped in for a beer


I just kept looking at her side of her face


In the spotlight so clear


And later on as the crowd thinned out


I's just about to do the same


She was standing there in back of my chair


Said to me "Don't I know your name ?"


I muttered something 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 burning coal


Pouring off of every page


Like it was written in my soul from me to you


Tangled up in blue




I lived with them on Montague Street


In a basement down the stairs


There was music in the caf,s at night


And revolution in the air


Then he started into dealing with slaves


And something inside of him died


She had to sell everything she owned


And froze up inside


And when finally the bottom fell out


I became withdrawn


The only thing I knew how to do


Was to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew


Tangled up in blue.




So now I'm going back again


I got to get her somehow


All the people we used to know


They're an illusion to me now


Some are mathematicians


Some are carpenter's wives


Don't know how it all got started


I don't what they're doing with their lives


But me I'm still on the road


Heading for another joint


We always did feel the same


We just saw it from a different point of view


Tangled up in Blue.