Tangled up in Blue

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin'
I was layin' in bed
Wondrin' if she'd changed at 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 bank book wasn't big enough

And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the east coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues
Gettin' through
Tangled up in blue

She was married when we first met
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
And we abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing that it was best

She turned around to look at me as I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder
"We'll meet again some day 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 axe just fell

So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I'm lucky to be employed
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind
I've seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind
And I just grew tangled up in blue

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
In the spotlight was so clear

And later on when the crowd thinned out
I's just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said, tell me, do I don't know 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 13th century

And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page, it was like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue

I lived with them down on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés at night
And there was revolution in the air

Then he started into dealing with slaves
And inside of him something died
She had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside

And when finally the bottom fell out
Oh, I became withdrawn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 carpenters' wives
Don't know how it all got started
I don't know what they're did with their lives

But me, I'm still on the road, I'm headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue