The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
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
Abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing 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 was looking for 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 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 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 somethin' under 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 everyone 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
I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés 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 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 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
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
Abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing 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 was looking for 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 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 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 somethin' under 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 everyone 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
I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés 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 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 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
Lyrics submitted by typo, edited by james44, RobLewis, MusicalManiac1
Tangled Up In Blue Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Push comes to shove "Tangled Up In Blue" and The Beatles' "In My Life" are my all-time favorite songs. The lyrics to "Tangled Up In Blue" are truly a thing of genius.
Imo the phrase "tangled up in blue" essentially refers to his life-long struggle with the sorrow and frustration of having lost this woman, the love of his life. No matter what he is doing with his life - various jobs and relationships and life circumstances - this woman he loves but lost many years ago is always on his mind. He can't ever truly shake her memory.
Every line is greatness but the final verse is my favorite, particularly "All the people we used to know/ they're an illusion to me now/some are mathmeticians/some are carpenter's wives/don't know how it all got started/I don't know what they do with their lives" and "we always did feel the same we just saw it from a different point of view/tangled up in blue".
How does one write something this incredibly inspired?
WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP USING THE WORD DEEP? You sound like Steven Tyler in American Idol last season. He said it almost every comment. We get everything is deep to you, you don't need to keep saying it. EPIC, RAD, NARLEY, FUCK SAKE MAN
I'm NOT BUT YOU GUYS ARE RETARTED. SHE HAS ANOTHER BOYFRIEND AND IS TRYING TO PLAY NAIVE AND DUMB AND LIKE WHAT SHE IS DOING ISNT WRONG. I thought you were smarter and better than that. oNE DAY YOU[LL REALIZE. hOPEFULLY SOONER THATN LATER. I LOVE YOU ALWAYS Toodles
THIS GAME ENDS TONIGHT FOR ME AND RIGHT NOW. I don't deserve this bullshit. You want to choose someone over me, who chooses someone else over you. It's not hard to understand. I'm here if you need me. ALWAYS
THIS GAME ENDS TONIGHT FOR ME AND RIGHT NOW. I don't deserve this bullshit. You want to choose someone over me, who chooses someone else over you. It's not hard to understand. I'm here if you need me. ALWAYS <br /> <br /> Post Reply
'this is a song that took my ten years to live and two years to write.' - uncle bob
I think some of these comments might be reading a little too much into the verse "I must admit I felt a little uneasy when she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe." I think it's pretty straightforward sexual imagery. Remember, she's a topless dancer. When she bends down in front of him, her breasts are dangling before him, and her butt is in the air, in a rather exposed, proceptive position. Very sexy, and very lyrical that Dylan can conjure up such imagery without using language as blunt as in my description.
Don't forget where her bending down to tie his laces puts her face in relation to his body.
I totally agree with your position on this line. Thank you. You are the first person here to say this. I thought I was going to have to be the first one. The reason Dylan felt "uneasy" was excactly the reason you give here. I have always thought that about this line of the song. Although, granted, he may have felt even a little more uneasy if she had been facing away from him when she did this, though. But I don't see how this could be physically possible to do (as much as I have tried to imagine it. It just doesn't work physically).
I have always had a theory about that intriguing sixth verse--seems it might include a reference to the famous relationship between Verlaine and Rimbaud to which he refers directly in "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go." Verlaine, I believe, did deal in slaves (literal slaves) later in his life, and "music in the cafes and night and revolution in the air" could refer to the Paris Communard uprising of 1871, which Verlaine and Rimbaud lived through. The only thing that doesn't quite fit is the Montague Street bit....
Not Verlaine but Rimbaud did. Maybe the French connection of NO suggests it. There is a Montague Street in NYC, I think, but also one in NO?
Might Delacroix, then, be a reference to the poet Delacroix?
1-She just does. They were untied when he was there at the nightclub watching her dance, and she comes after her show and speaks to him. Sexy. And he's all nervious. Excellent writing. 2-When things started going wrong, she started prostituing herself, being pimped by another friend who used to be a part of the gang while they were together
Anyway, I sometimes think that they'r all different women, but he sees them all as one inmortal female.
There's an awesome idea to consider. All the women of your past being different in body, but deep down, the same soul. The same one.
@cavern nice interpretation. Going back to Blonde on Blonde's Visions of Johanna, where there are at least two different women, both of whom embody Sara to one degree or another (his then pregnant first wife whom he was then living with in NYC), Dylan is clearly prone to melding real women with archetypical female figures as in Tangled Up in Blue. What a lyrical and musical (song writing) genius he is.<br />
Ah MarshmallowPeep, though Dante's Divine Comedy may not be the most romantic work, it was most definitely not his only one. He wrote several books, including Convivio, and La Vita Nuevo in which he describes his undying love for a girl named Beatrice which follows Tangled Up in Blue somewhat closely.
Is it just me or does anyone else ever think that Dylan may well be singing to a woman he actually had a relationship with, but at the same time hes singing about his own personal journey and relationship with the human race as a whole. The woman personafies the human race. He heads out to the east( capitalist 'right') and gets her out of a jam, using a little to much force( suggesting his naivity about his hopes for saving her[and people being able to live as sosialists]) then they drive out west( sosialist left) as fast as they could, abandon the car and go their seperate ways( when the initial rush has all run out). The poet is a figurative representation of Dylans muse. he lives with them both( his relationship with human race and his muse[the three parts of what is his artistry]) in a basement( within/absorbed in) Montague street in Greenwhich village. This refers to his time living there and playing in the cafes at night, when he developed as an artist. When he says finally the bottom fell out hes talking about that period of his life, living in greenwhich village, playing in cafes with the revolutionary atmosphere in the air. 'Tangled up in blue'
A woman is seldom really a woman, more than likely several women! What are partners if they're not reflections of who you think you are?
I believe the "women" are "the human race" and the song is about Bob's career from the early 60s to the mid 70s.<br /> "Heading out for the East Coast" -> "Going to New York"<br /> "Abandoned it out West" -> "The San Francisco singer-songwriter Scene!"<br /> "As I was walking away" & "I had a job in the great north woods" -> "Bob's temporary retirement in the North (Woodstock)"<br /> "So now I’m goin’ back again - I got to get to her somehow" & "But me, I’m still on the road" - "Bob starts his endless World Wide tour"
probably my favorite bob dylan song. it is so good. the lyrics are pure poetry. one of the best stories ever put to music.
snobbish? ok MASTERMUSICIAN!
Centuries be damned, it's gotta be La Vita Nuova--I came to the same conclusion thirty years ago.
I've always thought that was too direct for this elliptical song. Suggested replacement for "Written by ... century":
"Written by a saint on a chocolate bar On the South Side of Calvary"