Early one mornin' the sun was shinin'   I was layin' in bed   Wonderin' if she had changed at all   If her hair was still red      And her folks had said our lives together   It sure was gonna be rough   They never did like Mama's homemade dress   Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough      And she was standin' on the side of the road   As rain's fallin' on my shoes   I'm heading out for the old 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      So 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      Then she turned around and looked at me   As I was walkin' away   I heard her say over my shoulder   "We're gonna meet again someday on a avenue?   We got tangled up in blue      So 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 was looking out 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 me   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      Then later on as the crowd thinned out   I was just about to do the same   She was standing there at the back of the chair   Singin', "Tell me, don't I know your name?"      I muttered somethin' underneath the breath   She studied the lines on my face   I must admit I felt a little uneasy   When she bent to tie the lace of my shoe   We got tangled up in blue      So 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   Handed it to me   Written by an Italian poet   In the thirteenth century      And every one of those words rang true   Glowed like burnin' coal   Pourin' off of every page   Like it's 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 cafes at night   And revolution in the air      Then he started into dealing with slaves   Something inside of him died   She had to sell everything they owned   And froze up inside      And when finally as 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   We got tangled up in blue      Now I'm goin' back again   Got to get to her somehow   All the people that we used to know   They're illusion to me now      Some are mathematicians   Some are carpenter's wives   We don't know how this got started   Don't know what we do with our lives      Me, I'm still on the road   Headin' for another joint   We didn't always see the same   And we start it from a different point of view   Tangled up in blue