Early one morning the sun was shining
I was lieing in bed
Wondering if she'd changed it all,
If her hair was still red

And her folks said our lives together,
Sure was going to be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress,
Papas bankbook wasn't big enough

But she was standing on the side of the road
As rain's falling 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

And she was married when we first met,
But soon to be divorced
I helped her out of 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 side night,
Both agreeing it was best
And she turned around and looked at me,
As I was walking away
I Heard her say over my shoulder
We're going to meet again some day,
On the avenue
We got tangled up in blue

So I had a job in the Paynoff 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 lucky enough to be employed
Working for a while on a fishing boat
Right outside of Delaque

But all the while I was alone,
The past was close behind me
I'd seen I lot of women,
But she never escaped my mind
Yeah I just grew
Tangled up in blue

She was working in a topless place,
And I just stopped in for a beer
I just kept looking 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 my chair
Saying Tell me don't I know your name?
I muttered something 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
On my shoe
We got tangled up in blue

So lit a burner upon the stove
And offered me a pint
I thought that you would never say hello she said,
You look like the silent type
Then she opened up a book o' poems,
Handed it to me
Written by an italian poet,
In the thirteenth century
And every one of those 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

So I lived with them on Montague St,
In a basement down these stairs,
There was music in the cafes at night,
A revloution in the air
Then he started dealing with slaves,
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I became withdrawn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
We got tangled up in blue

Well now I'm going back again,
Got to get to her somehow
All the people that we used to know,
They're an illusion to me now
Some are mathematictions,
Some are carpenters' 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, heading for another joint
We didn't always see the same,
And we started from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue