Early one morning the sun was shining, she was lying in bed,

Wondering if she’d changed at all, if her hair was still red.

Their folks, they said their lives together sure was a-gonna be rough,

They never did like mama’s homemade dress, papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough.

And he was standing on the side of the road, rain falling on his shoes,

Heading out for the East Coast—Lord knows, he’s paid some dues getting through,

Tangled up in blue.

She was married when they first met, soon to be divorced,

He helped her out of a jam, I guess, but he used a little too much force.

Then they drove that car as far as they could, abandoned it out west,

Splitting up on a dark, sad night, both agreeing it was best.

She turned around to look at him as he was a-walking away,

Saying over her shoulder, “We’ll meet again someday on the avenue,

Tangled up in blue.”

He had a job in Santa Fe working in an old hotel,

But he never did like it all that much and one day it just a-went to hell,

So he drifted down to New Orleans, lucky not to be destroyed,

Where he got him a job on a fishing boat docked outside Delacroix,

But all the while he was alone, the past was close behind,

He seen a lot of women but she never escaped his mind and he 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 the side of her face in the spotlight so clear,

And later on, when the crowd thinned out, I was just about to do the same,

She was standing there right beside my chair, said, “Don’t tell me, let me guess your name,”

I muttered something underneath my breath, she studied the lines of my face,

I must admit, felt a little uneasy when she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,

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,

Till 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And when it all came crashing down, I became withdrawn,

The only thing I knew how to do was keep on keeping on like a bird that flew,

Tangled up in blue.

So now I’m going back on again, I got to get to them somehow,

All the faces we used to know, they’re an illusion to me now.

Some are mathematicians, some are truck drivers’ wives,

Don’t know how it all got started, I don’t know 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.