early one morning the sun was shining i was laying in bed i wondered if she d care that much if her hair was still red her parents said our lives together sure was gonna be rough and never did like mama s homemade dress papa s bankbook wasn t big enough i m sitting on the side of the road rain falling on my shoes heading out for the east coast god knows i ve paid my dues getting through tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue 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 separated on a dark sad night both agreeing it was best she turned around and called to me as i was walking away i heard her say over my shoulder we ll meet again someday on the avenue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue i went up to the great north woods working as a cook for a spell i never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell i headed down to new orleans where i lucky was to be employed working for a while on a fishing boat right outside of delacroix  all the while i was alone the past was close behind i ve known a lot of women but she never escaped my mind i just grew tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue she was working in a topless place i stopped in for a beer just kept looking at the side of her face in the spotlight so clear later on when the crowd thinned out i was just about to do the same she s standing there in the back of my chair and said to me don t i know your name i muttered something 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 tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue 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 she opened up a book of poems and handed it to me written by an italian poet from the thirteenth century every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal rolling off from every page like it was written in my soul from me to you tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue i lived with them on montague street in a basement down the stairs there was music in the cafs at night and revolution in the air started into messing with slaves and something inside of him died she had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside later on when the bottom fell out i became withdrawn the only thing i know how to do is to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue now i m going back again i gotta get back to her somehow all the people that we used to know they re an illusion to me now some are mathematicians some are carpenter s wives don t know how it all got started i don t know what they re doin with their lives 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 tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue tangled up in blue thanks a lot see y all later