Tangled up in blue is one of the most famous and most discussed songs of Bob Dylan.  Although it is not really possible to figure out what it means but i’ll try write about several theories.

One of the theories I’ve came across on net was every verse he sings about different women.  Although this is a logical idea I don’t think that’s what it is. I have found something interesting called cubism in music.  It means writing some story in mixed order.  A quotation from famous director Godard should explain this better than I do. ” A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end . . . but not necessarily in that order.”

So this idea seemed logical to me and i re-ordered the song like this:

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’ 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.

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 every one 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 cafes 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i became withdrawn,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.

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 someday 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 ax just fell.
so i drifted down to new orleans
where i happened 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.

early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’,
i was layin’ in bed
wond’rin’ 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 bankbook 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.

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 carpenter’s 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 always imagined this story like this;

There is a guy who loves a woman which is married (to her job, prostitution probably).  He is kinda crazy mentally and one day burns down her house and kidnaps her (I guess I used a little too much force). She is a prostitute and they met in a bar she works (topless place). Then, comes the tricky part about Italian poet and his book.  It might be Dante.  I think dealing with slaves might be a reference to Dylan’s own life.  It is known that he started writing more introverted and different songs starting with “Another Side of Bob Dylan”  after he stopped being a protest singer or stopped dealing with slaves.

Montague street is in Brooklyn, NY with a lot of cafes and bars around so this makes sense. I don’t have any ideas about revolution part though.  This street may have a particular importance in civil right movement history in US.

So this  couple spent some time together and then broke up.  They still have feelings for each other but they had to broke up for some reason (could be her folks.) This broke up effects our guy real bad that he gets on the road pointlessly working on different jobs but he is still in love with her.  I really think the women he saw during this time could be the women on a magazine he looked while jerkin off. (I’ve seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind and I just grew.) After this period he decides to go back to her and I think that is where the song ends.  The matematicians and carpenter’s wives are still a question mark though.

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Okay, after 4 tries I have managed to upload this photo of a Hindu temple in Kerala, Southern India. First, try to forgive me for my English for I don’t get to talk or write so much in English for I’m studying engineering (computer engineering for ladies who’d be interested).

Where were we, oh yes India. But the southern part of it. The reason I mention especially it is southern because northern and southern parts of this country is really different from each other. In the southern territories there is less population, less urbanization therfore less poverty. Of course less urbanization means more wild life which is cool and gives the tourist a lot to see. The road conditions are really poor and Indians brain surely works in a different way. The people who works in the traffic departement of Kerala think the way to avoid people from speeding is to put barriers in the middle of the road. Of course the number of deadly accidents caused by high speed driving (Of course I have to mention that the high speed means like 70kmph for an Indian car) surely had been decreased incredibely wheras there happens to be an interesting increase in deaths overall. I believe the Indian authorities still trying to figure out what went wrong about their genious plan.

Indian economy is the one of the largest economies in known worlds, and their national income has reached really huge amounts (they are the 4th, I think in the whole known worlds). But It is also the second greatest population on earth therfore there is really lot of poverty. But still there is something about India that attracted people for centuries. First, jews got lost trying to find “gardens of eden” mentioned in the Book of Genesis which is probably Indian territories. Then Europeans searched for this land of wealth, the land which hold everything that they did not have in dark ages of Europe. Geographical explorations meant wealth, food, good weather and above all being far from the pressure of the evil church.

Years later with the rise of hippie culture the most terrible era of India has begun. Thousands of bad-smelling, hairy hippies polluted the clear waters of Indian ocean. -One always wonders how the next generation after the cool beats turned out to be this way. Of course hippies had a point, they changed things with rock n roll but why? why did they have to smell that bad?-

The Hindu culture is really interesting to the westerners because it is really different from western culture in many ways. First, money and materials are really not important to these kind and happy dark skinned people. But who can blame them for not working when they could go to the nearest coconot tree and eat. They really seem not to understand what money means (lucky them?). For example when you stop on a buffet on the road and pay 1$ for a 25 cent pepsi, in return you get a pepsi and a fistful of gums in place of 75cents. Of course the gums are always useful. They prevent your mouth to smell like New York sewers when you can’t find something normal to eat for the whole road trip. Acually, the food are not that bad. It is really hard to tell what the tastes like while there is like 5kgs of spice in it.

After all, Southern India is really a place to see with its kind and happy people, interesting culture, beautiful wildlife and the stories of old times that it holds deep down in its jungles.