THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

36-Bob Dylan-Tangled Up in Blue.

1975-It has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 5.04. Bob Dylan has said that the song took,’Ten years to live, and two years to write.

My first recollection of being introduced to the music of Bob Dylan was when hearing this song as a young teenager. I played the seven inch vinyl time and time again in an attempt to decipher the lyrics, but I always ended up baffled. Over the years I have read many reviews of the song, by more older and wiser people than myself, and they don’t seem able to fully define a true meaning either. I guess the only one who truly knows is Dylan himself, but he has never offered a full explanation in public.

‘Tangled Up in Blue’ was the only single released from Bob Dylan’s (see also best songs 792-621-358-103 and 7) 15th studio Album ‘Blood on the Tracks,’ from January 1975, in America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart it reached Number 31, for the discography of Bob Dylan see best songs Number 7. ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ was written by Dylan, and produced by his younger brother David Zimmerman. The song has been critically acclaimed, being called,’The most dazzling lyric ever written.’ Most agree that it is Dylan’s best work of the 1970’s, while in some surveys carried out, it has even been voted his greatest ever song.

‘Tangled Up in Blue’ was written by Dylan at the time he was going through the separation from his wife Sara Dylan, whom he had been married to since 1965. Their son Jacob who was born in 1969, has said that a lot of the lyrics on ‘Blood on the Tracks’ relate to his parents marriage, but Bob Dylan has denied that any of the songs on the Album are autobiographical.

What adds to ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ being held in such high esteem, but also makes understanding the lyrics confusing, is Dylan jumping timelines in each verse. At one moment he will be singing about the present, and then in the next line he will skip back and reminisce about the past. A good example would be the 2004 American science fiction television drama series ‘Lost,’ where you could never be sure if you were watching events from the past, or from the present. Dylan has explained this style of
songwriting,’What’s different about it is that there’s a code in the lyrics, and there’s also no sense of time. There’s no respect for it. You’ve got yesterday, today, and tomorrow all in the same room, and there’s very little you can’t imagine not happening.’

Although Bob Dylan denies that the lyrics are autobiographical, there are undeniably certain sections of the song that do relate to him. According to the American author Ron Rosenbaum, Dylan told him that he’d written ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ after spending a weekend listening to Joni Mitchell’s (see also best songs 637-558 and 299) 1971 album ‘Blue,’ which would at least explain the songs title. Dylan sings,’I lived with them on Montague Street, in a basement down the stairs.’ ‘Montague Street’ is an uptown area in Brooklyn, New York, where there was a music venue called ‘Capulet’s,’ where Dylan could sometimes be seen frequenting. Dylan also mentions the titles of two Beatles songs in the lyrics,’From Me to You,’ (1963) and ‘Revolution’ (1968.)

‘Tangled Up in Blue’ sees the narrator reminiscing about a past love who he hasn’t seen for many years, their relationship had been a struggle, and they had decided that a parting of the ways would be for the best. As the years pass he realises that what he gave up was far better than everything he has experienced since, and he decides to go and seek her out. He finally comes across her again, but whether they ever get back together is not explained, well that’s my interpretation anyhow.

‘She was working in a topless place, and I stopped in for a beer. I just kept looking at the sight of her face in the spotlight so clear. And later on when the crowd thinned out, I’s just about to do the same, she was standing there in back of my chair, said, ‘Tell me, don’t I know your name?”