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Blood on the Tracks
by Bob Dylan
ALBUM RANKINGS:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating:
3.6869
Avg. Critic Score:
3.7320
Blood on the Tracks Lyrics
Lyrics
Disc
Track
Title
- Early one morning the sun was shining
- I was laying in bed
- Wond'ring if she'd changed it 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 standing on the side of the road
- Rain falling on my shoes
- Heading out for the East Coast
- Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through
- Tangled up in blue.
- She was married when we first meet
- 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 it up on a dark sad night
- Both agreeing it was best
- She turned around to look at me
- As I was walking away
- I heard her say over my shoulder
- 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
- Working for a while on a fishing 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.
- She was working in a topless place
- And I stopped in for a beer
- I just kept looking at her 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 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.
- She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
- 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 burning coal
- Pouring 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 caf,s 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 keeping on like a bird that flew
- Tangled up in blue.
- So now I'm going back again
- I got to get 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 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.
- They sat together in the park
- As the evening sky grew dark
- She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones
- It was then he felt alone and wished that he'd gone straight
- And watched out for a simple twist of fate.
- They walked alone by the old canal
- A little confused I remember well
- And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burning bright
- He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train
- Moving with a simple twist of fate.
- A saxophone someplace far off played
- As she was walking on by the arcade
- As the light bust through a-beat-up shade where he was waking up
- She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate
- And forgot about a simple twist of fate.
- He woke up the room was bare
- He didn't see her anywhere
- He told himself he didn't care pushed the window open wide
- Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate
- Brought on by a simple twist of fate.
- He hears the ticking of the clocks
- And walks along with a parrot that talks
- Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailers all come in
- Maybe she'll pick him out again how long must he wait
- One more time for a simple twist of fate.
- People tell me it's a sin
- To know and feel too much within
- I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring
- She was born in spring but I was born too late
- Blame it on a simple twist of fate.
- Our conversation was short and sweet
- It nearly swept me off-a my feet
- And I'm back in the rain oh oh
- And you're on dry land
- You made it there somehow
- You're a big girl now.
- Bird on the horizon sitting on the fence
- He's singing his song for me at his own expense
- And I'm just like that bird oh oh
- Singing just for you
- I hope that you can hear
- Hear me singing through these tears.
- Time is a jet plane it moves so fast
- Oh but what a shame if all we've shared can't last
- I can change I swear oh oh
- See what you can do
- I can make it through
- You can make it too.
- Love is so simple to quote a phrase
- You've known it all the time I'm learning it these days
- Oh I know where I can find you oh oh
- In somebody's room
- It's a price I had to pay
- You're a big girl all the way.
- A change in the weather is known to be extreme
- But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream ?
- I'm going out of my mind oh oh
- With a pain that stops and starts
- Like a corkscrew to my heart
- Ever since we've been apart.
- Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
- Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess
- They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy
- She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
- I can't help it if I'm lucky.
- People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
- Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts
- Even you yesterday you had to ask me where it was at
- I couldn't believe after all these years you didn't know even me better than that
- Sweet lady.
- Idiot wind blowing every time your move your mouth
- Blowing down the backroads heading south
- Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
- You're an idiot babe
- It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe
- I ran into the fortune-teller who said beware of lightning that might strike
- I haven't known peace and quit for so long I can't remember what it's like
- There's a lone soldier on the cross smoke pouring out of a boxcar door
- You didn't know it you didn't think it could be done in the final end he won the wars
- After losing every battle.
- I woke up on the roadside daydreaming about the way things sometimes are
- Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are making me see stars
- You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies
- One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes
- Blood on your saddle.
- Idiot wind blowing through the flowers on your tomb
- Blowing through the curtains in your room
- Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
- You're an idiot babe
- It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
- It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
- You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart
- Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
- What's good is bad what's bad is good you'll find out when you reach the top
- You're on the bottom.I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
- I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed your eyes don't look
- into mine
- The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone faced while the
- building burned
- I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees while the
- springtime turned
- Slowly into autumn.
- Idiot wind blowing like a circle around my skull
- From the Grand Coulee Dam to Capitol
- Idiot wind blowing every time you move you teeth
- You're an idiot babe.
- It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
- I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
- Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishing I was somebody else instead
- Down the highway down the tracks down the road to ecstasy
- I followed you beneath the stars hounded by your memory
- And all you raging glory.
- I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free
- I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me
- You'll never know the hurt I suffered not the pain I raise above
- And I'll never know the same about you your holiness or your kind of love
- And it makes me feel so sorry.
- Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats
- Blowing through the letters that we wrote
- Idiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves
- We're idiots babe
- It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
- I've seen love go by my door
- It's never been this close before
- Never been so easy or so slow
- I've been shooting in the dark too long
- When something not right it's wrong
- Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Dragon clouds so high above
- I've only known careless love
- It's always hit me from below
- This time around it's more correct
- Right on target so direct
- Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Purple clover Queen Anne lace
- Crimson hair across your face
- You could make me cry if you don't know
- Can't remember what I was thinking of
- You might be spoiling me too much love
- Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Flowers on the hillside blooming crazy
- Crickets talking back and forth in rhyme
- Blue river running slow and lazy
- I could stay with you forever
- And never realize the time.
- Situations have ended sad
- Relationship have all been bad
- Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud
- But there's no way I can compare
- All those scenes to this affair
- Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm doing
- Staying far behind without you
- Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm saying
- Yer gonna make me give myself a good talking to.
- I'll look for you in old Honolulu
- San Francisco, Ashtabula
- Yer gonna have to leave me now I know
- But I'll see you in the sky above
- In the tall grass in the ones I love
- Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Meet me in the morning 56th and Wabasha
- Meet me in the morning 56th and Wabasha
- Honey we could be in Kansas
- By time the snow begins to thaw.
- They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
- They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
- But you wouldn't know it by me
- Every day's been darkness since you been gone.
- Little rooster crowing there must be something on his mind
- Little rooster crowing there must be something on his mind
- Well I feel just like that rooster
- Honey ya treat me so unkind.
- Well I struggled through barbed wire felt the hail fall from above
- Well I struggled through barbed wire felt the hail fall from above
- Well you know I even outran the hound dogs
- Honey you know I've earned your love.
- Look at the sun sinking like a ship
- Look at the sun sinking like a ship
- Ain't that just like my heart babe
- When you kissed my lips ?
- The festival was over and the boys were all planning for a fall
- The cabaret was quiet except for the drilling in the wall
- The curfew had been lifted and the gambling wheel shut down
- Anyone with any sense had already left town
- He was standing in the doorway looking like the Jack of Hearts.
- He moved across the mirrored room "Set it up for everyone" he said
- Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads
- Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin
- Then he moved into the corner face down like the Jack of Hearts.
- Backstage the girls were playing five card stud by the stairs
- Lily had two queens she was hoping for a third to match her pair
- Outside the streets were filling up, the window was open wide
- A gentle breeze was blowing, you could feel it from inside
- Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.
- Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine
- He made his usual entrance looking so dandy and so fine
- With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place
- He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste
- But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.
- Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town
- She slipped in through the side door looking like a queen without a crown
- She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear
- He was starring into space over at the Jack of Hearts.
- But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
- And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him
- Starring at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.
- Lily was a princess she was fair-skinned and precious as a child
- She did whatever she had to do she had that certain flash every time she smiled
- She'd come away from a broken home had lots of strange affairs
- With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere
- But she's never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.
- The hanging judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined
- The drilling in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind
- It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
- And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king
- No nothing ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts.
- Rosemary started drinking hard and seeing her reflection in the knife
- She was tired of the attention tired of playing the role of Big Jim's wife
- She had done a lot of bad things even once tried suicide
- Was looking to do just one good deed before she died
- She was gazing to the future riding on the Jack of Hearts.
- Lily took her dress off and buried it away
- Be careful not to touch the wall there's a brand new coat of paint
- I'm glad to see you're still alive you're looking like a saint"
- Down the hallway footsteps were coming for the Jack of Hearts.
- The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair
- He went to get the hanging judge but the hanging judge was drunk
- As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk
- There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.
- No one knew the circumstance, but they say it happened pretty quick
- The door to the dressing room burst open a cold revolver clicked
- And big Jim was standing there ya couldn't say surprised
- Rosemary right beside him steady in her eyes
- She was with big Jim but she was leaning to the Jack of Hearts.
- Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wall
- And cleaned out the bank safe it's said that they got off with quite a haul
- In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
- For one more member who had business back in town
- But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.
- The next day was hanging day the sky was overcast and black
- Big Jim lay covered up killed by a penknife in the back
- And Rosemary on the gallows she didn't even blink
- The hanging judge was sober he hadn't had a drink
- The only person on the scene missing was the Jack of Hearts.
- The cabaret was empty now a sign said. "Closed for repair"
- Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
- She was thinking about her father who she was rarely saw
- Thinking about Rosemary and thinking about the law
- But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts.
- If you see her say hello she might be in Tangier
- She left here last early spring is living there I hear
- Say for me that I'm all right though things get kind of slow
- She might think that I've forgotten her don't tell her it isn't so.
- We had a falling-out like lovers often will
- And to think of how she left that night it still brings me a chill
- And though our separation it pierced me to the heart
- She still lives inside of me we've never been apart.
- If you get close to her kiss her once for me
- I always have respected her for doing what she did and getting free
- Oh whatever makes her happy I won't stay in the way
- Though the bitter taste still lingers on from the night I tried to make her stay
- I see a lot of people as I make the rounds
- And I hear her name here and there as I go from town to town
- And I've never gotten used to it I've just learned to turn it off
- Either I'm too sensitive or else I'm getting soft.
- Sundown yellow moon I replay the past
- I know every scene by heart they all went by so fast
- If she's passing back this way I'm not that hard to find
- Tell her she can look me up if she's got the time.
- I was in another lifetime one of toil and blood
- When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
- I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form
- And if I pass this way again you can rest assured
- I'll always do my best for her on that I give my word
- In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm
- Not a word was spoke between us there was little risk involved
- Everything up to that point had been left unresolved
- Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm
- I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail
- Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail
- Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn
- Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there
- With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
- She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
- Now there's a wall between us something there's been lost
- I took too much for granted got my signals crossed
- Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn
- Well the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
- But nothing really matters much it's doom alone that counts
- And the one-eyed undertaker he blows a futile horn
- I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove
- And old men with broken teeth stranded without love
- Do I understand your question man is it hopeless and forlorn
- In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes
- I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose
- I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn
- Well I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line
- Beauty walks a razor's edge someday I'll make it mine
- If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born
- Buckets of rain
- Buckets of tears
- Got all them buckets coming out of my ears
- Buckets of moonbeams in my hand
- You got all the love honey baby
- I can stand.
- I been meek
- And hard like and oak
- I seen pretty people disappear like smoke
- Friends will arrive friends will disappear
- If you want me honey baby
- I'll be there.
- I like your smile
- And your fingertips
- I like the way that you move your lips
- I like the cool way you look at me
- Everything about you is bringing me
- Misery.
- Little red wagon
- Little red bike
- I ain't no monkey but I know what I like
- I like the way you love me strong and slow
- I'm taking you with me honey baby
- When I go.
- Life is sad
- Life is a bust
- All ya can do is do what you must
- You do what you must do and ya do it well
- I'll do it for you honey baby
- Can't you tell ?
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