1975 Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue

1975 Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue

Bob Dylan recorded almost exclusively for Columbia Records for most of his career. His recording contract with Columbia Records expired in 1973, and Bob signed with Asylum Records. He recorded one live album and one studio album for the new label, and toured in 1974 to promote the albums.

After the tour, he and his wife separated, and he returned to Columbia Records. During the second half of 1974 he recorded and re-recorded a new album Blood On The Tracks, which contained several songs that reflected the beginning, middle, and end of romantic relationships.

He released Tangled Up In Blue as a single from the album. The record reached #31 on the Hot 100, making it his most successful single for the period from mod-1973 to mid-1979.

Figuring out what a Dylan song is often a challenge. Bill Flanagan interviewed Bob in 1985 and asked him about the song and the album it was on. Bob reiterated that the song was not autobiographical, but was meant to reflect the past and present of a story at the same time:

“See, what I was trying to do had nothing to do with the characters or what was going on. I was trying to do something that I don’t know if I was prepared to do. I wanted to defy time, so that the story took place in the present and past at the same time. When you look at a painting, you can see any part of it or see all of it together. I wanted that song to be like a painting.”

In a 2004 memoir, he also admitted that he based the songs in Blood On The Tracks on some of Chekhov’s short stories. The album also contained another song that got a lot of airplay on non-top forty stations: Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack Of Hearts.