This page is part of Lonesome Sparrow's Web Site.
Usenet discussion of the words of the performance of
Tangled up in blue
at Sound 80 Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 30 December 1974 (CO 118935),
released on the album "Blood on the tracks"
(Other performances of this song are touched upon too.)
97:10:18 23:16 Biffyshrew
97:10:20 ??:?? Mr S Bywater
97:10:20 ??:?? Seth Kulick
97:10:21 21:01 michael
97:10:22 ??:?? Mr S Bywater
97:10:22 06:42 Full Name
97:10:23 00:16 John W. Leys
97:10:23 18:14 Biffyshrew
97:10:21 21:08 Lonesome Sparrow
97:10:21 21:18 Tom Barrett
97:10:30 01:04 Mark Deayton
97:11:02 20:39 Ben Taylor
97:11:02 20:44 Ben Taylor
97:10:24 11:49 Maureen Scobie
97:11:21 17:17 GilLamont
97:11:23 18:55 William G. Sacks
97:11:23 21:16 Tim Mallery
97:11:26 01:59 Charlie C.
97:11:27 22:12 johnkirkbride
97:11:30 16:55 Steve Lescure
From: biffyshrew@aol.com (Biffyshrew)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Words of "Stuck inside of Mobile..."
Date: 17 Oct 1997 23:16:27 GMT
Dean Woodbridge wrote:
>anyone have a copy of dylan's book "Lyrics" to look up the words and end
>this nonsense?
I don't believe that would end any nonsense: people would just insist
that the book is wrong, or that Dylan knowingly changed the lyrics
between the recording and the book. In the _Blonde On Blonde_
songbook, it's just "preacher," no tea, teen, team, TV or sea creature
(which is how I think I heard it the first time through). And it was
a very canny move on Dylan's part to omit that verse entirely from
the _Hard Rain_ version!
I don't claim to know, of course, but I'm inclined to believe that
we're talking about a random syllable that crept in through Dylan's
momentarily losing his place. We all know that Dylan does that all
the time; this wouldn't even be the only time he does it in this song.
BTW, "Tangled Up In Blue" is another good one for hearing Zimmy get
tongue-tied. There's the bit where it sounds like he's about to say
"at last," but changes his mind and says "finally" instead, and the
result is "when at--finally the bottom fell out..." And what *is* it
he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I happened to
be employed"?
Your pal,
Biffy the Elephant Shrew @}-`--}----
Visit me at http://members.aol.com/biffyshrew/biffy.html
"Reality: what a gyp."--Dogbert
Subject: Lyrics to TUIB
From: Mr S Bywater
Date: 1997/10/20
Message-ID:
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Biffy wrote:
>And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I
happened to
be employed"?
I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be employed"
....
Scott B
Melbourne
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB
From: skulick@muzungu.cis.upenn.edu (Seth Kulick)
Date: 1997/10/20
Message-ID: <62glb4$fh5$1@netnews.upenn.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
In article ,
Mr S Bywater wrote:
>Biffy wrote:
>
>>And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I
>happened to
>be employed"?
>
>
>I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be employed"
>....
I'm sure this is wrong, but I always liked "looking to be destroyed"
--
------------------------------------------------------------
Seth Kulick "There are no kings inside the
University of Pennsylvania gates of Eden" - Bob Dylan
skulick@linc.cis.upenn.edu http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~skulick/home.html
From: michael
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 16:01:51 -0500
Seth Kulick wrote:
> >Biffy wrote:
> >And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have
> >"where I happened to be employed"?
> >I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be
> >employed"....
> I'm sure this is wrong, but I always liked "looking to be destroyed"
I've always heard it as "Lucky not to be destroyed"
From: lvdm@xs4all.nl (Lonesome Sparrow)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 21:08:14 GMT
Biffy the Elephant Shrew wrote the other day in the thread on the
words of "Stuck inside of Mobile...":
>BTW, "Tangled Up In Blue" is another good one for hearing Zimmy get
>tongue-tied. There's the bit where it sounds like he's about to say
>"at last," but changes his mind and says "finally" instead, and the
>result is "when at--finally the bottom fell out..."
I think that instead of "And when at last" he was about to say "And
when it all came crashing down", for that is what he sings in the
earlier recording that is on "The bootleg series".
>And what *is* it
>he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I happened to
>be employed"?
I hear "where I lucky were to be employed". Do I hear right?
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
From: "Tom Barrett"
Subject: Re: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 21:18:47 GMT
I noticed at the August '97 New Jersey PNC Art Center Concert, Bob sang the
line ......…. Some are mathematicians, some are "teachers’" wives (instead
of truck drivers’ wives)……
From: Full Name
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 01:42:54 -0400
Mr S Bywater wrote:
> Biffy wrote:
>
> >And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I
> happened to
> be employed"?
>
> I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be employed"
> ....
>
> Scott B
> Melbourne
I have always heard "where I lucky was to be employed" which almost makes
sense.
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB etc
From: Mr S Bywater
Date: 1997/10/22
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
>
>>>And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I
>>happened to
>>be employed"?
>>
>>
>>I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be employed"
>....
Seth wrote:
>I'm sure this is wrong, but I always liked "looking to be destroyed"
she's 68 but she swears she's 24
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 17:16:42 -0700
From: "John W. Leys"
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB
Full Name wrote:
>
> Mr S Bywater wrote:
>
> > Biffy wrote:
> >
> > >And what *is* it he really sings where the official lyrics have "where I
> > happened to
> > be employed"?
> >
> > I always heard it (and sang it) "where I was lucky enough to be employed"
> > ....
> >
> > Scott B
> > Melbourne
>
> I have always heard "where I lucky was to be employed" which almost makes
> sense.
Yeah, that's how I always heard it too.
--
Alba Gu Brath!
John W. Leys, J.S.P.S., F.L.S.
__________________________________________________
| Visit |
| Unacknowledged Legislators |
|[http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8916/] |
| Home of |
| The Lord Byron HomePage |
|__________________________________________________|
"Don't ask me nothin' about nothin',
I just might tell you the truth."
-Bob Dylan, 1965
From: biffyshrew@aol.com (Biffyshrew)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Lyrics to TUIB
Date: 23 Oct 1997 18:14:39 GMT
John W. Leys wrote:
>Full Name wrote:
>
>> I have always heard "where I lucky was to be employed" which almost
>> makes sense.
>
>Yeah, that's how I always heard it too.
That's what it sounds like to me, too...but I still don't think it's what
Dylan *meant* to sing.
Your pal,
Biffy the Elephant Shrew @}-`--}----
Visit me at http://members.aol.com/biffyshrew/biffy.html
Go Indians!
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 11:49:27 +0000
From: Maureen Scobie
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Lonesome Sparrow wrote:
>
> I hear "where I lucky were to be employed". Do I hear right?
"Lucky just to be employed"?
Stephen
From: Mark Deayton
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 12:04:21 +1100
Tom Barrett wrote:
>
> I noticed at the August '97 New Jersey PNC Art Center Concert, Bob sang the
> line ......…. Some are mathematicians, some are "teachers’" wives (instead
> of truck drivers’ wives)……
The original version is "some are mathematicians, some are carpenters
wives". Which version does the truck driver come into it?
From: Ben Taylor
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 20:39:45 +0000
Mark Deayton writes:
>The original version is "some are mathematicians, some are carpenters
>wives". Which version does the truck driver come into it?
The "truck driver" appears to have been everpresent in recent years. I
don't know when it began but it's been there, I reckon, at least since
1993.
Ben Taylor
--
bptaylor@laguna.demon.co.uk
From: Ben Taylor
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Words of "Tangled up in blue"
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 20:44:13 +0000
Tom Barrett writes:
>I noticed at the August '97 New Jersey PNC Art Center Concert, Bob sang the
>line ....... Some are mathematicians, some are "teachers’" wives (instead
>of truck drivers’ wives)
On the tape of that show (15 Aug 97) I hear a very clearly enunciated,
"truck drivers' wives"... .
Ben
From: gillamont@aol.com (GilLamont)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
Date: 21 Nov 1997 17:17:37 GMT
Okay, okay, so this is old old news, but I've always heard the line previously
discussed as:
Where my luck it was to be employed.
Gil
From: wgsacks@artsci.wustl.edu (William G. Sacks)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
Date: 23 Nov 1997 18:55:32 GMT
GilLamont (gillamont@aol.com) wrote:
: Okay, okay, so this is old old news, but I've always heard the line previously
: discussed as:
: Where my luck it was to be employed.
Or is it, "Where I was lucky just to be employed"?
From: tmallery@catskillguide.com (Tim Mallery)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 21:16:31 GMT
wgsacks@artsci.wustl.edu (William G. Sacks) wrote:
>GilLamont (gillamont@aol.com) wrote:
>: Where my luck it was to be employed.
No way. The "was" is clearly before "lucky" in every version I have.
> Or is it, "Where I was lucky just to be employed"?
This is how I hear it...
From: ccrawford@dynasty.net (Charlie C.)
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:59:35 -0600
In article <19971121171700.MAA20349@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
gillamont@aol.com (GilLamont) wrote:
> Okay, okay, so this is old old news, but I've always heard the line previously
> discussed as:
>
> Where my luck it was to be employed.
>
> Gil
Gil, I just listened to Blood on the Tracks version and IMHO: Where I
w'lucky to be employed.
and the same on the Biograph 2 version.
He kind of skips from was to lucky like he changed what he wanted to say
in mid-sentence.
I checked the Woodstock '94 version and Bob skips this verse entirely even
though the song clocks in at 9:42 in length!
Charlie C.
--
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
"My Back Pages", 1964 B. Dylan
From: "johnkirkbride"
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 22:12:15 GMT
> >
> > Where my luck it was to be employed.
> Gil, I just listened to Blood on the Tracks version and IMHO: Where I
> w'lucky to be employed.
> and the same on the Biograph 2 version.
On The Bootleg Series volumes 1-3 this verse is different altogether and
that particular line is (I think)
Where he reckoned to try his luck
or perhaps
Where he was looking to try his luck
This was the origional version recorded for Blood on the Tracks before Bob
decided he was unhappy with a lot of the tracks on the album and rerecorded
them.
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 1997 11:55:48 EST
From: Steve Lescure
Subject: Re: Tangled Up in Blue lyric
On Thu, 27 Nov 1997 22:12:15 GMT johnkirkbride
writes:
>> >
>> > Where my luck it was to be employed.
>> Gil, I just listened to Blood on the Tracks version and IMHO: Where
>I
>> w'lucky to be employed.
>> and the same on the Biograph 2 version.
>
>On The Bootleg Series volumes 1-3 this verse is different altogether
>and
>that particular line is (I think)
>Where he reckoned to try his luck
>or perhaps
>Where he was looking to try his luck
>
>This was the origional version recorded for Blood on the Tracks before
>Bob
>decided he was unhappy with a lot of the tracks on the album and
>rerecorded
>them.
>
I have saved a post which has the lyrics of each version (or at least
most
of them)
http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/2667/index.html
click on Tangled Up in Blue
steve