By Tony Attwood
One of the great advantages that we have as a result of Mike Johnson’s astonishing work both on the Never Ending Tour and on Dylan the harmonica player (there’s an index to those articles at the end of the final article), is that we have available on this site a huge range of recordings, and it is but a matter of moments to find the earliest, “Tangled Up in Blue” live performance, and then the last.
But then when I decided to put these two recordings together I didn’t really know what I would find. Indeed I heard from the 1984 recording didn’t really surprise me too much…. Its a good bit of modern rock ‘n’ roll.
But it made me want to remind myself of how all this started, so I want to remind you of the original version – not least because for me, playing multiple versions of this song, I can lose track of where we are…. And it is still a very beautiful recording, and even before noteworthy because since the song was released in 1975, according to the official site, it has sine been played 1685 times in public by Bob and the band.
1975
In 1975 it was being performed as a solo song: Dylan with an acoustic guitar. He is in a lower key (one tone lower I think on just listening to these, rather than sitting down and playing along) but the speed has significantly changed.
1976
By 1976 we had an electric version, and this is not just a little bit of extra instrumentation – this is a new version with new implications: just listen to what happens at the end of the verse around 2’20”.
Now this is such a huge transformation from the original I am wondering what Bob was doing. Was this a case of finding a new meaning in the song that demanded a hard rock version, or was this more a case of “OK guys let’s try it as a belter.”
And is there a particular reason for the “One day the axe just fell” verse being slowed right down? Maybe the line about “The past was close behind” was on his mind. Or was it just a case of saying “Let’s play it as fast as possible and see what happens,” but feeling a break was needed somewhere?
In short, does the change of tempo signify or symbolise anything? Is it a piece of utterly inspired artistic insight? Or really just a case of “let’s see what happens if we do it this way.”
The constant change of tempo and style suggests the lady in question is just flitting from one lifestyle to another, and the singer is trailing behind her. Does the slow beat really suit, “Then he started into dealing with slaves And something inside of him died.”? Maybe; I’m not sure.
Indeed does the change of tempo then signify that no matter what she does, he is still tangled? I’m sorry I don’t have any answers, but just the suspicion that Bob said, “Let’s try this” and so they did. (He is after all the boss). And maybe he then decided, actually no, that’s just an effect for effect’s sake, which is the view I’ve got. But maybe not.
1984
Certainly in the next decade, the song became much more recognisable for those of us who have played the album over and over. The length is back down to five minutes, a little shorter than the original.
And that rather trivial thought about length then took me back to the origins, and I found that although I played the LP version just about an hour ago as I started to put this article together and listen to the various versions of Tangled that I have, going back to the original at this point really was a bit of a shock.
But it was time to move on to the latter stages of the 1,685 performances which finished in August 2018. First the penultimate year… which is the last recording we have of the song from Mike’s amazing collection of the Never Ending Tour series. This comes from the NET article, 2017 part 1. Songs on the rebound. And even though I read and indeed published the whole series, coming back to this, was still a bit of a shock…
2017
2018
But Bob did continue with the song and this recording does come from the final year. The 2017 approach is continued, but Bob has changed his vocal part further. Howver this was a far as he could go it seems, for in August 2018, “Tangled” was wrapped up for the last time.
But really what a journey. And if you still have a moment and the inclination, you might try this little experiment, having played this final live version just pop back to the top of the article and play the album version again. I can say I couldn’t possibly imagine where this song might go when I first heard it. But to be fair, I doubt that Bob had any inclination that he would still be performing the song live on stage 43 years later.
But if this is not enough for you, please do visit “Tangled up in Harmonicas, Part 2” where you will hear what Mike describes as “the greatest ever version” of this extraordinary and brilliant song.
And who am I to disagree?
Elsewhere in Bob’s Transformations…
- Things have changed – or is he just having a laugh?
- Dylan’s complete transformation of “All I really want to do”
- Once or Twice: The Transformation of “Blood in My Eyes”
- Lay Lady Lay: Three Bob Dylan transformations of his song & a look at the meanings.
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For an index of our latest series, and some of the older ones click here.