Hump Day

It’s been a strange day around El Casa Móvil de Pennington. Maybe it’s the weather, or maybe it’s me — I dunno — but motivation has been seriously lacking around here. It’s times like these I’m glad I’m retired because I’d have a Helluva time getting anything done at work in this mood. The weather, while warm, has been very cloudy, windy, and feels humid. The “feel” outside reminds me of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, even thought the WX Channel assures me the humidity is only 16%. Sometimes you shouldn’t believe everything you see or hear, and today’s weather is certainly an example of that ol’ cliché in action.

So. Lazy day. I’ve just been reading and listening to RP, which has been particularly good today. “Good,” of course, being a seriously subjective evaluation. As far as “Song of the Day” goes, there’s been so many great songs to choose from already I may be a bit premature in choosing a song of the day so early. But, I will. You knew that was coming, didn’t ya?

Song of the Day

Song: Tangled Up In Blue
Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: Blood on the Tracks
Year: 1975
Source: Radio Paradise.

Makes Me Think of & etc.: My all-time favorite Dylan song from my all-time favorite Dylan album. The album came out a few months before I left Kingsley Field, OR (Klamath Falls) for Yokota AB in Tokyo. To say this album, and song, got a lot of airplay would be a gross understatement.

An example of the song’s impact on life as I knew it: I was a Staff Sergeant radar maintenance shift supervisor at Keno AFS when this album was released. Our shop had one of those ubiquitous federal green ledger books (about 15” high x 8” wide [closed]) we used as an informal shift log book. Shop SOP was to log your arrival and departure times, crew complement, “significant” events, general status and complete write-ups of any malfunctions that occurred on your shift…for posterity and for the information of management and the following crews. The Management had a very liberal policy about what could and could not be entered into the log; the ol’ Sarge in charge realized less control would get him more detail in that log. The log, as you might imagine, was pretty colorful. I worked nights primarily, and most evenings were pretty uneventful. Problems, thankfully, were few and far between – work was mostly routine inspections, shift checks, and periodic alignments. One weekend evening I wrote my entire shift report in the log in “Tangled Up In Blue” form, “blue” of course, being a metaphor for the Air Force. I can’t remember what I wrote, unfortunately, but it began something like this:

Friday night and Saturday swings
I’d rather be doing other things
The equipment’s tight
Ain’t nothing wrong
Been a boring shift
Way too long
Still I found enough to do
Can’t wait to get off
Tangled up in blue…

The ultimate “you hadda be there” thingie, I suppose…

Lyrics:

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at 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 standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.

She was married when we first met
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 up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best.
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
"We'll meet again someday on the avenue,"
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
Workin' for a while on a fishin' 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 workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer,
I just kept lookin' at the 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 somethin' 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
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type."
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 burnin' coal
Pourin' 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 cafes 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 keepin' on like a bird that flew,
Tangled up in blue.

So now I'm goin' back again,
I got to get to 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 know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.

Others considered: Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey, The Romantics - What I Like About You (the ultimate one-hit-wonder kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll song), and Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied (oooh, what sweet bottleneck guitar!).