In reply to Rob Exile Ward: Well, there's always Nick Alcock's version in The Owl & the Cragrat...
Tangled up in Blue
Early one morning the sun was shining,
I was laying in bed
Thinking of all the routes I’d done
Running them round in my head.
Memories of days together,
Some of them were rough
I never did like the long run outs,
The gear was never big enough.
And I was standing by the side of the rock
Rain falling on my shoes
Heading up for the big lead
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues getting through
Tangled up in blue.
The crags were dark when we first met
Soon to be lit by the sun
I started out with a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force.
We climbed that route as high as we could
Abandoned it out left
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned round to look at me
As I was climbing down
I heard her say over my shoulder,
“We’ll meet again some day it’s true,”
Tangled up in blue.
I had a trip to the American rocks
Climbing hard for a spell
But I never did push it very much
And one day my leader fell.
So I drifted back to the climbs at home
Where at least I knew the score
Climbing for a while down south
To the sound of the ocean’s roar.
But all the time I was alone,
The past was close behind,
I’d done a lot of routes
But she’d never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue.
She was climbing in an indoor place,
And I stopped in for a look,
I just kept looking at her style and grace
As deep inside I shook.
And later as the crowd thinned out,
I was about to start a climb
She was standing there on a belay
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
She studied the lines on my face,
I must admit I felt a little strange
When she took off my climbing shoe
Tangled up in blue.
She chalked up, and offered me the rope
“I thought you’d never say hello," she said
“I’d given up all hope”.
Then she opened up an old guidebook,
And handed it to me
Written by a Scottish man
From the last century.
And every one of those climbs I knew
And every move stood out
Pouring off of every page
Like they were written in my soul, from me to you
Tangled up in blue.
I lived with them in Llanberis
In a basement down the stairs,
There was climbing on the slate by day
And revolution in the air.
Then she started climbing alone
And something inside of me died.
I sold all the gear I owned
And froze up inside.
And finally when the fun ran out
I became withdrawn,
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on, keeping on the way I knew
Tangled up in blue.
So now I’m going back again,
I’ve got to get back to the climbs
All the routes I used to know
They’re an illusion to me now.
Some are steep
Some are steep and cold
Don’t know how it all got started,
I don’t know if they’ve changed the grades
But me, I’m still on the rock
Heading for another crag
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.
