Editing Tangled Up in Blue (section)

==Critical reception==
''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' regarded "Tangled Up in Blue" as Dylan's most powerful and most commercial single in a long time, saying that Dylan's voice and the "strong acoustic background" instrumentals were reminiscent of Dylan's early songs.<ref name=bb>{{cite news|title=Top Single Picks|newspaper=Billboard|access-date=2020-07-17|date=March 8, 1975|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1975/Billboard%201975-03-08.pdf|page=86|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719213636/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1975/Billboard%201975-03-08.pdf|archive-date=July 19, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>  ''[[Cash Box]]'' said that it is a "great tune...with lyrics pouring forth in profusion and with Bob's voice in excellent shape."<ref name=cb>{{cite news|title=CashBox Record Reviews|date=March 8, 1975|page=33|accessdate=2021-12-11|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1975/CB-1975-03-08.pdf|newspaper=Cash Box|archive-date=January 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131061641/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1975/CB-1975-03-08.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>  Jon Landau in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' praised Dylan's lyrics and delivery of the song, but was unimpressed by the accompanying musicians and the production of the album,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/blood-on-the-tracks-255430/ |title=Blood on the Tracks |last=Landau |first=Jon |date=13 March 1975 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=7 August 2020 |archive-date=December 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230122112/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/blood-on-the-tracks-255430/ |url-status=live }}</ref> while [[Jonathan Cott]], in the same issue of the magazine, called the track "brilliant and haunted." Cott likened the effect of the album's lyrics to those of the Italian 13th century poem referred to in the song, quoting from the song:<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-blood-on-the-tracks-55031/ |title=Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |date=13 March 1975 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=7 August 2020 |archive-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003184048/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-blood-on-the-tracks-55031/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{quote|And every one of them words rang true<br>And glowed like burnin’ coal<br>Pourin’ off of every page<br>Like it was written in my soul<br>From me to you<br>Tangled up in blue}}

Some commentators have taken the reference in "Tangled Up in Blue" to the "Italian poet/From the thirteenth century" as a reference to [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]].<ref name="Trager2004" /><ref name="SHADES2011">{{cite book|first=Clinton|last=Heylin|title=Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dd5EmZDdScoC&pg=PA485|date=1 April 2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-27241-9|page=485|access-date=October 9, 2020|archive-date=July 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729162733/https://books.google.com/books?id=dd5EmZDdScoC&pg=PA485|url-status=live}}</ref> Matthew Collins of Harvard, noting that Dylan may not have been precise with dates, argues that there are similarities between elements of the lyrics of "Tangled up in Blue" and the fifth [[canto]] of Dante's 14th Century'' [[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', but finds it unlikely that Dylan will ever confirm who the reference in the song is to.<ref name="COLLINS">{{cite journal |last1=Collins |first1=Matthew |date=2019 |title=Bob Dylan and that "Italian Poet from the Thirteenth Century" |url=https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/dea/dea_a2019v6/dea_a2019v6p11.pdf |journal=Dante e l'Arte |volume=6 |pages=11–24 |doi=10.5565/rev/dea.110 |access-date=9 October 2020 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Hampton, however, believes that the reference is more likely to [[Petrarch]].<ref name="Hampton2019" /> Both Collins and Hampton note that in a 1978 interview, in reference to "Tangled Up in Blue", Dylan was asked who the poet was and replied "[[Plutarch]]. Is that his name?"<ref name="COLLINS" /><ref name="Hampton2019" />

Don Stanley in ''[[The Vancouver Sun]]'' said that the song "succeeds on the strength of its metaphors."<ref>{{cite news |title=It's not the old Dylan on his new album|last=Stanley |first=Don |date=7 March 1975 |work=[[The Vancouver Sun]] |page=104}}</ref> An opposing view was expressed by Al Rudis, in ''[[The Pittsburgh Press]]'', who was unimpressed by the song's lyrics, calling the track "a long lurching song [but with] no build-up of cumulative power" and stating that it contains "seemingly meaningless images."<ref>{{cite news |title=It's not the old Dylan on new album|last=Rudis |first=Al |date=2 February 1975 |work=[[The Pittsburgh Press]] |page=111}}</ref> Neil McCormick remarked in 2003 that the song is "A truly extraordinary epic of the personal, an [[Unreliable narrator|unreliable narrative]] carved out of shifting memories like a five-and-a-half-minute musical [[Marcel Proust|Proust]]."<ref>{{cite book| title=The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan |first=Nigel |last=Williamson |isbn=1-84353-139-9 |publisher=Rough Guides |year=2004}}</ref> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' has described the song as "The most dazzling lyric ever written, an abstract narrative of relationships told in an amorphous blend of first and third person, rolling past, present and future together, spilling out in tripping cadences and audacious internal rhymes, ripe with sharply turned images and observations and filled with a painfully desperate longing."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bob-dylan/10450680/Bob-Dylan-30-greatest-songs.html?frame=2736174 |title=Bob Dylan: 30 greatest songs |work=The Daily Telegraph |last=McCormick |first=Neil |date=18 November 2013 |access-date=2013-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205070540/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bob-dylan/10450680/Bob-Dylan-30-greatest-songs.html?frame=2736174 |archive-date=February 5, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Jim Beviglia ranks "Tangled Up in Blue" 14th in his 2013 assessment of the 100 best Dylan songs, saying that "this masterful song doesn't skimp on the pain."<ref name="Beviglia2013">{{cite book|last=Beviglia|first=Jim|title=Counting Down Bob Dylan: His 100 Finest Songs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nRMeAAAAQBAJ|pages=160–161|date=11 July 2013|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|isbn=978-0-8108-8824-1|access-date=August 6, 2020|archive-date=October 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003184100/https://books.google.com/books?id=nRMeAAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> In a 2020 article for ''[[The Guardian]]'', [[Alexis Petridis]] ranked it the twelfth-greatest of Dylan's songs.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=9 April 2020 |title=Bob Dylan's 50 greatest songs – ranked! |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |url-status=live |access-date=10 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409235447/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked |archive-date=9 April 2020}}</ref> The track was ranked 3rd on ''Rolling Stone''{{'s}} 2016 ranking of the 100 greatest Dylan songs, with the staff describing it as "where emotional truths meet the everlasting comfort of the American folk song."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-65159/tangled-up-in-blue-1975-158227/ |title=100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=24 May 2016 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=6 August 2020 |archive-date=July 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708020330/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-65159/tangled-up-in-blue-1975-158227/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked it No. 68 on their 2011 list of the [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|500 Greatest Songs of All Time]],<ref name="RS500B">{{Cite magazine |title=500 Greatest Songs of All time: 68 – Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up in Blue" |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/bob-dylan-tangled-up-in-blue-51844/ |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=7 April 2011 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629153715/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/bob-dylan-tangled-up-in-blue-51844/ |archive-date=June 29, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> and re-ranked it at No. 67 in 2021.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/bob-dylan-tangled-up-in-blue-3-1225271/|title=Tangled Up in Blue ranked #67 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=September 15, 2021|access-date=18 September 2021}}</ref> A 2021 [[The Guardian|''Guardian'']] article included it on a list of "80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-05-22|title=Beyond Mr Tambourine Man: 80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/22/beyond-mr-tambourine-man-80-bob-dylan-songs-everyone-should-know|access-date=2021-05-22|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=May 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522100415/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/22/beyond-mr-tambourine-man-80-bob-dylan-songs-everyone-should-know|url-status=live}}</ref>