Album: Blood on the Tracks (1974)

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• They sat together in the park
  As the evening sky grew dark
  She looked at him and he felt a spark
  Tingle to his bones
  'Twas then he felt alone
  And wished that he'd gone straight
  And watched out for a simple twist of fate
  
  They walked along by the old canal
  A little confused, I remember well
  And stopped into a strange hotel
  With a neon burnin' bright
  He felt the heat of the night
  Hit him like a freight train
  Moving with a simple twist of fate
  
  A saxophone someplace far-off played
  As she was walkin' on by the arcade
  As the light bust through a beat-up shade
  Where he was waking up
  She dropped a coin into the cup
  Of a blind man at the gate
  And forgot about a simple twist of fate
  
  He woke up, the room was bare
  He didn't see her anywhere
  He told himself he didn't care
  Pushed the window open wide
  Felt an emptiness inside
  To which he just could not relate
  Brought on by a simple twist of fate
  
  He hears the ticking of the clocks
  And walks along with a parrot that talks
  Hunts her down by the waterfront docks
  Where the sailors all come in
  Maybe she'll pick him out again
  How long must he wait?
  One more time, for a simple twist of fate
  
  People tell me it's a sin
  To know and feel too much within
  I still believe she was my twin
  But I lost the ring
  She was born in spring
  But I was born too late
  Blame it on a simple twist of fate Writer/s: Bob Dylan
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 6

• Jojo The Monkey Boy from EarthHe goes to the docks hoping she will pick him out again. Hence they met at the docks when she picked him, hence she was a prostitute looking for sailors at the docks. And he was a sailor. After meeting, they hung out in a park before heading to a hotel to do business. By a twist of fate he met someone he gets feelings for. He felt a spark when she looked at him, and he hoped for a twist of fate, that she might leave her job and stay with him, however there was no spark on her end, as it was just business. The next morning when he woke, she had already moved on, walking the street and looking for more business. She forgot about him already. He told himself he didn’t care that she was gone, but was trying to deny his feelings, he really felt alone and empty. So he tries to find her again where they met by chance, hoping it will happen again but this time will be different and she will stay with him. He shouldn’t have such feelings for a prostitute, but he thinks they are soulmates. However she is much older than him. Maybe if he had been born years earlier when she was they could have gotten together, but he was born too late.
• TanjaIt is a song about time spent with a late mother... He must have not been seeing her so often... Probably once she didn't return... She was born in spring... But I was born too late...
• Danny from Bronx, NyJoan Baez has an interesting cover of this, in which she sings one verse (the one about waking up, and the room being bare) in an imitation of Dylan's voice. She also makes several changes to the song's lyrics: the saxophone plays somewhere nearby, rather than far off, the reference to the talking parrot is omitted (the line is replaced by "small waves whisper to the rocks"), "Maybe she'll pick him out again" becomes "Perhaps he'll see her once again", and the whole last verse is changed around. Instead of talking about a "sin", she talks about a "crime":
  "People tell me it's a crime/To feel to much at any one time/All it cost me was a dime/But the bells refuse to ring", and "He [rather than She] was born in spring". What do these changes mean? I haven't a clue.
  
• Valerie from Eureka, CaLol, I only visit this site once in a while but it cracks me up to read what people say they feel the meanings behind any of the songs on songfacts are. This one pretty much takes the cake so far. I thought I did too much thinking....lol, I haven't touched the surface of thought after reading this from the dude in Italy.
• Alex from Gillingham, United KingdomGreat song, great album. One of two vinyl records that I own, and the first one that I bought. The other is Fresh Cream.
• Alberto from Roma, ItalyThe woman is a prostitute ("he wished he'd gone straight"), he picks her up and takes her to a "strange hotel". Then the "twist of fate" happens: he and she "switch" their fates, their destinies: it's she who pays someone after leaving the hotel ("drops a coin.."; and the "blind man" represents HIM, who couldn't see what was happening inside him), it's she who may "pick him up again", while now he is spending his time at the waterfront dock: literally, he is a sailor now (the "parrot"), but actually he acts just like a prostitute does: he is the prostitute now, waiting to be picked up, waiting for sailors to come in. The song, therefore, is about a twist of fate, a "switching of lives", between the two persons: he "felt a spark" but didn't care to follow it ("he told himself he didn't care"), and now it's he who is desperate and needs love in order to survive, while she's gone away, therefore she is free. With the last verse, Dylan connects the story he just told with something real: he puts in relation the story, which is a "fiction", to something different, but deeply similar, that really happened (but we cannot say for sure that it is autobiographical; it may be, or it may be fiction too, on a different level of reading). This is my reading of this song. Ciao, Alberto (Italy)

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