Dylan Song by Song: "Simple Twist of Fate" Quiz

Answer: tracks

The album was released in 1975. The only single released from the album was "Tangled Up In Blue" with "If You See Her, Say Hello" on the B-side. "Blood on the Tracks" peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top 200.

Answer: A one-night stand

"Blood on the Tracks" has been called "the divorce album" by many music critics, but this particular song is not about a broken marriage. "Simple Twist of Fate" may be detailing a one-night stand or something even more casual - an exchange for money. Some critics, including Tony Atwood on the "Untold Dylan" blog, have suggested the woman in the song is "a prostitute working the docks."

Either way, the couple in the song has a one-night physical encounter at a "strange hotel," and when the man awakens in the morning, the woman is gone. She's already forgotten about the "simple twist of fate," but it seems to have had a strong impact on him.

Answer: bones

The song continues:

"'Twas then he felt alone
And wished that he'd gone straight
And watched out for a simple twist of fate."

Rolling Stone magazine ranked this song number 15 on its list of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs of All Time." American Songwriter rated it number 17 on its list of the "30 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs." Tony Atwood called it "an incredibly complex revelation contained in six musically identical verses . . . a true masterpiece of songwriting."

Answer: The old canal

"They walked along by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel
With a neon burnin' bright."

Whether the man is with a prostitute or a less mercenary temporary lover, he brings her to a sleazy hotel.

Bootleg Series Volume 14, "More Blood, More Tracks," contains the complete session recordings for "Simple Twist of Fate."

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the song was originally subtitled "4th Street Affair," and Dylan lived with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo on 4th street after arriving in New York.

Answer: Simile

A simile is a comparison using like or as while a metaphor is a more direct comparison. Here, Dylan is comparing the heat of the night to a freight train, which, he continues, is "moving with a simple twist of fate."

"Simple Twist of Fate" has been covered by Judy Collins, King Candy, Bryan Ferry, the Clarksdale Bros., Dave's True Story, and Megajam 5, among many others.

Answer: A saxophone

"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."

The woman slips out of the hotel after the one-night encounter and walks on, leaving him alone and feeling her loss. The song "A Simple Twist of Fate" is itself a twist on gender stereotypes, in which men are usually depicted as being more casual about sex. Here, it is the woman who quickly moves on:

"She dropped a coin into the cup
Of a blind man at the gate
And forgot about a simple twist of fate."

Answer: care

The man tries to suppress his feelings for the woman, who has casually moved on after the one-night encounter, but it's not possible for him to do so. Even while he tries to tell himself he doesn't care she left, he feels "an emptiness inside" brought on by this "simple twist of fate."

"The man cannot relate to these feelings," Tony Atwood writes. "He is truly lost."

Answer: A parrot that talks

"American Songwriter" notes that in his autobiography "Chronicles Volume 1," Bob Dylan hints that he based some of his songs on the short stories of Anton Checkhov. Checkhov's "The Shooting Party" involves a talking parrot, so perhaps he drew that tidbit from the story for his song, but other than that, and a theme of re-evaluating relationships, the story and song don't seem to share much in common.

In Dylan's song, the man can't get past his one night experience and hopes to find the woman and experience her companionship again:

"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."

Even though they had a brief, single-night encounter, the narrator feels this woman was his soul mate whom he let slip through his fingers:

"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."

Answer: Budokan

An electrified version of the song was performed at Budokan and appears on the 1979 album "Live at Budokan." The box set of "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings", released in 2019, includes Bob Dylan's live concert performance during that tour as well as a rendition played on October 28, 1975 in a mahjong parlor.

Answer: "The Concert in Central Park" by Simon and Garfunkel

The Jerry Garcia Band also covered the song on its 2-disc live album from 1991. Concrete Blonde recorded a version on their 1994 album "Still in Hollywood." Covers have appeared on several Dylan tribute albums, including Bryan Ferry's 2007 album "Dylanesque." Diana Krall performed a version for "Chimes of Freedom," which raised money for Amnesty International. Emma Swift also covered the song for her 2020 album "Blonde on the Tracks," which parodies the title of Dylan's album.