Escrita por Bob Dylan, foi gravada em 19 de setembro de 1974 no A&R recording Studios, em New York City. Foi lançada em janeiro de 1975 no disco Blood on the tracks. É a segunda canção do disco. Fala sobre um relacionamento afetivo que é destinado à não funcionar. Como em Tangled up in blue, não é comum que comece a narrativa em terceira pessoa e depois mude pra primeira. A estrutura de acordes é semelhante à Can't take my eyes off you, sucesso na voz de Frankie Valli. Rolling Stone magazine disse que se trata da 15a. Melhor canção de Bob Dylan. Spectrum Culture colocou-a como uma das top 20 melhores canções de Bob Dylan dos anos 70s. Foi regravada por Joan Baez, Jery Garcia Band, Bryan Ferry e Diana Krall, entre outros artistas.
A letra:
… 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 alone by the old
canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a
strange hotel
With a neon burning 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 walking 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
Another 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
A versão de Bob Dylan:
A versão de Bryan Ferry:
A versão de Joan Baez: