Mr. Tambourine Man

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For The Byrds' album of the same name, see Mr. Tambourine Man (album).
“Mr. Tambourine Man”
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Bringing It All Back Home
Genre Folk rock
Length 5:29
Label Columbia
Producer Tom Wilson

"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, produced by Tom Wilson. It was a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 by The Byrds, recorded on January 20, 1965, before the release of Dylan's own version. The single arrived in the shops on April 12, 1965, and was later included on their debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, released around the time the single topped the charts. The album brought the folk-rock sound into mainstream American consciousness.

The song as sung by The Byrds is #79 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[1] As sung by Bob Dylan it is listed as #106 on the same list.[2]It was one of three songs to place twice, with "Walk This Way" by both Aerosmith and Run-DMC with Perry and Tyler, and "Blue Suede Shoes" by both Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley.

Contents

[edit] Structure and lyrics

Two earlier recordings by Dylan of the song, one live at New York's Philharmonic Hall dating from October 31, 1964, and one recorded with Ramblin' Jack Elliott on backing vocals during sessions for Another Side of Bob Dylan (also 1964), have recently been given official releases; they are available on The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall (2004) and The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home (2005) respectively. Videos of this song with Bob Dylan singing and playing it at the Newport Folk Festival of 1964 can be seen on No Direction Home, a documentary film by Martin Scorsese, and Murray Lerner's The Other Side Of The Mirror.

Structurally, the song is notable for the fact that it begins with an iteration of the chorus, rather than following the conventional pop song structure, which typically employs a brief instrumental introduction that leads into the first verse.

The song (in its complete version) is widely recognized[who?] as one of Dylan's most evocative and poetic songs. There have been many theories about the meaning of the song.

Bruce Langhorne, the Greenwich Village folk guitarist, may well have been an inspiration for the song by way of the giant Turkish tambourine-like frame drum he was often known to play in the time leading up to the song's composition;[1][2] he also recorded using the instrument with Richard and Mimi Fariña. The electric guitar accompaniment on the album version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is among Langhorne's numerous credits on Bob Dylan's recordings. There are also other influences on the song. Dylan himself has cited Federico Fellini's movie La strada and the words "in the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you" are taken from a Lord Buckley recording.[3]

On the master recording Dylan is playing an acoustic guitar in dropped D tuning, capoed at the third fret. An electric guitar plays a counter melody to back up Dylan's vocals.

Dylan's master recording clocks at 5' 28" and consists of four verses, while The Byrds' version used only the second verse and was two-and-a-half minutes long.

[edit] Other covers and tributes

  • Former American Idol contestant Jason Castro covered this song on the show in 2008, flubbing some of the lyrics to the song.
  • The song was translated and sung in Russian by Olga Arefieva as Mister Beliy Grib[4].
  • Genki Sudo translated the song along with ACIDMAN and performed the song on his CD Single, Love and Everything, while keeping 'Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me' in English.
  • Müslüm Gürses has covered the song with different lyrics written in Turkish. The Turkish version of the song was called Hayat Berbat (Life is Awful).
  • They Might Be Giants wrote their rare song "Weep Day" after seeing this song's title overlapping the end of a line, inspiring the song about two characters named Mr. Tambo and Urine Man.
  • Many indie bands have also covered this song, notably the Cincinnati experimental group Nevada Smith. The Minneapolis band Cloud Cult has also covered the song.
  • It is one of several Dylan songs studied by the students in Dangerous Minds, where it is suggested that the title character is a drug dealer.
  • In Stephen King's book Carrie the song is mentioned amongst others as the Entretainment portion of the famous Prom Scene alongside 500 Miles, Cabaret and Lemon Tree

[edit] References

  1. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  2. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  3. ^ Sounes, Howard, Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Doubleday 2001. ISBN 0-552-99929-6 p182
  4. ^ http://www.ark.ru/ins/albums/pisma/Mister_Belyj_Grib_Olga_Arefieva_Pisma_babochek_www.ark.ru.mp3

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" by The Four Tops		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
(The Byrds version)
June 26, 1965 (1 week)		 Succeeded by
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones
Preceded by
"I'm Alive"
by The Hollies		 UK number one single
(The Byrds version)
22 July 1965 (two weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Help!" by The Beatles