Mr._tambourine_man

For The Byrds\' album of the same name, see Mr. Tambourine Man (album).

"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, 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.The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02. As sung by Bob Dylan it is listed as #106 on the same list.The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.

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. A video 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.

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 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. Sounes, Howard, Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Doubleday 2001. ISBN 0-552-99929-6 p182

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 comprises four verses, while The Byrds\' version used only the second verse and was two-and-a-half minutes long.

On the List of Rolling Stone\'s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, The Byrds\' version of this song placed at number 79 and Dylan\'s version placed at number 106. 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.

Other covers and tributes

• Judy Collins covered the song on her Fifth Album (1965).
• Kenny Rankin covered the song on his Mind-Dusters album (1967).
• Melanie Safka covered the song on her 1969 album Born to Be (aka My First Album).

• Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson requested the song be played at his funeral while his ashes were shot out of a cannon and also dedicated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to Dylan because of the song.

• William Shatner covered the song in a spoken-word recitation by on his 1968 album, The Transformed Man.

• The song was translated and sung in Russian by Olga Arefieva as Mister Beliy Gribhttp://www.ark.ru/ins/albums/pisma/Mister_Belyj_Grib_Olga_Arefieva_Pisma_babochek_www.ark.ru.mp3.

• 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).

• Mr Tambourine Man is used in the closing credits of the Christmas Special episode of the British TV comedy series One Foot in the Grave called \'Starbound\'.

• 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.

• In Tom Wolfe\'s non-fiction novel The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Mr. Tambourine Man is mentioned numerous times about Dylan\'s "raunching and rheuming".

• 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.

• It was translated in Romanian by Florian Pittiş and sung by Pasărea Colibri on their 1995 album "În căutarea cuibului pierdut".

• A satirical cover with new lyrics about Robert Kilroy-Silk under the title "Mr Tangerine Man" was recorded by the British DogHorse. An animation of the song can be found here.

References

External links

• Lyrics and sound clips

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