Watch the video below Mr Tambourine Man when you consider Allen Ginsberg’s comments:
Dylan had become a column of air, so to speak, at certain moments, where his total physical and mental focus was this single breath coming out of his body. He had found a way in public to be almost like a shaman, with all of his intelligence and consciousness focused on his breath.
Mr Tambourine Man would be my first song selection to introduce someone unfamiliar with the music of Bob Dylan. What would yours be? I was daunted to write this article since Mr Tambourine Man is renowned as one of the greatest songs in contemporary music and arguably the greatest ever folk song. You only have to see Pete Seeger sitting there after having introduced Bob that he knew he was witnessing something transformational occurring in music. The song’s popularity led to Dylan recording it live many times, and it has been included in multiple compilation albums. It has been translated into other languages and has been used or referenced in television shows, films, and books.
[Verse 4]
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
[Chorus]
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle mornin’ I’ll come followin’ you
The song has been performed and recorded by many artists, including the Byrds, Judy Collins, Melanie, Odetta, and Stevie Wonder among others. My favourite cover is by the Byrds who popularised the song – comparable to what Peter, Paul and Mary did with Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind. The single by the Byrds was the “first folk-rock smash hit“. The single reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the first recording of a Dylan song to reach number 1 on any pop music chart.
Sophie Loves Sunsets wrote in the YT comments section of The Byrds cover:
The Byrds covering Mr Tambourine Man not only firmly put Dylan on the map as one the most prolific songwriters of the 20th century, but it also signified the birth of folk rock.
A lot of the following information is sourced from the Wikipedia reference below:
Dylan’s and the Byrds’ versions have appeared on various lists ranking the greatest songs of all time. Mr Tambourine Man was released as the first track of the acoustic side of his March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. It became famous for its surrealistic imagery, influenced by artists as diverse as French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. Mr. Tambourine Man was written and composed in early 1964, at the same approximate time as Chimes of Freedom, which Dylan recorded later that spring for his album Another Side of Bob Dylan.
Dylan began writing and composing Mr. Tambourine Man in February 1964, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a cross-country road trip with several friends, and completed it sometime between the middle of March and late April of that year after he had returned to New York. Nigel Williamson has suggested in The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan that the influence of Mardi Gras can be heard in the swirling and fanciful imagery of the song’s lyrics. Unusually, rather than beginning with the first verse, the song begins with an iteration of the chorus.
References:
1. Mr. Tambourine Man – Wikipedia
