Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man is a folk song by Bob Dylan , which he first released in January 1965 on his album Bringing It All Back Home . The song can be found on page 2 of the album with three other folk songs. Dylan had originally tried to record the piece for his previous album Another Side of Bob Dylan . A first demo version was released in the Bootleg Series , also on Columbia Records .
Shortly after Dylan's first release , The Byrds covered Mr. Tambourine Man and successfully blended folk music with rock music , pioneering folk rock . The Byrds landed a number one hit in the US and UK; her debut album named after the track, Mr. Tambourine Man, was also a great success.
Origin and structure
Formally speaking, Dylan's original composition is a folk song with a chorus and four stanzas. He wrote it in the spring of 1964; Chimes of Freedom is said to have been created at the same time . Dylan first attempted to record Mr. Tambourine Man on June 9, 1964 . The producer was Tom Wilson and Ramblin 'Jack Elliott was on the recording with Dylan. However, it was decided not to publish the song on Another Side of Bob Dylan .
Six months later, Dylan was working on his second album, Bringing It All Back Home , with which he stepped away from the folk music protest scene of the 1960s. On January 15, 1965, he recorded the acoustic pieces of the album in a session with producer Tom Wilson and guitarist Bruce Langhorne: Mr. Tambourine Man, Gates of Eden, It's all Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) and It's All Over Now , Baby Blue . It took Dylan six attempts for the first piece. The album was released on March 22, 1965.
The text
Generations of music critics, fans and musicians have dealt with the interpretation of the text. The creation fell at a time when Dylan allowed more and more surrealist elements to flow into his texts. The ambiguity of the text - probably deliberate - was celebrated by many.
The most common interpretation links Mr. Tambourine Man with the use of drugs such as LSD or marijuana . The sung about 'Tambourine Man' is asked to let his customers forget about today until tomorrow; there is talk of trips on magical ships and of "clouds of smoke of the mind".
Other interpretations turn the lyrical self into an artist who sings to his muse or who is looking for transcendence . Religious interpretations have also accumulated over the years.
For many, there is evidence that Dylan was inspired by Arthur Rimbaud and Federico Fellini's film La Strada when writing the text .
reception
The version of the Byrds landed at number 79 on the list of the 500 best songs of all time by the music magazine Rolling Stone in 2005.Dylan's Original made it at number 106. Along with Walk This Way and Blue Suede Shoes, Mr. Tambourine Man is one of only three tracks which made it into this list in two different versions.
Cover versions
Already on April 12, 1965, just three weeks after the original version was released, the Byrds, also with Columbia Records, released their cover version of the song; it was her debut single. By this time Bob Dylan had already established himself as a great songwriter and many performers were enjoying success by recording his pieces in the studio and / or playing at concerts. Even Melanie , The Turtles , Joan Baez , Johnny Cash and Peter, Paul and Mary were successful with Dylan compositions; later joined by Jimi Hendrix .
The Byrds' version was very different from Dylan's original. They played the song with electric amplification and only took over one of the four verses. They also played the song a little faster and thus brought more rhythm into the song.
The Austrian band STS also released a cover version in the Styrian dialect of their debut album Gegenlicht in 1981 with the title He, old song singer .
The British singer-songwriter Wesley Stace published the poetry Mr. Tangerine Man in the fall of 2016, alluding to Donald Trump and thus contributed to the music project 30 Days, 30 Songs .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs. Dave Eggers & Jordan Kurland. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .