Hip Hop Fan Reacts To Mr Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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How a young man of 23 could have felt this and written this I don’t know. It feels like the thoughts of a world weary old man who is tired of who he is. This is one of the greatest songs ever written.
That's the funny thing - Dylan himself seems to not know.
ruclips.net/user/shortsFh3pAJf-vdU He basically goes "I used to write these amazing lines, but I truly have no clue how I did it".
it's not that deep he was high and wrote some confusing shit anyone can do it
@@elias560 good luck!
@@TheCabIeThat's often the case with genius. McCartney says he woke up one morning with the melody of "Yesterday" already more or less complete in his head.
@elias560 it never confused me at all, since it first came out and I was 12.
The verse that begins with “To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free” is one of my favorite versus in music
At 73 I still stand and twirl with my hand up on that line, The mental pictures he paints on this song are incredible Like a great painting we all go somewhere different when hearing his lyrics,
@@dwhite849 same here, age 22!
True for me, too. ❤
It is just so full of emotion and color. And it paints so perfectly the picture of someone close to death trying to enjoy life one last time, while it is slowly slipping away from them.
@@fireflies775 huh…I’ve got to re-read those lyrics. Never thought it was about dying.
"But for the sky there are no fences facing" is the most beautiful way of saying "the sky's the limit" that I've ever heard.
I've enjoyed watching you become a Dylan fan so much! For those of us that have already felt and been moved by him, it's wonderful to see you illustrate why he is timeless!
The mental pictures he paints on this song are incredible Like a great painting we all go somewhere different when hearing his lyrics,
I agree - it's a prominent part of so many of his best songs, too - "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", "Visions of Johanna", "Desolation Row", "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"... lines like "The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" and "The wind howls like a hammer" get me every time.
Right on..Artist..
The BBC dj Lauren Laverne lost her mother earlier this year. Lauren posted a beautiful tribute to her on Instagram. She said that her mother had been a teenager in the 60s. Lauren asked her what it was like living through those times as a teenager? Her mother replied "you know that line in Mr Tambourine Man, 'to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free'? It was like that" What a fabulous thing to say. Dylan put that out there for that generation to find. We're still marvelling at his words today.
THAT'S the verse the always overwhelms me with awe, such DAZZLING imagery. And yes, my generation in the West was the most blessed in human history- unparalleled peace, and witness to revolutions in culture and science.
What I love most about your Dylan reactions is your appreciation of his poetry. Thank you for bringing me back to the magic I felt when I first heard him. His voice is mesmerizing….
To me Dylan is kind of like an actor with his voice.. they kinds of drawls he comes out with sometimes like in Visions of Johanna: "hee's suure goot a loot of gaall.. to bee so uuseless and aall.." - it's very evocative. :)
You dont get to win the Nobel Prize for Literarature without some understanding of the true power of words. Dylan has been a source of great joy to me since I was a teenager back in the 60s. Everybody in rock was influenced and inspired by him. And many outside rock too.
Always thought this was about the transporting and transformational power of music itself. That's the love I hear being expressed.
Yes!!
It's a great song because it can be interpreted many ways :)
It's about drugs. Particularly uppers
Let me forget about today until tomorrow. It's about escape. Someone who can't sleep and wants to be free from care and worry. If even only for a short while. My take, anyway.
Me too.
You are absolutely correct about Dylan being ahead of his time. He was an influence on so many artists of the time. Good job.
Dylan was and is one of a kind. Always original. Lyrics that others can only dream about. Somehow so poetic, yet by just the feel of his phrases one becomes spellbound.
The 1960s had a wondrous posse of singer-songwriters. Dylan, Beatles, Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, the Band, Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, and many more.
What a blessed time !!
Respect for going straight to the source for this one. And what a source. One of the all-time most beautiful melodies married to some of the all-time most beautiful lyrics.
In these reactions you really get Dylan , I love how you appreciate his lyrical mastery.
This might be the most poetic written song of all time. Brilliant reaction as usual. Hope you do a Dylan full album soon.
There's a clip of Dylan when he was young standing on a street, he looks around at everyday things and busts a rhyme on the spot. It's incredibly impressive!
Yeah that's one of my favorite clips ever :D
Can you guys link it?
His voice mesmerises me and gives me goosebumps from the first words he utters .I could weep with joy, and just Thank the Maker for giving us Bob Dylan, and that 60 years on from the start of his career, he still spreads such profound joy .....
So true!✌
He's singing about Woodie Guthrie, synonymed as mister tambourine man. He is admiring, worshiping and wanting his ability to express wisdom and life.
A wonderful song off of what is my favorite Dylan album (not always; very mood dependent). There are so many great tunes on this album: Gates of Eden and It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) being two of the most lyrically impressive songs I've ever encountered (and Pink Floyd is my favorite band!). Dylan is a True Poet!
I first heard a Dylan song in '70 when my dad played Johnny Cash's album called "Live at San Quentin." I knew his work by Cash, Elvis, Tom Petty, Kenny Rogers, and so many others. I didn't "get into" Dylan until last year. How did I miss this talent for so long? The man is/was brilliant and is STILL going strong - out on tour. God bless Bob.
In the liner notes to his Biograph box set, Dylan said, “‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ was inspired by Bruce Langhorne. Bruce was playing guitar with me on a bunch of the early records. He had this gigantic tambourine. It was like, really big. It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind. I don’t know if I’ve ever told him that.” The Byrds cover is a classic and very different from the Dylan version.
I like the Cupid idea better!
Verse 4 might be the most poetic thing I've ever heard in my life
Dylan said that this song was inspired by Bruce Langhorne, a folk musician who ended up playing on this one, because of the huge tambourine he played. Dylan said, "He had this gigantic tambourine. It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind."
You can see it at the Bob Dylan museum in Tulsa
Bob was also known for his blatant tall tale telling.
Check out the 1964 live version of this song at the Newport Folk Festival. It was just when Dylan was starting to become really big. You can see by the crowd that Folk was really big back then, and Dylan blew them away: ruclips.net/video/OeP4FFr88SQ/видео.html
Best song writer of all time! Brings me to tears
To right Mikhail 🏴🎸😄
Dylan is a well that never runs dry. Can't wait to see you get deeper in his catalogue.
My interpretation of Mr. Tambourine Man has always been that it's an insomniac's anthem or plea. Dylan clearly sets the song late at night (evening's empire has vanished into sand), perhaps the wee hours of the morning, yet he repeatedly sings that he's not sleepy or going anywhere. In this song I think the tambourine man is something like what some people call the Sandman, a mythical figure who will entrance you into a deep restful sleep. In the early verses Dylan sings that he's exhausted (branded on my feet) yet still not sleeping, and he invites the Tambourine Man to take him on a journey into dreams. This world of dreams is described in the last couple of verses. I once read that Dylan actually wrote Mr. Tambourine Man sitting at a piano late at night in the basement of Big Pink, the house in the Hudson Valley (Saugerties, NY) where he and The Band recorded the Basement Tapes. The Band also wrote their debut album in that house, and titled it Music from Big Pink.
Excellent analysis which fits his lyrics!
I think I read that he wrote this song while riding in a car with someone as they were traveling from New Orleans through Texas. But I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter. Great song.
Mr. Tambourine Man was released on Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home" album in 1965. The Band's album "Music From Big Pink" was released in 1968..
@@alecspeer Yeah, the story I read may have been apocryphal, or I may be thinking of another song. Dylan undoubtedly did some writing in Big Pink, as that's where he worked with The Band to record The Basement Tapes.
@@edprzydatek8398 You’re correct according to his biography.
I love your approach to all this stuff I've been watching you dissect.
I'm a 70 year old who grew up with all these these things and to see a young rap lover take all these old tunes apart is wonderful.
Dylan's early style in many ways could be interpreted as him being an early rapper in many ways.
Please take a look at the Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official HD Video)
71 here
Nice to see you. Wishing you good heath and a peaceful ❤
Great song! If you want some of his best lyrics listen to It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding). Pure poetry.
That one is utterly mind bending. Same album, arguably his best.
To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea....my absolute favorite lines of Dylan's. There have been many great covers of Mr. Tambourine Man, this song just reached out and drew us into its world, and two of my favorites are by Odetta and Abbey Lincoln.
So glad you're doing some Dylan. Im from Sweden and ive been completely in love with this man for 18 years now. This is my all time favourite.
You are so good at these breakdowns… hard to believe it’s your first listen because they’re so insightful, but then again they come across as very genuine.
Glad you appreciate Dylan. The deeper you go with him, the more you are rewarded. He’s that good and that prolific.
I've listened to this tune since it first was released. At every stage of my life, it has meant something different to me. Every interpretation of a Dylan song reflects where the interpreter is at, not where Dylan was/is at.
You should add some Joni Mitchell and Buffy Sainte-Marie to your reactions. Buffy has some great songs and does an amazing cover of Neil Young's song Helpless. Looking forward to more reactions with Dylan, The Byrds, The Band, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, CSN(Y).
I was 15 in 1965. (BTW, I love your passion!) I heard the Byrd's version first. I didn't hear Dylan's version till a few years later. It still brings me to tears with its beauty.
Ballad of a Thin Man, Positively 4th Street, Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat. And of course Masters of War
The live version of this song from 1966 at The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert is absolutely sublime. Visions of Johanna, as well. I suggest you all check it out. In this performance Dylan has never sounded better.
Agreed about that last verse. The first Dylan song that caught and hooked me for life is One More Cup of Coffee. Just stunning lyricism.
but most of the album was co-written by Jacques Levy.
Great song. I think a lot of Dylan's earlier, popular stuff can get a bit word soupy (something he himself admitted years later) but Tambourine Man is pretty coherent and excellent poetry. There's a video of him singing this in black and white to a crowd that looks like they just came out of the Victorian era and it must have blown their minds.
That’s the Newport folk festival and the crowd were hip to him, not a bunch of rednecks
The saying goes nobody sings Dylan like Dylan it's his phrasing and delivery and emotion is insane, plus the lyrics are like a film coming out of your speakers the imagery is so strong. People say Bob Dylan can't sing they are wrong you don't have to have a amazing voice to be a great singer for me he is one of the best singers in the world as well as the greatest lyricist. Young singer songwriters need to study Bob Dylan and they won't go wrong. Why ahead of this time he was the first punk first rapper he just got pissed with getting told you have to write a certain way he was not having that. Then he exploded with some of the most important lyrics you will ever hear, songwriting is the way it is today because of Bob Dylan he probably is the most important artist of all time who will still be studied in a thousand years to come, he is the greatest creator of songs ever.
Saw him live on the Rolling Thunder Review tour , he opened his part of the show with this song all alone on stage in silhouette. It was the most memorable opening I ever saw. Best concert I ever attended
used to sing this as a lullaby to my kids when they were babies (partly b/c its the only one I could remember all the words, but it also is a beautiful melody). Could never remember all the words to My Back Pages though. That's another masterpiece by Dylan that I don't see very many people react to, and if they do, they react to the live with all the amazing guitarists, which, I get it, but also they miss the lyrics that way b/c they are paying attention to the star power.
Bob Dylan "Simple Twist Of Fate" & "Knocking On Heaven's Door"...Nuff Said.
I feel like at 2:31 when you're talking about verse 1, 'Though I know that evening's empire has returned to sand' could be talking about The Sandman coming when you sleep. Great song, Love Bob Dylan
Interesting analysis, I’ve always assumed he was talking about the power of music to transport us, but I like the romantic angle as well.
Still my favourite. The combination of melody and poetry is just sublime and the last verse does it for me every time. Great reaction. The Byrds only do the one verse but it is a great piece of guitar rock which actually inspired Dylan and is in itself an iconic piece of the 60s. As you hinted at it was listening to Dylan that inspired the Beatles to expand their songwriting and it has to be said their music inspired Dylan to push on down the electric road. Great reaction as always
I saw Dylan and the Dead in '88 in Eugene, Oregon at Autzen Stadium.
It was a 5 hr show and Dylan played with them the whole time.
He kinda became the lead singer for them and I was amazed that his voice was great. He had a presence on stage. I didn't expect that along with his voice.
It was the happiest concert scene that I had even been at.
So glad I got to see them all.
As a side note, there was torrential rain, lakes in gravel parking lot with thousands of cars and people were allowed to sleep overnight in parking lot.
The next day, blue sky with a little cloud in sky and warm. Magical experience!
Wow that must of been quite an experience!
"To dance beneath the Diamond Sky"
"Transitive nightfall of diamonds"
"I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies"
:)
A song writer like no other !!!
to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waiving free. . . i have had that line stuck in my head all my life. i dont even like to dance. but i wish i could be that image.
My first ever Dylan favourite. The final verse is my favourite in music.
I've never really been a Dylan fan, but boy he could write a song. This shows in how good covers of his songs can be. There are the usual suspects, but a favorite of mine is Father of Night, Father of Day covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
Somebody said (?) that after Dylan, you could write a song about anything. He very much inspired early Rock music, with many artists covering his songs in the sixties as if they were already in the public consciousness, like folk songs in the real sense of the word.
PS. I appreciate your reactions...
This is one of my favorites. I think he's just talking about feeling listless and direction less. He's just asking for something, anything, different.
He is young,courageous, imaginative, fearless. He says what he thinks in HIS way. An example of being well read.
I agree that last verse is one of my favorite pieces of lyric ever.. I'd llike to recommend a song from the same album: "Its alright ma (I'm only bleeding" ho ho ho (as he says in the live version :D.. great sense of humor with this man as wel..) - but that's a really.. mind-blowing song. that's all i can say. And in a lyrical way, which i know you'll appreciate.
Thanks for another greta reaction!
Dylan is mesmerizing.
Mr. Tambourine Man, Visions of Johanna, and It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). These three songs alone, could and should have won any songwriter the Nobel Prize in literature.
No…there was no one like Dylan at that time. There were plenty of folk singers….those were the times for folk singers……but Dylan stood out as unique. He was an acquired taste: you had to get beyond the voice. But once you did, it opened up a cornucopia of amazing set-you-back-on-your-heels lyrics. No other lyricist has won a Nobel Prize for their lyrics (although perhaps some should have…Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell). Dylan captured the imagination of a generation….at least a good chunk of a generation.
Perhaps it’s the fact that you love and appreciate the bars of hip-hop that has made it possible for you to truly recognize the genius of Dylan. Not many your age do.
Have you attempted to introduce Dylan to your friends? Just curious
no one else has ever made this type of music, only Dylan.
No one made songs like this in 64. Live at Newport 1964 has a wonderful version of this song. More Dylan 🔥
"Bob Dylan - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" best Lyrics or "Bob Dylan - Pretty Saro" best dylan voice performance ever""
Your show is the only one of these review shows that I feel I learn something from.
I was born in 1961 and had older brothers and a sister and I remember it went from typical rock and roll like left overs from the 50s to the Beatles and the Stones and though Dylan had been recorded since 61 all of a sudden everyone including top bands were totally into him as we’d never had really serious reflective music that painted a narrative this way(so artists were descriptive. Chuck Berry ‘ Isaw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back. Started heading toward a coffee coloured Cadillac. I was pushing through the crowd trying to get to where she’s at. I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat. Nadine is that you?) Chuck painted an image but Dylan painted a masterpiece ( lol) with riddles.
Bob Dylan is the songwriter's songwriter and has always been in a league of his own.
Bob just wants to go to sleep. It's all in the lyrics, especially the chorus. Play me to sleep and I'll follow you in the morning.
You should check out Girl From the North Country, it’s a collaboration between Dylan and Johnny cash. It really displays a different version of bob as a vocalist. Very beautiful.. great content, keep it up!
I've always loved this, so simple and evocative and really catchy. Sometimes it just appears in my head out of the blue. And I really also like the birds version, and in fact I have a feeling that that cover of it was actually heard quite a bit more often or at least by more people than the original. Kind of like All Along the Watchtower although not quite to that degree.
When I was a kid in school we were introduced to the poets Dylan Thomas and T.S. Eliot. Something in the way they strung their verses together touched in in a way nothing but some music and visual arts do. It buckles my knees. I was mildly embarrassed by my reaction back then, but have since embraced it. I do not care what critics say. I only care if I have this reaction. "Mr. Tambourine Man" has such lyrics, as do many of Dylan's songs do (My all-time favorite: the final verses of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit.") I was immensely pleased with his Nobel Prize.
Check out his Academy-Award-winning "Things Have Changed."
People complain about his voice…but here he is singing a beautiful melody impeccably in tune - a melody btw that is not easy to sing, that requires range and depth and sophisticated phrasing - and he’s nailing all of it as both a composer and performer.
I’m glad you listened to his version first; The Byrds’ version was more radio-friendly at the time and is perfectly pleasant to listen to but it kind of reduces the song’s theme to pastoral psychedelia, like we’re all middle-class hippies wearing love beads on the beach tripping on the beautiful sunrise and the swirling smoke rings of our minds. Any sense of the pain and yearning behind the lyrics, fervently praying to the tambourine god for guidance after a long dark night of the soul, is completely missing.
Which reminds me also: anyone saying that Dylan didn’t deserve the Nobel Prize needs to recite these lyrics out loud. You can put these up against anyone: Blake, Keats, Donne.
I don’t know if you’ve listened to A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall but I strongly recommend your listening to it as your next Dylan project. He wrote it during the Cuban Missile Crisis and it encapsulates his thoughts on the impending apocalypse in a shattering mosaic of images. You need to listen to its original version from the ironically titled album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”
This is a great channel, btw; thank you.
The 4th verse still lays me flat… I love how the trees are “frightened”, not frightening. Like I commented on another video of yours, there’s a reason he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. “Let me forget about today until tomorrow”.
The Nobel Prize committee announced on October 13, 2016, that it would be awarding Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition". The award was not without controversy, and The New York Times reported: "Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901."
The Byrds cover of this song is historic and is much more familiar to listeners in the 60's than Dylan's original. Possibly the first time a Dylan song was arranged with a big electric guitar sound, and Roger McGuinn's 12 string electric was the instrumental star and their harmonies including voices like David Crosby's, were just gorgeous. Their first hit, and it marked the moment that music critics announced the arrival of a new genre, folk rock. I haven't read enough, but I'd guess that it was a part of Dylan's own inspiration to plug-in at Newport - to hear his own music played in an exciting rock form and not only by other minstrels with an acoustic guitar. Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower" came a few years later and took interpretations of Dylan songs to another galaxy.
Thanks for another very interesting reaction Syed!
I don't know why this song moves me to tears.
So glad you gave this early Dylan masterpiece a spin! It's probably my favourite Dylan song too. Maybe W B Yeats would be a close analogy, as poetry. You can probably see why he (Dylan) won the the Nobel Prize for Literature, a first for a songwriter.
I don't see any love story here - at least, not in the romantic sense.
There are a number of theories about its meaning, but mine is that Mr Tambourine Man is Dylan's Muse, in the original classical sense of an invisible being that whispers inspiration into your mind, for you to turn into art, poetry or music. You could just call it the human imagination - the ability to create, to conjure incredible images out of nothing. The Magus/Magician's art.
He's said that back then, in his younger days, he'd sit down at his (old school, manual) typewriter and the lyrics would just pour out of him, and that he had no idea where they came from. Many other true creative artists/writers have said something similar. It's just you have to wait for this Muse to arrive/come in before you can write anything halfway decent..
I think here, he's had a late night/early morning, comes home dead tired but still wired/ not able to settle or ready for bed...He sits down at the typewriter... and says: Hey Muse, I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to... Thus he summons his genius ...And so, one by one these images unfold in his mind as he follows his Muse wherever it leads - into extraordinary, beautiful pictures, down the foggy ruins of time into deep memory and the subconscious, into revelation, into an almost spiritual inner freedom/ unity with the Universe
"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one arm waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea.."
In this state of 'flow' time appears to stand still and one is in a sort of blissful limbo:
"With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today, until tomorrow."
You think of a sunset. I think this song takes a totally different frame if you think of it more as a man who is leaving a party, disappointed, sobering up, seeking excitement. "mr. tambourine man" is a drug dealer, or another party, or any means to get that fix of excitement our singer is needing, as the night is ending. They want a ride on that "magic swirling ship" and their "ancient empty street too dead for dreaming" means they can't just go to bed and have a dream to get this, they need to find it in reality. And it's not just one night, but a whole life, it's like the poem by Frost, "The Road Less Taken" where he says two paths diverged in a yellow wood. Where the yellow wood represents Autumn, and thus it represents two paths diverging 3/4ths of the way through a lifetime. "evening" and "weariness" and all that in this song represent, to me, Dylan expressing his experience in life, his maturity, his knowledge, and is saying that this seeking of Mr. Tambourine Man is not the horrible thing the authority figures of the 60s were telling everyone it was, but were reasonable and acceptable facets of human nature.
The Beatles me Dylan in 65 and started writing more introspective, personal, etc. songs. I think John Lennon first song after meeting Dylan was a great one called, "You've got to hide your love away" then they put out Rubber Soul album with quite a few of the more thoughtful songs, followed by "Revolver" which was full-on revolutionary in many ways. But they loved them some Dylan--who didn't?
This was a genius level song that came seemingly from nowhere, because it was utterly unlike anything that had preceded it in popular music. And it's very beautiful both in its lyrical images and in its melody. Bob's steady girlfriend in the early 60's, Suze Rotolo (the first name is pronounced the same as "Susie") said about the song that she and Bob had had an argument, and he went out for a long walk on the night streets in Greenwich Village, and that the song lyrics had come to him during that walk when he was trying to find inner peace after their argument. That may be. Bob himself has said that the "Tambourine Man" was inspired by Bruce Langhorn, a session musician who had done quite a bit of recording work with Bob. He said that on one occasion Bruce Langhorn was joyfully playing "the biggest tambourine I had ever seen", and that became the image in the chorus. I think the song is about the absolute joy and sense of freedom that sometimes comes when you're playing music and it's all somehow hitting the perfect flow. That sometimes happens and its a wonderful feeling. You want it to last forever. At any rate, it was an extraordinary song and it became hugely popular and covered by many other musicians. This was the first song I learned to play guitar and harmonica to, and I must have played it hundreds of times over the last 5 decades.
By the way, Suze is the girl seen walking arm in arm with Bob on the cover of his 2nd album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". They were very close in those days. Suze was a very bright and gifted young woman who had a big effect on Bob in his early years in New York. She wrote a book about those times shortly before she passed away in 2011, and it's a great read. It's called "A Freewheelin' Time". Here's some info about that:
Susan Elizabeth Rotolo, known as Suze Rotolo, was an American artist, and the girlfriend of Bob Dylan from 1961 to 1964. Dylan later acknowledged her strong influence on his music and art during that period. Rotolo is the woman walking with him on the cover of his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, a photograph by the Columbia Records studio photographer Don Hunstein. In her book A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, Rotolo described her time with Dylan and other figures in the folk music and bohemian scene in Greenwich Village, New York. She discussed her upbringing as a "red diaper" baby; a child of Communist Party USA members during the McCarthy Era. As an artist, she specialized in artists' books and taught at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.
@SyedRewinds All of your Dylan reactions are great! I would really like to see you react to the studio versions of the following Dylan tracks: "Masters of War," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Jokerman," "One More Cup of Coffee," "A Hard Rains a-gonna Fall," "Most of the Time," "Ring Them Bells," "Every Grain of Sand," "Oh, Sister," "Workingman Blues #2," "Chimes of Freedom," "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest," "Not Dark Yet," and "Shelter from the Storm." There are hundreds of other great songs and outtakes, but those should keep you busy for a while :). Keep up the great work!!
For the me the song was of someone chasing oblivion, looking for his drug contact or anyone who can offer relief from his life and internal conflicts. I hear it as a very melancholy song of someone who's reached the end of their ability to cope.
Don't try to figure out what the song literally means or even symbolically--just let these kinds of Dylan songs move through you like a wave or something---you will nod your head and recognize the incomparable brilliance of his lyrics and might think you know what it is about, but don't linger on that too much.
He did win the Nobel Prize for literature.
You can always know a Dylan song just by the writing without the voice
Tambourine man is a drug dealer, dylan is still not tired and the diamond part is litteraly describing lsd trip. Love your reactions! :)
Finally
"Take me on a Trip upon your magic swirling ship , My senses have been stripped"
It may have been suggested before but I think you would also appreciate Leonard Cohen's work. I am new to your channel and dig what you're doing. From Lenny's work Suzanne, Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye and The Butcher would be a good place to start.
Although I was not one of the fans who was enraged at Dylan when he went electric, do you begin to understand why so many felt betrayed? Electric meant commercial…pop and rock…a whole different genre. Dylan was held apart…put up a pedestal by so many ax the troubadour of a generation ….as somehow ABOVE all that commercialism which “defiled” by its touch. So Dylan going electric was like a loss of the special status he held in the minds of fans who wanted to keep him a “pure poet”. Dylan didn’t ask for that status…he didn’t want it, and that’s why he didn’t think twice about ditching it. It took a fair amount of guts to get up and perform when people are booing you snd calling you a sell-out. But he knew what he wanted, and being confined by other people’s expectations was not it
Listen to it again, Think of somebody waiting all night for a drug dealer. Hey Mr. tambourine Man play a song for me I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.(dealer shows up) in the jingle jangle morning I’ll come fall on you” Back then you couldn’t write songs about drugs so you had to tell a story in a different way. Think about it.
Changing of the Guards. I recommend that Dylan song next.
You should react to Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez, a song She Wrote about her relationship with Bob Dylan. She was influential in getting Bob Dylan's career started she already had a huge following before they met!
You really must listen to "Hurricane" to hear Dylan speak out about racism in the United States at the time. It's a song about Ruben "Hurricane" Carter who was a contender for the middleweight champion of the world who was arrested and sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. Dylan read a book that Carter wrote in prison and befriended him. He spent some time in the prison talking to him and came away impressed. His song was not well received by the establishment at the time. I remember people saying Carter was not a nice guy and probably killed these people, but eventually he was cleared of all charges after spending 19 years in prison. Dylan rips into the racism of the time and it's one of his best songs. He doesn't pull any punches. Make sure you have the lyrics pulled up because it's sometimes hard to understand each word that Dylan delivers machine-gun style the first time you hear it.
I’d encourage you to listen to his mid-90’s album Time Out of Mind. It’s a whole vibe and just phenomenal lyrically and musically. And dark. Interesting note: he almost died of an infection in the pericardium, the sac around the heart, after it was wrapped. So while he was writing and recording the deep soul blues and disillusionment he was working through musically that was inside of him breeding…..
Just an observation: This is one of the few early Dylan songs with an actual chorus.
I actually don't try to interpret Dylan's songs, except in terms of what the language and melody evokes in terms of mental imagery and emotion.
Another couple of great songs that were often covered are "Hard Rain" and "Baby Blue". Definitely worth looking into.
Love your reaction !
I thhought its about the long sleep , i want this at my funeral
The Lyrics can have so many different meanings to so many different people. The need to be guided or lead to someone, something or somewhere that makes us feel the comfort ,that we don't have at the moment. We all feel this need at sometime in life. I get a calm feeling every time i hear this song
Back in "the day" people used to say, that Mr. Tambourine man was a dealer. Play a song for me, was Dylan asking to buy a bag of dope. it's something I imagine a couple of stoned teenagers thought of. But playing with different interpretations is fun, and its the one thing we know for sure Dylan wants the listener to do. Dylan was interactive before that was a thing. Ahead of his time, again.
Although Way Later In His Career,, This Track Is Still Sooo Dylan & Is Well Worth Your Ears,, Eyes & Time,, Bob Dylan "Things Have Changed"
(Official Music Video A MUST!!)
Dylan's poetry is evocative. He wants you to relate your own experiences.
He said,and I'm paraphrasing, " .. I'm an acquired taste..... My voice is Tonal breath control"
Polyphonic. Great Chanel. Covers this song. Great reaction
When the great American beat poet, Alan Ginsberg, heard this he said, with a tear in his eye, that he knew that the torch had been passed to the next generation.
Many years ago, we discussed this song in a college class. So many diffferent interpretations were shared, but one stuck in my mind. I’ve also read this interpretation that others have given. This is about mortality , a dying person who is reminiscing on life . The Tambourine Man is the Angel of death.
I think it’s about starting a new beginning. He’s tired, weary, no place he’s going to, etc. I don’t know what he means by a tambourine man but I always took that part as a hippie or whatever.