The first No. 1 song Bob Dylan ever had was not as a performer but as a writer. Jim Dickson, manager of The Byrds, was given a demo of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and played it for the band. They were not immediately impressed by the song, but after some encouragement from Dickson, they worked up an arrangement. The band would go on to be forever linked to the song, but the journey from demo to the top of the charts took an improbable path. Let’s look at the story behind “Mr. Tambourine Man” by Bob Dylan via The Byrds.
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Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
Dylan on Songwriting
“It wasn’t a thing I wanted to do, ever. I wanted just a song to sing, and there came a certain point where I couldn’t sing anything,” Dylan said in a 1984 interview. “I had to write what I wanted to sing because, what I wanted to sing, nobody else was writing. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I mean, what I felt was going on, nobody was writing, you know? I couldn’t find that song someplace. If I could have, I probably would have never started writing.”
Though I know that evenings empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me. I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming
Mardi Gras
Dylan began writing the song as he traveled with friends across the country, including a stop in New Orleans during Mardi Gras in February 1964. Several weeks later, he recorded a version of the song at guitarist Eric Von Schmidt’s home in Sarasota, Florida.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
Dylan’s Demo
With the help of singer/songwriter Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dylan recorded a demo and gave it to Jim Dickson. The song contained imagery from the 1954 Federico Fellini film La Strada and inspiration from folk musician Bruce Langhorne, who had played guitar on several of Dylan’s recordings, including “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Producer Al Wilson asked Langhorne to play tambourine on a song, and the sight of him wielding the large instrument struck a chord with Dylan, who would use it as inspiration.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere. I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way. I promise to go under it
The Byrds
“The song is not a direct translation of anything else,” Chris Hillman, bassist for The Byrds, wrote in his book Time Between. “It is about precisely what it says it is about—an artist, at his wit’s end, looking for respite from his distress if only for a night and turning to a shadowy musical spirit to play him a song that he will follow.”
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
An Artistic Statement
Hillman recounted the moment after Dickson played the demo: “Noticing that we were less than enthused, Dickson shook his head and spun his chair around to fully face us. ‘You guys need to go for substance and depth,’ he said. ‘Make records you can be proud of—records that can hold up for all time. Are we making an artistic statement or just going for a quick buck?’ It was a fair question. Being the shy, non-singing bass player, I didn’t really have that much input. [Frontman Roger] McGuinn went to work on ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and rearranged it into a 4/4 groove.”
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly through the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone
It’s just escaping on the run
And but for the sky, there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing
An Unlikely Connection
The Byrds did not have a record deal. They recorded a demo of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and Dickson began passing it around to friends.
Hillman continued: “He started playing our demo for his various contacts in the industry, including Benny Shapiro, who owned a jazz nightclub on the Sunset Strip called The Renaissance. Jim and Benny were sitting in the living room listening when Benny’s preteen daughter, who’d heard it from her upstairs bedroom, bolted down the steps to find out who the band was. She loved it. Benny might not have gotten it, but an enthusiastic response from a young girl was the ultimate stamp of approval when it came to the value of a rock band in the mid-1960s. Benny was close friends with Miles Davis, who recorded for Columbia Records. He talked to Miles about our demo and how his daughter reacted. Miles, having never heard a single note of our music, was kind enough to put in a call to Columbia president Goddard Lieberson, asking him to consider signing The Byrds to his label. Whatever Miles Davis said obviously worked. Columbia offered us a singles deal.”
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
Just One Verse
The Byrds were worried about radio play, so they shortened the song and only sang one of the verses compared to the four on Dylan’s version. Many people attribute the version by The Byrds as inspiration for Dylan to “go electric.” But Bringing It All Back Home featured one side of electric music backed with an acoustic side. “Mr. Tambourine Man” was on the acoustic side, and that album was released before The Byrds’ version. Undoubtedly, it was encouraging to Dylan as he saw how his material could be adapted.
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 bench
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
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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