The Bob Dylan Lyric Inspired by a Buddy’s Exotic Drum

Getting Bob Dylan to pinpoint all the lyrical inspirations for his songs is an impossible dream. Dylan is too savvy to play that game, knowing the mysteries behind his words are a big part of his allure. It gives listeners a puzzle to solve while they enjoy the music.

In the few cases where we do have an explanation of the origins for his lyrics, it’s often surprising how simple the catalytic experience for a particular song happened to be. For example, “Mr. Tambourine Man” stands as one of Dylan’s most complex lyrical creations, but it was actually inspired by him seeing a fellow musician carrying around a massive drum.

Bob and Bruce (not that Bruce)

Bob Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home proved to be one of those landmark moments in his career where he pushed way ahead of the contemporaries who were still playing catch-up to his previous moves. The first side of the album includes several cacophonous blues rockers played by musicians on electric instruments, which sent shock waves through fans of his acoustic, folk-based material.

On the second side of the record, Dylan did include songs that dialed back the electricity. But, as if to prove he could still forge ahead even in that setting, those songs were rife with surreal, byzantine lyrics that seemed to rip a hole right through the somewhat staid world of pop music at that time.

“Mr. Tambourine Man” was one of those songs, although Dylan had actually written it separately from the rest of the songs included on the new album. He had even tried to record it for his previous album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. On the version found on Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan’s acoustic guitar, vocal, and harmonica is joined by the sprightly electric guitar playing of session man Bruce Langhorne.

Langhorne had played on previous Dylan sessions, and at one point was asked by producer Tom Wilson to play tambourine on a song. Langhorne came in with the biggest tambourine Dylan had ever seen. It stuck with Dylan, and it proved to be the seed from which “Mr. Tambourine” sprung. Although, Dylan being Dylan, it traveled to some wild places from there.

Exploring the Lyrics to “Mr. Tambourine Man”

While The Beatles were busy following Dylan’s lead in terms of his lyrical complexity, Dylan took a page from the Fab Four’s book on “Mr. Tambourine Man”: He puts the chorus up front. It establishes that he wants the titular character to play for him so that he can respond: In the jingle jangle mornin’ I’ll come followin’ you.

While we’d never pretend to know exactly what Dylan is on about, our feeling is that “Mr. Tambourine Man” is his extended metaphor for his creative process. This pied piper of sorts acts as a stand-in for the mysterious muse that fuels his writing. He often comes to the narrator when all defenses are down, as in the first verse, where he is lonely, tired, and bereft of inspiration: And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.

Once “Mr. Tambourine Man” takes over, the world turns much more surreal and memorable: Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship. Dylan gladly accepts the magic: 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.

In a bout of fascinating modesty, Dylan refuses to take credit for his artistic flights of fancy, calling himself a ragged clown simply following someone else’s lead. In the final verse, he suggests the tambourine man’s efforts are the key not just to his art, but to his happiness: Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow. The trance takes him away to a much more benign realm than cold reality: With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves / Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

“Mr. Tambourine Man” put a lot of money in Bob Dylan’s pockets when The Byrds delivered their own jingle jangle spin on it and turned it into a huge hit. But Dylan’s original version, full of dreamy wonder, deserves its own place in the musical pantheon. To think it might not have happened the same way had Bruce Langhorne come in that fateful day with a normal-sized tambourine.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns