Ballad of a Thin Man
Encyclopedia
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan
, released on the album Highway 61 Revisited
in 1965.
The "identity" of Mr. Jones has long been in dispute. When asked about it in an interview in 1965, Dylan responded:
Another theory is that the Jones in question was Jeffrey Owen Jones (later a film professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
). As an intern for Time Magazine, Jones had interviewed Dylan just a day before the musician's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
. Jeffrey Jones later wrote a piece for Rolling Stone, recalling how he wrote an assigned piece on the increasing popularity of harmonicas, while missing the controversy around Dylan going electric.
on Highway 61 Revisited
, with live versions released on Before the Flood
(1974), Bob Dylan at Budokan
(1979), Real Live
(1984), Hard to Handle (video, 1986), The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998) and on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
(2005). "Ballad of a Thin Man" has been extensively performed live throughout Dylan's career, up to this day.
The song featured in David Edgar's short play, Ball Boys, published in 1978.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, released on the album Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
in 1965.
Meaning
"Ballad of a Thin Man" comments on a conventional "Mr. Jones", who walks into a room of intentionally bizarre circus freaks and doesn't "know what's happening".The "identity" of Mr. Jones has long been in dispute. When asked about it in an interview in 1965, Dylan responded:
"He's a pinboy. He also wears suspenders. He's a real person. You know him, but not by that name... I saw him come into the room one night and he looked like a camel. He proceeded to put his eyes in his pocket. I asked this guy who he was and he said, "That's Mr. Jones." Then I asked this cat, "Doesn't he do anything but put his eyes in his pocket?" And he told me, "He puts his nose on the ground." It's all there, it's a true story."
Another theory is that the Jones in question was Jeffrey Owen Jones (later a film professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
). As an intern for Time Magazine, Jones had interviewed Dylan just a day before the musician's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
. Jeffrey Jones later wrote a piece for Rolling Stone, recalling how he wrote an assigned piece on the increasing popularity of harmonicas, while missing the controversy around Dylan going electric.
Releases
It was originally released in 19651965 in music
-Events:*January 4 – Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is sold to CBS for $13 million.*January 12 – Hullabaloo premieres on NBC. The first show included performances by The New Christy Minstrels, comedian Woody Allen, actress Joey Heatherton and a segment from London in which Brian Epstein...
on Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
, with live versions released on Before the Flood
Before the Flood
Side threeSide four-Personnel:* Bob Dylan – vocal, guitars, harmonica, piano* Robbie Robertson – electric guitar, backing vocal* Richard Manuel – vocal, piano, electric piano, organ, drums* Garth Hudson – Lowrey organ, clavinet, piano, synthesizer, saxophone...
(1974), Bob Dylan at Budokan
Bob Dylan at Budokan
Bob Dylan at Budokan is a live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1979 by Columbia Records. It was recorded during his 1978 world tour and is composed mostly of the artist's "greatest hits"...
(1979), Real Live
Real Live
Real Live is a live album documenting Bob Dylan's 1984 tour of Europe, released at the end of that same year by Columbia Records. Most of the concert was recorded at Wembley Stadium on 7 July, but "License to Kill" and "Tombstone Blues" come from St James' Park, Newcastle on 5 July, and "I and I"...
(1984), Hard to Handle (video, 1986), The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998) and on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack is the third most recent installment in the Bob Dylan "Bootleg Series" of rare and/or officially unissued recordings....
(2005). "Ballad of a Thin Man" has been extensively performed live throughout Dylan's career, up to this day.
The song featured in David Edgar's short play, Ball Boys, published in 1978.
Covers
- The Grass RootsThe Grass RootsThe Grass Roots is an American rock band that charted between 1966 and 1975 as the brainchild of songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri.In their career, The Grass Roots achieved two gold albums, one gold single and charted singles a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they...
: Where Were You When I Needed YouWhere Were You When I Needed YouWhere Were You When I Needed You was the first album released by The Grass Roots. Most of the album is performed by the duo of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, although some of the album features a San Francisco band, including lead singer Willie "Bill" Fulton...
(1966) - The SportsThe SportsThe Sports were a popular Australian rock group that performed and recorded between 1976 and 1981.Based in Melbourne, Victoria, the group released a number of successful singles and albums. Their sound fitted well with both 1970s British pub rock bands and British New Wave...
: The Sports Play Dylan & Donovan (1981) - Top Jimmy & The Rhythm PigsTop Jimmy & The Rhythm PigsTop Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs were a rock and rhythm and blues band that emerged out of the Los Angeles punk/roots music scene of the late 1970s and early-mid 1980s...
: Pigus Drunkus Maximus (1987) - Uncle GreenUncle GreenFormed in Basking Ridge, New Jersey in 1980, the band Uncle Green consisted of Matt Brown , Jeff Jensen , Bill Decker , Pete McDade , and Danny Giordano...
: Tribute to Bob Dylan, Volume 2 (1995) - Calamity JaneCalamity JaneMartha Jane Cannary Burke , better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans...
: Outlaw Blues, Volume 2 (1995) - Golden EarringGolden EarringGolden Earring are a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as the Golden Earrings . They had international chart success with the songs "Radar Love" in 1973, "Twilight Zone" in 1982, and "When the Lady Smiles" in 1984. In their home country, they had over 40 hits and made over 30 gold and...
: Love Sweat (1995) - Elliott SmithElliott SmithSteven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
played the song live on occasion, and bootlegs of his cover exist - The Grateful DeadGrateful DeadThe Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
: Postcards of the Hanging: Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan (2002) - Robyn HitchcockRobyn HitchcockRobyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
: Robyn Sings (2002) - Kula ShakerKula ShakerKula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by outspoken frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed great commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles...
: KollectedKollected - The Best ofKollected: Best of is a 2002 compilation album by Kula Shaker.-Track listing:# "Sound of Drums"# "Into the Deep"# "Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There"# "108 Battles "# "Start All Over"# "Hey Dude"# "Drop in the Sea"...
(2003) - Willard Grant ConspiracyWillard Grant ConspiracyWillard Grant Conspiracy is an alt-country band currently based near Palmdale, California, USA.Originally formed by Robert Fisher and Paul Austin in 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts, the band operates as a collective, with vocalist Fisher the only permanent member. Up to thirty other musicians...
: Let It roll (2006) - Jamie SaftJamie SaftJamie Saft is a keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound engineer and producer living in upstate NY. Saft was born in Flushing Queens, New York in 1971 and is a graduate of both Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music. He has performed and recorded with John Zorn,...
Trio with Mike PattonMike PattonMichael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
: Trouble: The Jamie Saft Trio Plays Bob Dylan (2006) - Enrique BunburyEnrique BunburyEnrique Ortiz de Landázuri Izardui , born August 11, 1967 is a Spanish rock singer-songwriter.Bunbury was born in Zaragoza, Spain. He got involved in music in the early 1980s, making his debut in a high school band called Apocalipsis, and later played along with Proceso Entrópico...
- Stephen MalkmusStephen MalkmusStephen Joseph Malkmus is an indie rock musician and icon, and a member of the band Pavement. He currently performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.-Early years:...
And The Million Dollar Bashers: I'm Not There Soundtrack (2007) - LaibachLaibachLaibach can refer to one of the following:* German name for Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia* Laibach , Slovenian industrial musical group** Laibach , the title of the debut album by the band with this name...
, cover CD released by USA Embassy in LjubljanaLjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
Projekt Bob Dylan: Postani prostovoljec (2011)