Ballad of a Thin Man

"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, released on the album Highway 61 Revisited in 1965.

Meaning

A dark and menacing song, "Ballad of a Thin Man" comments on a conventional "Mr. Jones", who walks into a room of intentionally bizarre counter-cultural types and doesn't "know what's happening". He is as clueless as Nick Charles, the lead character in the famous 1934 film The Thin Man, might have been if he had met Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. ^[1]

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."^[2]

The opening lines of the song, "You walk into the room, with your pencil in your hand," appear to lend credence to the notion that "Mr. Jones" may have been a journalist. In a mid-1980s interview with Q magazine, Dylan appeared to identify Mr. Jones as Max Jones, a former Melody Maker critic, supporting the theory that "Mr. Jones" was simply one of the many music critics who didn't "get" Dylan's songs, especially the more allegorical ones he wrote in the mid-1960s.^{[citation needed]} 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 legendary performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.^[3]

In Todd Haynes' 2007 surrealist Dylan biopic I'm Not There, actor Bruce Greenwood plays "Keenan Jones", a journalist who doesn't understand the meaning behind the Dylan-esque character Jude Quinn's songwriting. In the film, Jones is sent through a hallucinatory nightmare sequence while Stephen Malkmus' cover of "Ballad of a Thin Man" plays in the background. Greenwood also plays Pat Garrett in the Richard Gere segment of the film.

It has also been speculated^{[citation needed]} that the song is about Brian Jones, co-founder and guitarist of The Rolling Stones. Dylan was a friend of Jones and watched his lengthy downfall.

Apart from all of these possible Dylan-specific references, the term "Mr. Jones" is in general broadly understood as an allusion to the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" – a reference to the prototypical materialistic American family, so at odds with the outlook on life espoused by Dylan and the counterculture of the 1960s.

Another possible interpretation of the song is that it is about a man coming to grips with his own homosexuality.^[4] Several lyrics appear to reference phallic symbols ("He hands you a bone", "With your pencil in your hand", "A one-eyed midget", "Sword Swallower", "He hands you back your throat") and there are possible allusions to fellatio ("Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you / And then he kneels", "Here's your throat back, thanks for the loan" "Give me some milk or else go home") and transvestism ("He clicks his high heels") as well. In this interpretation of the song, some of the lyrics ("How does it feel to be such a freak"; "There ought to be a law / Against you comin' around") could allude to society's intolerance of homosexuality.

Releases

It was originally released in 1965 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.

References by other artists

Songs by other artists that allude to "Ballad of a Thin Man" include "Yer Blues" from The Beatles' White Album ("I feel so suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones...")^[5] and "Who Is Mr. Jones?" by Momus^[6] (which succinctly argues that "Mr. Jones is a man who doesn't know who Mr. Jones is") from his album Little Red Songbook. English rock band The Jam reference the song with the line "Mr Jones got run down" on their song Down In A Tube Station At Midnight.Some believe that the Mr. Jones referred to in the Counting Crows' song "Mr. Jones" is a thinly veiled reference to the protagonist of "Ballad of a Thin Man" -- a theory supported by the lyric "I wanna be Bob Dylan, Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky." Additionally, the Cold War Kids track "We Used to Vacation" includes the lyric "just give a cheque to tax-deductible charity organizations". "Mr. Jones", a song by Talking Heads on their 1988 album Naked, similarly describes a Mr. Jones in the third person, who may be derived from Dylan's character. ("He is not so square" is a lyric in that song.) Country Joe and the Fish included the line "Mr. Jones won't lend me a hand", in their song "Flying High".

Covers

• The Sports: The Sports Play Dylan & Donovan (1981)
• Thee Fourgiven: Voilà (1986)
• Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Picks: Pigus Drunkus Maximus (1987)
• Janglers: Janglers Play Dylan (1992)
• The Grass Roots: Where Were You When I Needed You (1994)
• Uncle Green: Tribute to Bob Dylan, Volume 2 (1995)
• Calamity Jane: Outlaw Blues, Volume 2 (1995)
• Golden Earring: Love Sweat (1995)
• Elliott Smith played the song live on occasion, and bootlegs of his cover exist
• James Solberg: L.A. Blues (1998); Tangled Up in Blue: The Songs of Bob Dylan (1999)
• The Grateful Dead: Postcards of the Hanging: Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan (2002)
• Robyn Hitchcock: Robyn Sings (2002)
• Big Brass Bed: A Few Dylan Songs (2003)
• Kula Shaker: Kollected (2003)
• Ben Weaver: Mojo- Dylan Covered (2006)
• Willard Grant Conspiracy: Let It roll (2006)
• Jamie Saft Trio with Mike Patton: Trouble: The Jamie Saft Trio Plays Bob Dylan (2006)
• Enrique Bunbury
• Stephen Malkmus: I'm Not There Soundtrack (2007)
• Johnny Casino & The Secrets: New Clothes Old Shoes (2007)

References

1. ^ Dylan, Bob Lyrics of Ballad of a Thin Man (retrieved: July 3, 2007).
2. ^ Trager, Oliver, Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, page 24. Billboard Books, 2004. ISBN 0823079740
3. ^ Spevak, Jeff, "Bob Dylan muse, RIT professor dies at 63", Democrat and Chronicle (Retrieved November 13, 2007).
4. ^ Onion A.V. Club article - "Eight Songs About Sexual Mishaps"
5. ^ The Beatles, Lyrics of Yer Blue Thebeatles.com - Retrieved: July 3, 2007.
6. ^ imomus [1] - Retrieved: November 24, 2007.

External links

• Lyrics
• Song Interpretations
• Other Interpretations