From album
Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan · 1965
Details
TonalidadBm
Compás4/4
Tempo74 BPM
Duración5:57
ÁlbumHighway 61 Revisited
Año1965
ISRCUSSM19922505
If you like this, try
The story behind
The song Ballad of a Thin Man unfolds as a disturbing narrative, where a certain Mr. Jones finds himself lost in strange situations, and every question he asks only increases the incomprehension of the world around him. Critic Andy Gill described it as a relentless inquiry, a furious and mocking reprimand towards a bourgeois intruder in the universe of the unusual and eccentric that Bob Dylan inhabited at that time. Dylan himself, in August 1965, shortly after recording it, stated that Mr. Jones was a real person, someone they knew, though not by that name. He recounted an anecdote about seeing him enter a room looking like a camel, putting his eyes in his pockets, and then putting his nose on the ground, assuring that it was all a true story. In December 1965, he added that Mr. Jones was a pinboy who wore suspenders.
The recording of Ballad of a Thin Man took place on August 2, 1965, at Columbia Records' Studio A in New York City. Producer Bob Johnston oversaw the session, with Bob Dylan on piano, accompanied by Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, Bobby Gregg on drums, Harvey Brooks on bass, and Al Kooper on organ. Kooper recalled that the organ's sound, which he described as typical of a horror film, contrasted with Dylan's somber piano chords, calling the piece musically more elaborate than the rest of the album Highway 61 Revisited. Upon finishing the recording, Bobby Gregg commented that it was a "nasty" song, to which Kooper added that Dylan was the "King of Nasty Song" at that time. The album Highway 61 Revisited, released on August 30, 1965, marked an evolution in Bob Dylan's sound, incorporating rock musicians and moving away from his previous acoustic style, combining powerful blues-based music with poetic lyrics that captured the spirit of the era.
0:00