Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man (Live at the Newport Folk Festival. 1964)

“Mr. Tambourine Man” – Song by Bob Dylan from the album Bringing It All Back Home
Released: March 22, 1965
Recorded: January 15, 1965
Studio: Columbia, New York City
Label: Columbia
Songwriter: Bob Dylan
Producer: Tom Wilson

“Mr. Tambourine Man” was written and composed in early 1964, at the same approximate time as “Chimes of Freedom”, which Dylan recorded later that spring for his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. Dylan began writing and composing “Mr. Tambourine Man” in February 1964, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a cross-country road trip with several friends, and completed it sometime between the middle of March and late April of that year after he had returned to New York. Nigel Williamson has suggested in The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan that the influence of Mardi Gras can be heard in the swirling and fanciful imagery of the song’s lyrics. Journalist Al Aronowitz has stated that Dylan completed the song at his home, but folk singer Judy Collins, who later recorded the song, has stated that Dylan completed the song at her home. Dylan premiered the song the following month at a May 17 concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The song may not be about drugs, but they were an influence during its creation. Dylan started writing the song on a cross-country road trip with friends that took them through New Orleans for Mardi Gras in February 1964. They smoked lots of pot on this journey and even mailed marijuana to post offices along the way to keep up their stash.

Dylan never had a #1 hit in America as an artist, but The Byrds’ cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” gave him one as a songwriter.