Welcome to From Insults to Respect.
Recently, I gave a listen to Bob Dylan’s song, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” For some reason, as I was listening, I thought about the various descriptions people have provided regarding what they think is its meaning. Such opinions I respect for in art, including the artistry of music, such interpretations are derived from one’s own personal experience interacting with the artwork. It’s clearly a subjective appraisal, they are entitled to such opinions, and I’m usually intrigued by each perspective.
However, when someone tells me what they think the song is about, here there may be some relevant information that throws some more or less objective light on their theory. 
For example, some have said the song is about an LSD trip Dylan had had, but Wikipedia provides evidence that Bob had not been introduced to it until after the song had been written and he himself has denied that the song is about drugs.
On a website entitled Festival Topia, Christian Weideck tells us the song is about Bruce Langhorne, who has been cited by Dylan as the inspiration for the tambourine man image in the song. Apparently, Langhorne used to play a giant, four-inch-deep “tambourine,” which was actually a Turkish frame drum, and had brought the instrument to a previous Dylan recording session. If true, it’s still not the whole story regarding what the song is about, as a personal experience of mine suggests.
You see, at the beginning of 1965, I had begun to visit Greenwich Village’s “pass the hat” music venues. There, the performers didn’t get paid money by the owners. Instead management provided them meals, and after each set, which was usually just three or four songs, a hat would be passed around the audience and a few quarters or occasionally a dollar or two was tossed into it. The owners of these venues made their money selling drinks. These shows ran until 4 a.m.
At closing time, I would walk through the Village on my way to the subway with the sun getting ready to rise. Having all night long listened to the various songs, they drifted through my mind. When I got home, the sun was just beginning to peek out off in the horizon.
With all the different acts that I had heard all night, I was a bit wired, rather than tired. Nevertheless, before long I would get into bed. With the different songs still drifting through my head, when I began to drift off into sleep, dreams related to the song themes drifted into my mind, becoming altered in various strange ways, as dreams tend to do. I certainly don’t have the creative talent of a Dylan, but the imagery that came to me had some marked similarity to Dylan’s song.
Now, some of the venues that I went to happen to be the very same ones where Dylan had gotten his start. 
When I began to go to them, Dylan, just a few months before, had begun to get some recognition as a performer so he had begun to play at slightly more upscale places. I didn’t actually get to hear him play back then because my budget was quite low. Nevertheless, many of the performers that he did hear night after night in the “pass the hat” venues were still playing there, so I got a pretty good sense of what Dylan had been listening to night after night.
There certainly were occasional performances accompanied by a tambourine. Moreover, when Dylan performs “Mr. Tambourine Man,” it so brings to mind my own experience of walking through the Village on my way to the subway after a “pass the hat” night of songs that I can’t help imagining Dylan was having the same types of experience I had when he created the song. It begins,
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy, and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle mornin’, I’ll come followin’ you
And then, when Dylan sings,
My weariness amazes me, I am branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And my ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming,
these words poetically capture the scene of the Village in the wee hours.
As I listened to the rest of the song, the lyrics so matched my own experience of the words of the songs drifting into a state of dreaming, I’m thinking my theory of what the song is about may be pretty accurate. For my readers who have been puzzled about what the song is about, I thought I would share my theory with you.
My Best,
Jeff
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Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.
