The Bob Dylan song David Crosby originally thought sounded “terrible”
There are most likely thousands of artists who wouldn’t have secured their start if not for Bob Dylan. While Dylan may not have been looking to be a role model for his work, his way with words and impact on rock and roll culture shaped the music world throughout his career, whether that meant going against the grain of what was popular or going in a completely different turn than most people thought he was going. Although Dylan may have had his fair share of acolytes, David Crosby was one of many trying to crib from his ideas in The Byrds.
While Byrds leader Roger McGuinn may have started in the world of country and bluegrass, seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show convinced him to switch over to a 12-string electric guitar instead of his usual acoustic. Becoming a favourite amongst The Beatles, The Byrds first cut their teeth paying tribute to their favourite folkie.
Even though Dylan had been around as a performer for a few years, the band’s management thought the band should record a rock and roll version of Dylan’s acoustic work like ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’ and ‘Chimes of Freedom’. While Crosby was more than happy to work on Dylan’s material, he was not that enthused when hearing their signature hit for the first time.
Of all the band’s covers, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ would become their defining track, featuring a jangling guitar part from McGuinn and stunning harmonies arranged around Dylan’s esoteric lyrics about the state of the world. While the band were getting word about Dylan’s records, Crosby thought that the version of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ he heard sounded awful.
Recalling hearing it for the first time, Crosby was mortified before the band took it on, telling Stereogum, “Our manager knew Bob’s manager and got an early tape of Bob singing this thing with another folk singer. It was really terrible, it was a really bad demo. They were out of tune, and they were all screwed up. It was absolutely nonsense.”
Hooking onto the melody first, Crosby initially had his doubts when working on a song produced so haphazardly. Once he started to read what the lyrics were about, though, it made too much sense, explaining, “His handling of words at that point in his life is about as good as anybody is, period. That’s what really struck me. Musically, it’s a really simple old tune. It’s no problem. But the lyrics are stunning. That’s the case over and over again with his songs.”
After getting their foot in the door with covers, it didn’t take long before the band’s original material started to gain traction, with Crosby stepping behind the mic for one of the group’s signature hits, ‘So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star’. However, Crosby’s behaviour would often get the better of him, finding himself out of step with the rest of the band and being booted from the group before joining the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
While Crosby may have had his doubts about Dylan at first, the success of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ taught him a valuable lesson about songwriting. Even though the record’s sound might not be the greatest at first, making a good song is about the soul captured in the performance rather than every note being played correctly.
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