The song Bob Dylan wrote to “put somebody in their place”
Throughout his life, Bob Dylan has used songwriting as his preferred communication tool. Dylan has never been one for explaining how he feels with words unless it’s served on a bed of music. Over the years, the musician has used his songs to express every emotion from heartbreak to elation and also wrote one track as a point-scoring exercise.
The track in question is ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’, which appeared on Dylan’s iconic 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. In the effort, Dylan attacks the credentials of the mysterious Mr. Jones and paints a damning portrait of his character. However, the singer-songwriter has never revealed the person who inspired the vicious track and the identity of Jones.
On many occasions, Dylan has been asked about Mr. Jones, and his answers have fluctuated over time. However, he has always maintained that the material is inspired by reality. Shortly after crafting the creation, the musician told journalists Nora Ephron and Susan Edmiston: “He’s a real person”.
Dylan reportedly continued in a deadpan manner: “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.”
Additionally, during a press conference at the end of 1965, Dylan playfully revealed Jones is a “playboy” who “wears suspenders”. Meanwhile, during a discussion with his biographer Robert Shelton, Dylan once again said it was based on a real person, but he’d prefer to leave it up to the listener to decide, stating: “I could tell you who Mr. Jones is in my life, but, like, everybody has got their Mr. Jones.”
Two decades later, the truth finally came out, and Dylan explained how the song was written as an act of revenge against Mr. Jones. While the identity remained secretive, he revealed how it was about a man who had wronged him during a previous tour of England, leading to him writing ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’ in response to the incident.
Before playing the show during a tour of Japan, Dylan told the audience: “This is a song I wrote a while back in response to people who ask me questions all the time. You just get tired of that every once in a while. You just don’t want to answer no more questions.”
He continued: “I figure a person’s life speaks for itself, right? So, every once in a while, you got to do this kind of thing, you got to put somebody in their place… So this is my response to something that happened over in England. I think it was about ’63, ’64. Anyway the song still holds up. Seems to be people around still like that. So I still sing it. It’s called ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’.”
Listen to the vengeful track below.
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