This whole process has made me actually appreciate the process of the eclectic method, and the process of formal criticism itself, to an incredible degree. Throughout the writing of this blog, I've begun to see Mr. Tambourine Man in a more full and 3 dimensional light, and I can now play the song much better than I did formerly; I think that formulating the performance guide might have helped my own performance as well.
However, there are a few problems with the constraints of the eclectic analysis, at least from my point of view, and that is although Ferrara takes careful steps to minimize any coming together of different forms of analysis, at least in the first steps, sometimes this is ineffective for a full and in-depth analysis. In my case, Mr. Tambourine man is a pretty flat song, structurally and musically, in that its just one theme with slight variations repeated over and over again until the full message of the lyrics play themselves out; the structure exists for the lyrics to shine through. Due to this fact, the sound-in-time portion would be much more effective if done simultaneously with the textual representation, and combining these two elements would garner a much more full and honest interpretation of the song as it moves. This, while I tried to do somewhat, is not conducive under the present airtight format. Also,
I think that virtual feeling is very subjective arena for thought, and although it's an interesting step I questions its validity when put beside all of the others.
The only thing that i would say about performing this song is to understand and appreciate how beautiful this message of yearning is, and how much it means to everyone who's ever felt this way; to really and truly understand what you're singing, and to therefore attempt to get at this intangible along with the narrator, along with the tambourine man, and along with the audience. There are a lot of bad covers of this song, and actually even the Byrds version that made it famous only has the first two verses! The last verse is the best one! The true genius of this song is not the melody or the chords but that which shines through those melody and chords. Understand this, and performance will be easy! It's actually a pretty easy song and Dylan changes it every time he plays it so there's no point in issuing specific performance tips.
On this second listening, the lyrics are burned into the forefront of the composition even more strongly than they were before. A friend of mine once said to me that Bob Dylan's lyrics aren't anything when you read them, that they gain power when they're sung. Dylan's voice, though raspy, and nasally, and unappetizing for most of the world, is completely and utterly perfect to channel his compositions. His is the voice of his soul, and he gives so much power to his words, and has so much ambition in his inflections and delivery that his songs jump and flame and lick the ears of the listener. Dylan is not a songwriter, he is an actor, he could be anybody and everybody at any time.
I feel even more strongly on the second listening that this is not a song of the 1960s and does not belong in the same realm as woodstock era pop, this was intentionally created as an all-encompassing statement about life and the pursuit of the intangible what-could-be. The more I listen to it, the more it becomes more than a song, more than the guitars and the voice panned center, it is a man crying out like we have all cried out, and singing like we have wanted to sing. Dylan is not the voice of a generation, Dylan is specifically and intentionally trying to be the voice of all generations, and like many great writers and poets before him he gets close to this wild insane ambition because believes that he is talented enough to do it. That's what gives him his power; he is completely positive that he is the greatest songwriter of all time, so much so that he convinces everyone else who listens long enough to be swayed.
Bob Dylan came of age at a time when the one of the largest groups of people in America's history did, the Baby Boomer generation, my father's generation. During this time in America, especially in New York City, millions of young people began to shed the conventions and conservatism, politically and otherwise, of their parents' generation. They had wild sex, did drugs, wrote songs, got drunk, played songs, and did other wild and amazingly nostalgic 60s things that are all well documented in Forrest Gump. Dylan's awakening, and that of all young Americans in 1964, is present deep in the bones of Mr. Tambourine Man. The song is dug out of the fray of a young man's escapades, his small empires, and his lust for everything that is so new to him.
The song's form, old and American, simple and timeless, is dusted off and shines brilliantly throughout the lyrical yearns and turns of Dylan's narrator. The fact that such an old, traditional style of music is set with such abstract, stream of consciousness lyrics is in itself a reflection of the 1960s, when the old guard was upended and left on the sidelines to watch powerless, and make way for the new, the young, and the virile to be the true generation of American culture and the poster children for the country. Mr Tambourine Man, however, exists far past its beginnings, in that it is not a product solely of its time but of a human, more importantly of a young person reaching out for meaning in the world. It moves above its ontological world, and becomes a timeless coming-of-age masterpiece that should be put right beside Siddhartha and The Catcher in the Rye.
The feeling created by the sound of the instruments, the chord structure, the lyrics, and the guitar is one of unique and fragile wonder and honesty. Everything about the song is warm and inviting, like a hot bath coming in from the cold wind; The electric guitar sounds fuzzy and beautiful and perfect, the acoustic fleetingly gorgeous, and Dylan's voice sounds completely awe inspiring, like a hug. Tom Wilson is the greatest vocal producer in the history of rock music, and it shows in recordings like this; he knew how to make Dylan's voice sound better than it ever could be in real life.
Perhaps its just because I love the lyrics so much, and its influenced the way i listen, but I think that the chords, and the guitar lines and melodies just are a reflection of the feeling of whimsical pursuit of the infinite unknown. The simple folk chord structure gives the song a tinge of the proletariat chic, the sound of the working man, the sound of the infinite many cogs of humanity that gives its lyrical themes of universal human struggles and feelings all the more weight.
Most importantly, Dylan's vocal delivery is completely spot-on. The way he yearns, and screams and yells at the listener but manages to keep a completely inviting and welcoming, up beat tone is monumental. It is also the only way that these lyrics could be so powerful.
I already interpreted many of these lyrics in the sound-in-time section, so this might be a little repetative.
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 morning I'll come followin' you. Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand Vanished from my hand Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet I have no one to meet And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.
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 morning I'll come followin' you.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels To be wanderin' I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way I promise to go under it.
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 morning I'll come followin' you.
Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run And but for the sky there are no fences facin' And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're Seein' that he's chasing.
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 morning I'll come followin' you.
Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
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 morning I'll come followin' you.
"On one session, Tom Wilson had asked [Bruce Langhorne, session musician for Dylan] to play tambourine," Dylan recalled in 1985. "And he had this gigantic tambourine...It was as big as a wagonwheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind." Langhorne confirmed that he "used to play this giant Turkish tambourine. It was about [four inches] deep, and it was very light and it had a sheepskin head and it had jingle bells around the edge - just one layer of bells all the way around...I bought it 'cause I liked the sound...I used to play it all the time."
-Dylan being funny
The song is about the essential young person's yearning for meaning, for the big time, for love, for excitement, for chaos and change, and their need to bury the past in pursuit of a chaotic, beautiful future that they know nothing about except it is different from the present.
The narrator is singing to a Tambourine Man, who could be anyone or anything, or himself, any agent of change that could bring him far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow. He has been up all night, but all of the hopes and dreams of his night, "evening's empire", have returned into sand, and turned back into meaningless avenues that he doesn't look back at as he walks.
The wild pursuit of an intangible ecstasy far from the concerns and frustrations of every day life is a constant theme and huge presence throughout the song. Interestingly enough, in the movie "Dangerous Mindz" with Michelle Pfiefer as a young cute white schoolteacher for a class of inner city thugs, they analyze this song and come out with the conclusion that the Tambourine Man is a drug dealer, and the narrator is just trying to get high, which actually is a very valid take on the song, albeit a little less romantic and a bit flat. This is an incredible piece of poetry, and it speaks to this feeling in each and every one of us that causes us to roam the streets wandering in search of something to fill the void inside our beings that for one reason for another exists.
From the start to 00:05, a warm, clear guitar comes in played with a pick on an F chord, being strummed straight on the first three downbeats and with a triplet-y feel on the latter half;
1, 2, 3, AND-4, AND-1.
At 00:05 seconds, Dylan's voice lightly reverberated singing the chorus, along with the the warm electric guitar in the left ear coming and in arpeggiating the chords,
"Hey, Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me",
The chorus is a period, the first half being the antecedent, and the second half being the consequent.
Dylan's voice sings out clear, questioning, as he rests on the V chord, "there is no place I'm going to". The guitar chugs along beautifully , moving the song forward steadly through the chorus.
00:28 seconds- the guitar returns to its pace in the beginning, with dylan's left pinky playing a Bb A G A melody over the chord to the constant strumming rhythm, creating 4-3, then a 2-3 sus chord.
00:31 seconds- Dylan sings the first verse to the same melody as the chorus, "Well I know that evening's empire has returned into sand". The verse, however goes between the I and the IV chord more times to make room for more words. Dylan seems to hang on the the IV chord as he sings until at, 41 seconds the ii7 brings the song to the resting place of the V.
At 00:45 he repeats the sequence with "My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet, I have no one to meet". Dylan's vocals fit his lyrics amazingly, sounding full of hope and adventure, but restrained at the same time, perfect for a young man looking out at the future with excitement.
at oo:58, the electric guitar crescendos slightly, and begins to play more syncopated lines and picking patterns, as if he, like the narrator is waxing towards the yell at the tambourine man in the coming refrain at 1:01, where the chorus repeats.
Dylan's refrain is left bare by the verse, his yell of "HEEEY" is now more destitute, but not at all depressing; he is just a man that is yearning for something to fill his life.
At 1:26, he starts the new verse in this same vein, "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship, my senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip, my toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels to be wandering". The narrator is actively reaching out for new things, for change, for an exciting chapter in his life to begin as he wanders the streets. The verse is longer, with extra iterations of the I-IV chord change in between the half cadences, to make room for his pleas and exaltations.
1:45, "I'm ready to go anywheeeere, I'm ready for to fade into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way I promise to go wondering", again the narrator is pleading with the tambourine man to give him meaning, and is ready to absolve away his sense of self, to give way to the jingle jangle morning, and fade.
at 1:59, the chorus repeats, much the same as before. Dylan's voice seems to be getting a tinge of irish folk singer in its inflection, as if he is trying to channel the ghost of Dylan Thomas himself.
at 2:25, the 3rd verse starts with a warning, "Though you might hear laughing spinning, swinging madly across the sun, its not aimed at anyone. It's just escaping on the run..." The laughter is the narrator's explosion into the chaos of the unknown, which he yearns for, and the warning is to convey that this wild passionate leap is not for anything but to do it, to escape on the run.
At 2:40- the guitar begins to play around a little bit more, and instead of just syncopated arpeggios it begins to play little melodies in the background. I think perhaps the session musician didn't really know the song at first, but just the chords, and as he got more comfortable he began to play around a little bit; Dylan was notorious for not teaching the musicians around him the songs more than one play-through.
at 3:00, the chorus starts anew, and the guitar goes back to its arpeggiations.
at 3:24, Dylan starts soloing on his harmonica over the verse chords, bending a c and e diad from the C chord into the F, after which he follows the vocal melody pretty closely; the harmonica imitating dylan works well because of the raspy qualities of the both of the sounds, one high and piercing, one low and full.
at 3:44, the second half of the verse begins to dylan bending a G on the harmonica up and done as his guitar chugs along, the electric guitar shimmering in the left ear with renewed yet restrained intensity.
at 4:02, the solo ends with an authentic cadence, and 4 definite F blows into the harmonica.
at 4:07, the final verse starts, with Dylan's guitar assuming a more quiet role for the focus on the concluding stanza: "So take me disappearing down the smoke rings of my mind... far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow". The narrator asserts that his yearning cannot be satisfied by just earthly, physical things, but only through spiritual methods.
"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, with all memory and fate, driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow." Dylan seems to scream these words without screaming, to put extra emphasis on their meaning without changing much of the inflection of his singing style, and the theme of living in the moment without thinking of anything else, of phenomenological living, seems all the more beautiful.
At 4:50 Dylan sings the chorus, this time with a little more wavering in his voice, for the final time, and follows it with a harmonica solo fade out.
