(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer down below)
The Byrds - "Mr. Tambourine Man"
Hit Number 1: June 26, 1965
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
Somehow, Bob Dylan never scored a #1 hit. That's hard to believe, since Dylan is one of the most influential and important artists in music history, but it's true. Unless if you count "We Are the World", since he does have his time in the spotlight during that, but of course, that's a stretch. He obviously didn't write or have any production in "We Are the World", so it would be somewhat foolish to call that a #1 hit for Dylan. (Obviously, "We Are the World" will eventually show up in this blog) He did have a song that he wrote that hit the top spot, but it wasn't his version. Instead, an obviously Beatles-inspired American band named The Byrds are the ones that took Dylan's song to the top.
Dylan wrote "Mr. Tambourine Man" after attending the New Orleans Mardi Gras during a road trip around the country with some friends, and it took him a couple months to complete it. It's well known that Dylan was rarely sober, as he took every drug known to man, and wrote a lot of his most famous songs while he was high on marijuana, LSD, or any other drug that you can think of. Name it; Dylan's done it. "Mr. Tambourine Man" is no different. Dylan was high on marijuana while he wrote the song, though he denies that the song has any reference to drugs. However, with lyrics like "take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship" and "the smoke rings on my mind", it's hard to convince some people of that.
There are several other interpretations of the song. Some say the song is about the singer's muse, a search for transcendence, or the point of view from a person in the audience of a live show. Some say the "tambourine man" is supposed to represent the Pied Piper of Hamelin or even Jesus. But after doing some research, I can't seem to find a time where Dylan clarified what the song is about. Maybe he purposefully did this so that we can come up with our own interpretations of the song. Or, maybe he was too stoned to inform us the last 55 years.
Today is actually the first time I've ever listened to the Dylan recording, and it's pretty good. (It's a 7) However, I'm not sure that it's quite as good as the Byrds' version. Maybe I've just gotten too used to the Byrds' version, which was brought up to them as a potential hit from their manager, Jim Dickson. Dickson knew that most of the band members already had a background in folk music, though when he first played them an acetate disc's version of the song with Dylan and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, they were unimpressed. However, they did eventually agree to give it a shot, and they began to rehearse it. They put their own twist on the song; attempting to make it sound like the Beatles. When the band had finally come up with how they wanted to make the song sound, and what they were going to do with it, Dickson invited Dylan himself to hear the band's take on the song, as he wanted to give the group some confidence in the track. Dylan was impressed, exclaiming "Wow you can dance to that!" It was then, that the Byrds knew they had great potential with this song, and any doubts they had about it had vanished.
The Byrds heavily changed the song to suit them better, adding in their harmonies and Bach-inspired guitar intro, with both of those becoming huge influences on other musicians, even to this day. At the suggestion of Dickson, the band also shortened the song, only singing the chorus twice and taking all the verses out, excluding the second. This was so the song would be more "radio-friendly". And do your remember how I said Dylan made no clarification on what the song was about? Well, the Byrds' lead singer, Jim McGuinn, revealed in 1997 that he felt as if the "tambourine man" were God. He said "I was singing to God and I was saying that God was the Tambourine Man and I was saying to him, 'Hey, God, take me for a trip and I'll follow you.' It was a prayer of submission." I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyway, while Dylan's version was a good song in its own right, the Byrds ran away with the song, and it's their property now. I love the three part harmony between McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby (yes, the same David Crosby that would later join super-folk group Crosby, Stills, and Nash) as they intertwine gracefully with each other like the harmonies of the Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel. The Bach-inspired guitar intro is also a nice intro to the song, and it doesn't waste any time getting going. Just like Dylan's version, the song starts with the chorus instead of a verse. It's also pretty easy to get lost in the song; it's a fairly generic piece of song craft while still delivering the sounds of many iconic artists over the last couple years. In "Mr. Tambourine Man", you can hear Dylan's sound of course, but I also hear a little bit of the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, and the Beach Boys. If you couple that with the listener being free to interpret the song however they want, it makes the story of "Mr. Tambourine Man" even that much more amazing. Not to take anything away from Dylan, but this song NEEDED to find the Byrds. Thank the music gods it did.
GRADE: 10/10
MY INSPIRATION / MORE INFORMATION:
"Mr. Tambourine Man" (Bob Dylan's version) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oecX_1pqxk0
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