"Ballad Of A Thin Man" lyrics
"Ballad Of A Thin Man"
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you, you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you will say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
You raise up your head
And you ask, "Is this where it is?"
And somebody points to you and says
"It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?"
And somebody else says, "Well what is?"
And you say, "Oh my God
Am I here all alone?"
But something is happening
And you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone
And something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts
When someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations
You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known
But something is happening here
And you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you
And then he kneels
He crosses himself
And then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice
He asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan"
And you know something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word "NOW"
And you say, "For what reason?"
And he says, "How?"
And you say, "What does this mean?"
And he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home"
And you know something's happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Well, you walk into the room
Like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket
And your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law
Against you comin' around
You should be made
To wear earphones
'Cause something is happening
And you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Thanks to Gillian for correcting these lyrics.
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Al Kooper, who played organ on this song, described it as "musically more sophisticated than anything else on the 'Highway 61 Revisited' album".
According to Al Kooper, drummer Bobby Gregg said at the end of the session, when the musicians listened to the playback of the song, "That is a nasty song, Bob."
Bob Dylan's sombre piano chords were combined with a horror movie organ part played by Kooper. He explained, "Dylan was the King of the Nasty Song at that time."
Critic Andy Gill called the song "one of Dylan's most unrelenting inquisitions, a furious, sneering, dressing-down of a hapless bourgeois intruder into the hipster world of freaks and weirdoes which Dylan now inhabited".
Bob Dylan said about the identity of Mr. Jones to Nora Ephron and Susan Edmiston in August 1965, "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.'"
There is a reference to Mr. Jones in
The Beatles' song
"Yer Blues", written by John Lennon, where Lennon describes the character as feeling
"suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones".
- AZLyrics
- B
- Bob Dylan Lyrics
album:
"Highway 61 Revisited" (1965)