"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released as the first track of the acoustic side of his March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The song's popularity led to Dylan recording it live many times, and it has been included in multiple compilation albums. It has been translated into other languages and has been used or referenced in television shows, films, and books.
Cover of the M. Witmark & Sons sheet music
Bob Dylan has often played "Mr. Tambourine Man" in live concerts.
Pictured in 1963, folk singer Judy Collins covered "Mr. Tambourine Man" in 1965.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when his songs "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs, Robert Johnson's blues, and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.
Dylan in 2010
The Zimmerman family home in Hibbing, Minnesota
Joan Baez and Dylan during the civil rights "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom", August 28, 1963
Bobby Dylan, as the college yearbook lists him: St. Lawrence University, upstate New York, November 1963