Dylan Song by Song: "Ballad of a Thin Man" Quiz

Answer: Piano

Al Kooper was on organ, Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, and Bobby Gregg on drums. The song was recorded in New York City, in Studio A of Columbia Records, for Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, "Highway 61 Revisited," which was released in 1965.

Answer: People who ask him questions all the time

Bjorner.com quotes Bob Dylan during his February 15, 1986 performance at Memorial Drive in Adelaide, South Australia introducing "Ballad of a Thin Man" as being a song he wrote about: "People [who] keep asking me questions. They're always asking me questions that you can't or anybody else can't answer, you know. So, you know like, 'what's your political life like? Or your religious life?' Personal questions like ..., you know even about your love life. So anyway, I don't answer any of them questions." Dylan went on to say that "there comes a time when people have to be put in their place, ain't that right?"

Over the years, Bob Dylan gave reporters a lot of answers to the question of "Who is Mr. Jones?" According to Rolling Stone magazine, his "most convincing answer came in 1985," when he said, "There were a lot of Mr. Joneses at that time ... It was like, 'Oh, man, here's the thousandth Mr. Jones.'"

Answer: AAA

The first stanza opens with an AAA rhyme of hand, man, and understand. The second stanza follows with is, his, and is. The last stanza starts with an AAA rhyme of frown, ground, around, and the penultimate stanza kicks off by rhyming now, how, and cow.

Most of the stanzas of "Ballad of a Thin Man" consist of six lines rhyming AAABCB, where the C line always concludes "you don't know what it is." The exception to this is a single quatrain toward the middle of the song that vaguely rhymes ABCB with a series of near rhymes.

Answer: His pencil

"You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand.
You see somebody naked and 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, Mr. Jones?"

This song may be a scathing criticism of the reporters who hounded Bob Dylan with questions. It might also provide a response to the music critics who ascribed their own meanings to his song lyrics, which they do not in fact understand. This interpretation fits in the context of the thin man entering the room with a pencil, as though he is a journalist or critic about to take notes, and then asking confused questions about a situation he does not understand ("Who is that man?"). As with many confused interpretations of Dylan's songs, Mr. Jones is aware "something is happening here," but he just "don't know what it is." He's trying to make sense of the situation, but it's rather like trying to make sense of some of Bob Dylan's own lyrics.

Answer: freak

"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, Mr. Jones?"

A "geek" was a freak show circus performer who would chase live chickens and, for the finale of the show, bite off one of the chicken's heads. So here, we ironically have a freak show performer calling Mr. Jones a freak, which the pompous, well-read Mr. Jones deems "Impossible!" As the icing on the cake, the geek hands Mr. Jones a bone - perhaps a literal bone from the chicken he has just decapitated. Mr. Jones, despite all his presumption of understanding and pompous learning, has no idea what is happening as he insulted by the geek he considers to be the freak.

Answer: the lumberjacks

"You have many contacts among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination."

This song was covered by the American rock band Grass Roots under the title "Mr. Jones" on their 1966 album "Where Were You When I Needed You." The band released the song as a single in 1965 and again in 1966, with a new lead vocalist. The second version entered the U.S. Top 40. The song has also been covered by Calamity Jane, Uncle Green, Big Brass Bed, Richard Hawley, and Golden Earring.

Answer: nose

"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, Mr. Jones?"

In "Seize the Time," Bobby Seale writes that when they were listening to Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man," Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton made him see what "the lyrics meant in the history of racism that has perpetuated itself in this world." There have been scores of varying interpretations of this song, from Andy Gill's argument that the song is outing a homosexual, to Huey Newton's interpretation that it is about racism, to the more common interpretation of it being about Dylan's interviewers and/or music critics. In the end, the irony is that the song itself defies interpretation. Perhaps the listener himself is Mr. Jones, and doesn't know what's "happening here" in the song.

Answer: Tax-deductible charity organizations

"But nobody has any respect, anyway they already expect you to all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations."

Versions of this song have appeared on "Before the Flood," "Bob Dylan at Budakon," "Real Live," and "The Bootleg Series" volumes 4, 7, and 12. According to the Official Bob Dylan website, Dylan has played the song live over 1,200 times since his first live performance of the song on August 28, 1965.

Rolling Stone magazine writes that in this song, "Dylan serves up baffling lines" and "then mocks his baffled listeners for not being in on the joke."

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Ah, 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, Mr. Jones?"

Despite Mr. Jones's broad education, he still doesn't understand what he sees in this room into which he's just walked, in much the same way, perhaps, the erudite music critic doesn't understand Dylan's lyrics or life.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American 20th century writer perhaps best known for his novel "The Great Gatsby," but he also wrote "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, "Tender is the Night," "The Beautiful and the Dammed," and "This Side of Paradise," among other works.

Answer: The sword swallower

"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, Mr. Jones?"

Rolling Stone reports the song is "packed with homoerotic innuendo, from the naked man in the first verse to the sword swallower and the one-eyed midget who show up later on," not to mention the thin man holding his pencil in his hand in the opening line. Dylan does this, Rolling Stone speculates, "maybe because nothing's more certain to make straight-laced folks like Mr. Jones uncomfortable."