Title: Ballad of a Thin Man
Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: The 1966 Live Recordings (Disc 25 - Newcastle, May 21, 1966) (Track #7)
Duration: 07:27
Label: Columbia
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
An' 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
An' you ask "Is this where it is?''
An' somebody points to you
An' says, "It's his''
An' you say, "What's mine?''
An' somebody else says, "Where what is?''
An' you say, "Oh my god
Am i here all alone?''
But something is happening here
An' you don't know what it is
Do you mister Jones?
You hand in your ticket
An' you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
An' say, "How does it feel to
Be such a freak?''
An' you say, "Impossible''
As he hands you a bone.
An' 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 our imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To all give a check
To tax deductible charity organizations
Ah, you've been with the professors
An' they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers an' crooks
You've been thru all of
F.Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known.
But something is happening here
An' you don't know what it is
Do you mister Jones?
Well the sword swallower he
Walks up to you an' then he kneels
He crosses himself an' then he
Clicks his high heels
An' without further notice
He asks you how it feels
An' he says, "Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan.''
An' you know something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you mister Jones?
Now you see this one eyed midget
Shoutin' the word "Now''
An' you say, "For what reason?''
An' he says, "How?''
An' you say, "What does this mean?''
An' he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home.''
An' you know something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you mister Jones?
Well you walk into the room
Like a camel an' then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket
An' your nose on the ground
There oughta be a law
Against you comin' around
You should made to wear earphones.
'Cause something is happening
An' you don't know what it is
Do you mister Jones?
PRODUCERS' NOTE
About the audio: The producers have collected every known recording made during Bob Dylan's 1966 tour. The tour began on February 4th, 1966 in the U.S. and continued in North America until the beginning of April. Thereafter, the show moved to Australia, the Nordic countries and the British Isles.
None of the shows were professionally recorded during the early months of the tour. What survives and what is represented here are roughly made audience recordings. Starting on May 1st, Dylan's sound engineer, Richard Alderson, recorded large parts of every show on a carefully adjusted, portable tape recorder. Although the quality is quite good, these recordings are taken directly from the mixing board - the same audio mix that would be played over the PA system in the local venues. Consequently, those tapes will have louder vocals and sound drier, with less hall ambiance than a live recording made for record release.
Columbia Records recorded 4 shows: Sheffield, Manchester and London (2 shows) for the purpose of a live album. Recording rock 'n' roll live was brand new for the Columbia engineers and the resulting recordings vary greatly in sound quality. The vocals on the lectric set of the Sheffield recordings are so distorted that the producers of this release decided to use the audio from the mixing board instead.
About the sequencing: The shows here are presented in chronological order, with the exception of those recordings in which the audio quality is so degraded that the sound detracts from the overall listening experience. These five shows (White Plains, Pittsburgh, Hempstead, Melbourne, Stockholm) are presented at the very end of this collection.