The story behind ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’: how Bob Dylan wrote his first big hit

All of them are part of the personal collection of journalist Al Aronowitz, who became friends with Dylan (among many other stars) and, according to him, the singer-songwriter finished the song in his own home. «He wrote the song on a portable typewriter in the middle of a cigarette smoke swirlhis bony, long-nailed fingers typed the words on my stolen canary-colored ‘Saturday Evening Post’ copy paper. Later, I found a trash can full of wrinkled false starts. I took the pages, smoothed them, read them, smiled to myself and then I put it in a file folder».

Aronowitz passed away in 2005, and it is his son Myles who will now get rid of the inherited items. «My father was much more than a journalist, he understood what these artists were trying to do. The collection represents my father’s instinctive ability to identify and connect with greatness. Each object is proof of this and how, with its magic, it literally put you in the room,” says its release statement.

Among the objects are multiple original works of art, including a signed oil painting from 1968 (Dylan is an excellent painter) estimated at $300,000; an analogue disc of the artist’s 2021 re-recording of ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ (one of his most famous songs, released in 1964), a promotional booklet for Dylan’s first major solo concert in 1963 at the New York Town Hall; early large-format photographs of Dylan’s first recording sessions at the Columbia Records studio in New York in 1961 and his visit to Warhol’s Factory in 1965, as well as several drawings made by Dylan on Plaza letterhead New York Hotel.

The manuscript of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ has special historical value, not only for having been Dylan’s first hit on the pop music sales charts, but for the changes that it unleashed both on the American music scene and on its own author. He began writing it in February 1964, after attending the Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a road trip with several friends, and finished it between mid-March and late April of that year. «At the time, the Aronowitz family home was a safe haven for Dylan, who had just broken up with his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. He was licking his wounds. And he threw himself into his work,” says Laura Woolley, CEO of Julien’s Auctions. “Bob Dylan sat at the kitchen counter of the Aronowitz family home in New Jersey one night, smoking non-stop, listening to Marvin Gaye’s ‘Can I Get A Witness’ over and over again, while typing all night to perfect the poetic lyrics of this song.

Before Dylan’s original was published, The Byrds recorded a version to release it as their first single in April 1965. Although only one of them, Roger McGuinn, actually played on the session. Due to producer Terry Melcher’s initial lack of confidence in the Byrds’ abilities, the Wrecking Crew (a team of session musicians made up of some of the best instrumentalists in Los Angeles (listed here),) was hired and recorded the track accompaniment on which McGuinn, Crosby and Clark sang.

It is said that the Byrds did not like the original song too much, who gave it a more dynamic touch, turning it into a touchstone of the North American folk-rock movement that, according to the chronicles, not only liked Dylan but also had a decisive influence on him. starting to record music with electric guitar.

Other famous versions of the song are those of Judy Collins (who, by the way, assured at the time that it was at her house and not at Aronowtiz’s that she finished it), Melanie, Odetta, Alvin and the Chipmunks or Stevie Wonder.