Talk:Ballad of a Thin Man/Archive 1

Archive 1

Bard College Security Guard

More than half this article is a poorly written section on a Bard College security guard! Mr. Wood 12:50, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

After initially deleting most of the Bard College section, and adding s, I decided to delete all of it. I don't think an article about a song should contain unfounded speculation on who the song is based on. Mr. Wood 13:16, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Counting Crows

I removed the suggestion that the Counting Crows's song "Mr. Jones" is related to the Dylan song. The author claimed this was an unconfirmed rumour, which I don't think has a place in a Wikipedia article. Mr. Wood 13:05, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Meaning?

The last few sentences in the Meaning section don't seem to make any sense. It talks about John Berryman but then goes on to TS Eliot and says that the "songs [sic] title is likely a play on the title of an Eliot poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."" it is not clear which song this refers to (Desolation Row or Ballad of a Thin Man) and I don't see how it's a play on either anyway. There are also no sources for this part of the article. This should be either deleted or cleaned up. Stanlavisbad (talk) 07:51, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed - the title speculation is unfounded and makes little sense. I've removed it. I've also removed a section that compares a line from Ballad of a Thin Man with a line from some poem. It constitutes original research - WP:NOR Mr. Wood (talk) 21:41, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

So is there space anywhere around here for a less rigid interpretation of psychedelic exploration. I will have to go look for the source to cite, but it has been suggested that Mr. Jones is the ego, and the whole situation is an illustration of the mind being split open and turned in on itself, "oh my god, am I here all alone!?" the harder he tries to understand, the further away from it he gets, escalating into a shouting match "you're a cow! bring me some milk or else go home!"

a lot of things have been suggested about the song but before any is added to the article they need to be sourced and there is aparently no lack of potential sources [[1] Active Banana (^bananaphone 13:51, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Procol Harum - A Cristmas Camel

Ballad of a thin man and A cristmas Camel both use the same melody, whats organ in BOATM is piano in the Procol Harum Song. The second parallel is Dylan talking about the guy as "he looked like a camel" ; The song title also carries "Camel" in it. There could be a connection between Dylan and Procol Harum. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.167.63.237 (talk) 15:29, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

"could allude to society's intolerance of homosexuality."

Doesn't this need to be cited?

---More like deleted, in my opinion. That homosexual interpretation is the biggest load of shit I've ever heard. Everybody knows its about journalists and Dylan said the song was about reporters, and just because some blogger at The Onion found some "secret message" in it, doesn't mean that that that "message" is reality or noteworthy. When has Bob Dylan ever included masked allusions in his songs? The Beatles did that; Dylan's songs were always straightforward, if sometimes surreal or impressionist. And besides some alleged phallic symbols, most of the lyrics don't fit in with that notion at all. And Dylan has always been big on carnival references, so sometimes a swordswallower is just a swordswallower.

I agree that the section should be deleted as it is not reliably sourced.--JayJasper (talk) 16:07, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. It's completely incorrect and unreliably sourced. King nothing 2 (talk) 11:54, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

David Bowie

COuld it possibly be that Mr. Jones is David Bowie- who wasnt really a success until the end of the 60s when he fully embraced psychedelia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.49.69.116 (talk) 15:46, 6 March 2010 (UTC)