Mr. Tambourine Man | Chords + Lyrics (capo 3, drop D)
Intro
| D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
Chorus 1
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B | A (Asus4) |
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B |2/4 A | 6/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.
Verse 1
| G/B A | D G/B |
Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand.
| D G/B |
Vanished from my hand.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping.
| G/B A | D G/B |
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet.
| D G/B |
I have no one to meet.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.
Chorus 2
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B | A (Asus4) |
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B |2/4 A |4/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.
Verse 2
| G/B A | D G/B |
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
My senses have been stripped. My hands can’t feel to grip. My toes too numb to step.
| D Em | A (Asus4) |
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering.
| G/B A | D G/B |
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade.
| D G/B |
Into my own parade.
|5/4 D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it.
Chorus 3
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B | A (Asus4) |
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B |2/4 A | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.
Verse 3
| G/B A | D G/B |
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun.
| D G/B | D G/B |
It’s not aimed at anyone. It’s just escaping on the run.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
And but for the sky there are no fences facing.
| G/B A | D G/B |
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme.
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
To your tambourine in time. It’s just a ragged clown behind. I wouldn’t pay it any mind.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing.
Chorus 4
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B | A (Asus4) |
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B |2/4 A | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.
Solo
| G/B A | D G/B |
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
| D Em | A (Asus4) |
| G/B A | D G/B |
| D G/B | D G/B |
| D Em |2/4 A |4/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) |
Verse 4
| G/B A | D G/B |
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind.
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
Down the foggy ruins of time. Far past the frozen leaves. The haunted frightened trees. Out to the windy beach.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
Silhouetted by the sea. Circled by the circus sands. With all memory and fate. Driven deep beneath the waves.
| D Em | A (Asus4) |
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Chorus 5
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B | A (Asus4) |
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
| G/B A | D G/B |
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
| D G/B |2/4 A | D (Dsus4) |
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.
Outro
| G/B A | D G/B |
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
| D G/B | to fade
Mr. Tambourine Man’s chords and progressions
Back in the day, before there were computers where musicians recorded tunes to a click that was seen on a grid by an engineer who believed they controlled the songs, there were lyrics and artists like Bob Dylan to follow.
Bob is proper old school, if he has another line to sing in a verse, he’ll sing it. Famously, he’d just start a new song in the studio and expect the musicians to follow him, with the engineer rolling the tape.
Study Mr. Tambourine Man‘s chords and lyrics above and know that this was one take, next time, it would without a doubt be different.
Let’s look at some details of what I’m talking about here.
The last line of chorus 1 is this:
| D G/B |2/4 A | 6/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
After that A, which is always a 2/4 bar (compared with Blowin’ In The Wind), he plays a 6/4 bar of D chords.
For chorus 2 and 3, it’s two bars of 4/4, so two more beats. As a musician, you just wait for him to come in, you don’t read a chart!
| D G/B |2/4 A |4/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) |
Chorus 4 is different, there’s an Em now like this:
| D Em |2/4 A |4/4 D (Dsus4) (Dsus2) | D (Dsus4) |
Chorus 5 is again different with just one bar of 4/4. Again, you listen to where he wants to go.
| D G/B |2/4 A | D (Dsus4) |
The verse is also changing, that second line is sometimes one, two, three, or even four bars long, depending on the lyrics. here’s verse 1:
| D G/B |
Vanished from my hand.
| D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping.
There’s a beat of Em before we go to A. This doesn’t happen all the time. here’s verse 2:
| D G/B | D G/B | D G/B |
My senses have been stripped. My hands can’t feel to grip. My toes too numb to step.
| D Em | A (Asus4) |
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering.
Now we scrap that G/B completely, and there were three bars for the middle line, why? Because Bob had more to say.
The last two lines of verse 2 take this even further.
| D G/B |
Into my own parade.
|5/4 D G/B Em | A (Asus4) |
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it.
Now there was only one bar of D – G/B, and then a 5/4 bar.
Can you imagine trying to do that today on some guy’s laptop where he is staring at the screen, it would blow his mind.
Mr. Tambourine Man tuning and covers
You could study the chords and lyrics above for how Bob played Mr. Tambourine Man on the original recording, just don’t expect him to ever do it the same again!
In the playlist above you’ll see him with a capo on fret 3, but the guitar is tuned down a half step. That 5/4 bar is still there though, why? because all he’s doing is following the lyrics.
And don’t forget to drop the low E to a D. All G chords are G/B.
There have been many covers recorded of Mr. Tambourine Man, most famously, The Byrds recorded their version of Bob’s Masterpiece using a Rickenbacker 12 string without a capo, so in the key of D.
There are other versions of Mr. Tambourine Man, Stevie Wonder did his version in 1966, and my favorite, Helios Sequence as late as 2010.
I’ve included all these versions in the playlist at the top of this page.
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