While speculation remains rampant as to who "Mr. Jones" is and what exactly this song is supposed to mean, there is no definitive answer at this time. At a press conference in 1965, a reporter asked Bob Dylan straight up: "Who is Mr. Jones?" The answer: "I'm not going to tell you his first name. I'd get sued." This intrepid reporter got in a follow-up question, "What does he do for a living?" which garnered this response: "He's a pinboy. He also wears suspenders."
Before launching into this song in Japan, 1986, Dylan said, "This is a song I wrote in response to people who ask questions all the time. You just get tired of that every once in a while."
Of the many references to "Ballad of a Thin Man" found throughout media are the lines "feel so suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones" from the Beatles' 1968 White Album track "Yer Blues." Here are some others: 1967: "Mr. Jones won't lend me a hand" from Country Joe And The Fish' "Flying High." 1981: "Mr. Jones is all of you who live inside a plan" from Mr. Jones" by The Psychedelic Furs. 1993: "I wanna be Bob Dylan, Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky" from "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. 1998: "Mr. Jones is a man who doesn't know who Mr. Jones is" from "Who Is Mr. Jones?" by Momus. While we cannot speculate on the true identity of Mr. Jones, it can be said that the name "Mr. Jones" has come to symbolize for the music world the kind of old-guard "square" who "doesn't get it," similar to our modern usage of the mythical "Joe Sixpack."
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