“He heard us playing his song electric. You could see the gears grinding in his head. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt”: How The Byrds reinvented a great Bob Dylan song and inspired Dylan to revolutionise his music

“He heard us playing his song electric. You could see the gears grinding in his head. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt”: How The Byrds reinvented a great Bob Dylan song and inspired Dylan to revolutionise his music

Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds is one of very few cover versions to have arrived less than a month after the original. The song was penned by Bob Dylan and released towards the end of March 1965 as the second single from his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, with The Byrds’ version landing just three weeks later.The Byrds used the song as the lead single and title track from their debut full-length, which was made of folk covers – m…