I've listened to Green Tamborine at least a few hundred times, if not more, and I don't know why it is I love this song so much. Maybe it's the sitar riff at the beginning of the song, even though the sitar is employed much better in Norwegian Wood. Everything is second-rate in this song, from the simple three chords to the lame tambourine itself, but I'm compelled to listen to it. It resides in every playlist of mine and when I hear it on the radio, I'm unable to change the station. I'm trapped by its kooky power.
The song itself doesn't make any sense. Look at the first couple of lines:
Drop your silver in my tamborine
help a poor man build a pretty dream
give me pennies, I'll take anything
There's nothing obviously amiss here. This damn dirty hippie is poor and looking to make some dough to fuel his reefer madness. Most people use a guitar case or a cup to collect loose pocket change and crumpled dollar bills, but this guy's so poor he can't afford such luxuries. All he has is his little tambourine. I feel sorry for Mr. Tamborine Man, who is most likely the subject of The Byrds' song of the same name, but more on that later. I want you to look at the very next line in the song:
Now listen as I play my Green Tamborine
Okay, I know I'm a little slow in the head, but how the hell can you play the tamborine? It's got money in it. If you start banging on that thing, all those hard-earned pennies are going to fly out all over the place. You can bet your unwashed ass that all of your pretty dreams will disappear as street urchins and bums battle each other for the scattered copper loot. I'm starting to feel not-so-sorry for Mr. Tamborine Man, who's evidently thrown away thousands for want of a fully functional short term memory. But perhaps that's his plan.
Maybe, just maybe, Tamborine Man serves as a central collection point for tourists' money, which he then distributes to his unfortunate neighbors in the most fair manner possible: by randomly scattering it about himself. Could that be his pretty dream --to bring money and happiness to orphans and winos who otherwise would go hungry because they have no talent with which to earn money? Is Tamborine Man the result of some complex mechanism of bum evolution which has produced a mutant of the species capable of a singular talent that confers a natural advantage over the others of his kind? If so, Tamborine Man's charitable efforts toward his unfortunate kinsmen are worthy of praise and respect.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks P, very glad to have you back, missed your strange obsessions!
2 - Al Barger
I have not researched the demonic tamborine issue nearly as extensively as you, so I may not speak as authoritatively.
However, I've wondered if it was not the very same instrument, the demonically possessed Green Tamborine casting its demonic charisma into "Tamborine" from Prince's Around the World in a Day album.
Does the instrument itself radiate an irresistable enchantment wave through the CDs and radios into the minds of unsuspecting listeners?
Scully and Muldar will be out any time now to get your statement.
3 - Eric Olsen
And how does this relate to Robert Johnson's demonic possession? Or was it, in fact, his guitar?
4 - Marty Thau
Better double up on your Wellbutrin intake. Two tablets in the morning and one at night should do it. I happened to have promoted that record and know that it was intended to be psychedelic and imaginative as were many songs of that era. Don't you have better things to do with your time?
5 - Paul
What, like make banal comments to lighthearted posts about shitty songs?
6 - a
What the freakin piece of crap are you talking about?
7 - Dan
Lemmon Pipers only hit. I jammed with the bass player, Steve, in the mid '70's. He was irritated by my guitar's inability to maintain precise tuning. Fine fellow though.
I was impressed with his gold record.
I think he's gone now. As I remember, he had a legal problem with dealing pot in the 90's. The case went to the Indiana Supreme Court because of police procedural problems. It was eventually thrown out, but he didn't live to see it.
8 - Trisha
I think I love you.