In the liner notes to his Biograph box set, Dylan said, “‘Mr
Tambourine Man’ was inspired by Bruce Langhorne. Bruce was playing
guitar with me on a bunch of the early records. He had this gigantic
tambourine. It was like, really big. It was as big as a wagon-wheel. He
was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck
in my mind. I don’t know if I’ve ever told him that.”
Bruce Langhorne was born in Tallahassee, Florida. After leaving Tallahassee as a child, he moved with his librarian mother, Dorothy, to Harlem and began learning the violin. His days as a prodigy ended at the age of 12, when he blew off the tips of two fingers and his right thumb after clinging on too long to a homemade firework called a cherry bomb. “At least I won’t have to play the violin anymore,” he told his weeping mother.
Despite this event, he found a way around his disability. Though he could not strum, the young Langhorne became an accomplished finger-picking player.
After working as a street performer and in New York folk clubs, word of Langhorne’s talent got round and he played a session with Dylan in October 1962, showcasing his stunning guitar on ‘Corrina, Corrina’ for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. His potent electric guitar lines also light up songs such as Bringing It All Back Home’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and ‘Maggie’s Farm’.
Dylan was supposedly inspired to write ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, on which Langhorne also plays, after seeing him arrive for a recording session holding a giant Turkish frame drum with jingle-jangling bells attached to its edges. It looked like a tambourine the size of an extra-large pizza!
Bruce Langhorne released his only solo record, Tambourine Man, in 2011.
He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and after suffering a stroke in 2015, Langhorne spent his final years in a hospice until his death from kidney failure, in Venice, California, on 14 April 2017.
That was, in brief, the story of the real Mr. Tambourine Man.
Bruce Langhorne was born in Tallahassee, Florida. After leaving Tallahassee as a child, he moved with his librarian mother, Dorothy, to Harlem and began learning the violin. His days as a prodigy ended at the age of 12, when he blew off the tips of two fingers and his right thumb after clinging on too long to a homemade firework called a cherry bomb. “At least I won’t have to play the violin anymore,” he told his weeping mother.
Despite this event, he found a way around his disability. Though he could not strum, the young Langhorne became an accomplished finger-picking player.
After working as a street performer and in New York folk clubs, word of Langhorne’s talent got round and he played a session with Dylan in October 1962, showcasing his stunning guitar on ‘Corrina, Corrina’ for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. His potent electric guitar lines also light up songs such as Bringing It All Back Home’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and ‘Maggie’s Farm’.
Dylan was supposedly inspired to write ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, on which Langhorne also plays, after seeing him arrive for a recording session holding a giant Turkish frame drum with jingle-jangling bells attached to its edges. It looked like a tambourine the size of an extra-large pizza!
Bruce Langhorne released his only solo record, Tambourine Man, in 2011.
He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and after suffering a stroke in 2015, Langhorne spent his final years in a hospice until his death from kidney failure, in Venice, California, on 14 April 2017.
That was, in brief, the story of the real Mr. Tambourine Man.
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