Ballad of a Thin Man - Live at Nippon Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan - February/March 1978 Songtext
von Bob Dylan

You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard but you don′t understand
Just what you're gonna say when you get home

Something is happening but you don′t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You sneak into the window and you say, "Is this where it is?"
Somebody points his finger at you and says, "It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?", someone else says, "What is?"
You say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"

Something is happening but you don′t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You hand in your ticket to go see the geek
Who wokes up too when he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel to be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible" as he hands you a bone


Something is happening, you don′t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You have many contacts out there among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination (imagination)
But nobody has any respect, anyway they just expect
You to hand up a your check to tax-deductible charity organizations

The sword swallower walks up and then he kneels
He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice asks you how it feels
And says, "Here's your throat back, thanks for the loan"

Something is happening, you don′t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

You crawn into the room like a camel and you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket and you put your nose into the ground
There ought to be a law against you comin' around
You got to be made to be wearing a telephone

Something is happening and you don′t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?


Something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?