The legacy of German Jones is a long and winding road. This recent discovery has exposed a possible skeleton in his closet. This was taken from a Dylan fan site:

“My view is that Mr. Jones is a normal citizen, maybe even married, but has thoughts of homosexuality and somehow ends up in an exotic gay strip club. He can’t believe what is happening and doesn’t know what to do. I have thought this since I first analyzed the song. I’ll run through the lyrics of ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’:

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’ll say
When you get home

pencil=penis. basically he has entered an exotic gay strip bar/club where they are doing all of these weird acts of sexuality and he wonders what’s happening, and how he is going to deal with this.

(3rd verse)
You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
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

he walks up to Mr. Jones when he hears Mr. Jones speak maybe because Mr. Jones sounds gay and he asks how does it feel to be “a freak” or gay and replies “impossible” because Mr. Jones doesn’t think he is – at least not at the level of flaunting that the people in this club are doing.

You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts
When someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To just give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations

for me this is a key verse since it says “you have many contacts among the lumberjacks” or ‘straight’/’manly’ people, “when someone attacks your imagination”, like these people are doing in these strip club.

You’ve been with the professors
And they’ve all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You’ve been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books
You’re very well read
It’s well known

this verse shows Mr. Jones tries to convince himself that he IS a part of society since he has done all of these things and not like these other “freaks”

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you
And then he kneels
He crosses himself
And then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice
He asks you how it feels
And he says, “Here is your throat back
Thanks for the loan”

just use your imagination for this one. its pretty clear to me that he is in a gay strip club.

Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word “NOW”
And you say, “For what reason?”
And he says, “How?”
And you say, “What does this mean?”
And he screams back, “You’re a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home”

one-eyed midget – a penis more than likely. again use your imagination.

Well, you walk into the room
Like a camel and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket
And your nose on the ground
There ought to be a law
Against you coming’ around
You should be made
To wear earphones

the lasts lines are what Dylan is famous for – incredible lyrics. Mr. Jones thinks that society should “protect” him from places like this, and he shouldn’t be allowed to even be exposed to this.”

I was very happy to find this. It proves that I am not the only person interested in this most peculiar man.