Bob Dylan / 6:19
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, harmonica
Mark Knopfler: guitar
Mick Taylor: guitar
Alan Clark: keyboards
Robbie Shakespeare: bass
Sly Dunbar: drums, percussion
Recording Studio
The Power Station / Studio A, New York: April 14, 1983 (Overdubs May 8, 1983)
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler
Sound Engineer: Neil Dorfsman
In March 1984, Bob Dylan told Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone how he composed “Jokerman” during a stay in the Caribbean. “Me and another guy have a boat down there. ‘Jokerman’ kinda came to me in the islands. It’s very mystical. The shapes there, and shadows, seem to be so ancient. The song was sorta inspired by these spirits they call jumbis.”
The jumbis, a Caribbean term for “spirits” or “demons,” are believed to exercise their evil power over the Caribbean. For Dylan, they are each the “Jokerman.” Infidels still retains a strong penchant for biblical texts, particularly the book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Revelation. Thus, “Jokerman” could also be the Antichrist, the son of perdition, “manipulator of crowds,” man of “Sodom and Gomorrah.” Against this evil spirit that obeys only the “law of the jungle,” Dylan sets up the moral precepts found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy (the third and fifth books of the Old Testament), which focus on law. The last verse recounts the beginning of the final battle between good and evil with the birth of a prince.
This mystical vision is not the only possible interpretation. The “Jokerman” could be the artist lazing on his boat, whose main goal is to entertain the crowds—the one who “[dances] to the nightingale tune.” As always with Dylan, the song can be appreciated regardless of its interpretation. Dylan admitted in 1991 to journalist Paul Zollo that he was not really pleased with the song: “That’s a song that got away from me… It probably didn’t hold up for me because in my mind it has been written and rewritten and written again.”20
Sly Dunbar told MOJO magazine, “Bob Dylan always do songs in different keys, like he’ll change three, four different keys in a song, and he will change the lyrics on the fly, so when we cut ‘Jokerman,’ we recorded it and then we had a break overnight. [Dylan] came in the morning and said, ‘Oh, gentlemen, could you just run ‘Jokerman’ for me again?’ Nobody knew the tape was spinning; we were just running down the music and he said, ‘OK, that’s it’—it was the take we didn’t know we were taking that he used.”134
The recording of “Jokerman” started on April 13, 1983, with five takes. The following day another take was done. The sound of the African drums gave the piece color. “Jokerman” has a laid-back reggae groove—more precisely, rock and reggae. The rhythm, provided by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, two giants of Jamaican music and stars of reggae, is inimitable and irresistible. Their characteristic rhythmic pulse in this ballad curiously gives it a pop feeling, which is reinforced by Mark Knopfler on his Stratocaster (Schecter). Supported by Alan Clark’s ethereal organ, Dylan delivers an excellent vocal in this sublime ballad with a rich and, for Dylan, unusual harmony. After Knopfler’s first impressive solo, Dylan plays harmonica (in E-flat). The sound is very curious, very equalized, and probably treated with a sound effect, but the result fits the tune perfectly. Finally, after the fourth verse (around 3:29), Mick Taylor enters, probably on his Gibson Les Paul with a saturated tone.
The opening title on Infidels, “Jokerman” is a great song proclaiming a new era for the songwriter. As his first song recorded in digital, the sound is colder, cleaner, with an apparent lack of roundness but with greater precision. Dylan had just switched to the digital age, not necessarily the best technology to express his creative fervor. On May 8, according to studio record sheets, Sammy Figueroa added percussion, but it is, unfortunately, inaudible.
“Jokerman” was released as a single with a live version of “Isis” on the B-side in April 1984, exactly one year after the recording sessions, but it failed on the pop charts. However, Bob Dylan has performed “Jokerman” more than 150 times onstage since the concert at the Verona Arena in Italy on May 28, 1984.