Ballad of a Thin Man
E106969
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a dark, surreal Bob Dylan song known for its biting critique of clueless establishment figures and its haunting, piano-driven sound.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ballad of a Thin Man canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T901520 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ballad of a Thin Man Context triple: [Highway 61 Revisited, hasTrack, Ballad of a Thin Man]
-
A.
None but the Lonely Heart
"None but the Lonely Heart" is a 1944 drama film, based on Richard Llewellyn’s novel and directed by Clifford Odets, about a disillusioned Cockney drifter in wartime London struggling with poverty, crime, and his relationship with his ailing mother.
-
B.
Manhattan Melodrama
Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American crime drama film, best known for starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy and for being the movie John Dillinger watched before his death.
-
C.
An American Lady
"An American Lady" is a written work associated with Jennie Jerome, better known as Lady Randolph Churchill, reflecting her experiences and perspective as a prominent American-born figure in British high society.
-
D.
White Heat
White Heat is a 1949 American film noir crime drama directed by Raoul Walsh, renowned for James Cagney’s iconic performance as psychotic gangster Cody Jarrett and its explosive finale.
-
E.
The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon is a classic 1941 film noir, directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade, widely regarded as a landmark of the genre.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ballad of a Thin Man Target entity description: "Ballad of a Thin Man" is a dark, surreal Bob Dylan song known for its biting critique of clueless establishment figures and its haunting, piano-driven sound.
-
A.
None but the Lonely Heart
"None but the Lonely Heart" is a 1944 drama film, based on Richard Llewellyn’s novel and directed by Clifford Odets, about a disillusioned Cockney drifter in wartime London struggling with poverty, crime, and his relationship with his ailing mother.
-
B.
Manhattan Melodrama
Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American crime drama film, best known for starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy and for being the movie John Dillinger watched before his death.
-
C.
An American Lady
"An American Lady" is a written work associated with Jennie Jerome, better known as Lady Randolph Churchill, reflecting her experiences and perspective as a prominent American-born figure in British high society.
-
D.
White Heat
White Heat is a 1949 American film noir crime drama directed by Raoul Walsh, renowned for James Cagney’s iconic performance as psychotic gangster Cody Jarrett and its explosive finale.
-
E.
The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon is a classic 1941 film noir, directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade, widely regarded as a landmark of the genre.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
musical work
ⓘ
song ⓘ |
| album | Highway 61 Revisited ⓘ |
| artist | Bob Dylan ⓘ |
| chronologyPosition | track on side two of Highway 61 Revisited ⓘ |
| composer | Bob Dylan ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| famousLine | "Something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" ⓘ |
| genre |
folk rock
ⓘ
rock ⓘ |
| hasCoverVersionBy |
Ben Sidran
ⓘ
Stephen Malkmus ⓘ The Grass Roots ⓘ |
| hasCriticalReception |
often interpreted as a critique of clueless journalists and establishment critics
ⓘ
widely regarded as one of Bob Dylan's most scathing protest songs ⓘ |
| hasEra | mid-1960s Bob Dylan electric period ⓘ |
| hasInstrumentation |
bass guitar
ⓘ
drums ⓘ organ ⓘ piano ⓘ saxophone ⓘ |
| hasLyricalTheme |
alienation
ⓘ
critique of establishment figures ⓘ surreal imagery ⓘ |
| hasMainInstrument | piano ⓘ |
| hasMood |
dark
ⓘ
haunting ⓘ |
| hasMusicalFeature | minor-key, piano-driven arrangement ⓘ |
| includedIn | 1965 studio album Highway 61 Revisited ⓘ |
| includedInList | various critics' lists of greatest Bob Dylan songs ⓘ |
| isFollowedBy | Queen Jane Approximately ⓘ |
| isPrecededBy |
Highway 61 Revisited (title track)
ⓘ
linked to:
Highway 61 Revisited
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| livePerformance | frequently performed on Bob Dylan's 1965–1966 tours ⓘ |
| lyricist | Bob Dylan ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus | character Mr. Jones ⓘ |
| partOf | Highway 61 Revisited ⓘ |
| performer | Bob Dylan ⓘ |
| producer | Bob Johnston ⓘ |
| publisher | Duchess Music Corporation ⓘ |
| recordedAt | Columbia Studio A, New York City ⓘ |
| recordingDate | 1965-08-02 ⓘ |
| recordLabel | Columbia Records ⓘ |
| releaseDate | 1965-08-30 ⓘ |
| tempo | slow to mid-tempo ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ballad of a Thin Man Description of subject: "Ballad of a Thin Man" is a dark, surreal Bob Dylan song known for its biting critique of clueless establishment figures and its haunting, piano-driven sound.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home – The Soundtrack
→
includesSong
→
Ballad of a Thin Man
ⓘ