While Bob Dylan is one of the most critically acclaimed lyricists of all time (he even won the Novel Prize in Literature in 2016), not all of his songs were poetic or profound. In fact, some were pretty silly…case in point, “Mighty Quinn.”
Dylan originally recorded the song as “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)” during The Basement Tapes sessions in 1967 but didn’t initially plan for the track to be released. Eventually, a live version came out on Dylan’s 1970 Self Portrait album as “The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo). But before that happened, the British band Manfred Mann (who had a #1 hit with “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” in 1964) released “Mighty Quinn” as a single in 1968: First in the U.S., where it peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, then in the U.K., where it went all the way to #1 on the UK Singles Chart.
Years later, Mike D’Abo of Manfred Mann opened up about how the band came to cover “Mighty Quinn.”
“We met in a publisher’s house as Bob Dylan was making some new material available to other artists,” D’Abo said, according to 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh.
“We heard about 10 songs and I thought ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ would be the one to do, but Manfred [Mann] liked ‘The Mighty Quinn,’ which was called ‘Quinn The Eskimo’ then,” he continued. “It was sung in a rambling monotone but Manfred had recognized its potential. He sold me on the idea of doing this song, but I had to make up some of the words as I couldn’t make out everything he was saying. It was like learning a song phonetically in a foreign language. I have never had the first idea what the song is about except that it seems to be ‘Hey, gang, gather round, something exciting is going to happen ’cause the big man’s coming.’ As to who the big man is and why he is an Eskimo, I don’t know.”
So what is “Mighty Quinn” actually about? Dylan himself apparently referred to the song as a “nursery rhyme,” per the Untold Dylan, though it was also rumored to be inspired by the 1959 Nicholas Ray movie The Savage Innocents, starring Anthony Quinn as an Eskimo named Inuk, as Songfacts reported.
The lyrics definitely do have a nursery rhyme sort of feel to them:
A cat’s meow and a cow’s moo, I can recite ’em allJust tell me where it hurts yuh, honeyAnd I’ll tell you who to callNobody can get no sleepThere’s someone on ev’ryone’s toesBut when Quinn the Eskimo gets hereEv’rybody’s gonna wanna dozeCome all without, come all withinYou’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn
Of course, everybody knows a song doesn’t have to make sense to become a classic. While Manfred Mann’s version of “Mighty Quinn” was the most commercially successful, they weren’t the only band to cover this song; the Hollies released their own cover in 1969, and the song became a live staple for both the Grateful Dead and Phish.
Related: 1975 Bob Dylan Hit, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time,’ Took ’10 Years to Live and Two Years to Write’
In a 1993 interview with Keyboard magazine, Manfred Mann (the individual, not the entire band) admitted that the success of “lightweight” songs like “Mighty Quinn” and “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” might have overshadowed the “side of the band that was truly exceptional.”
“Bands like the Stones managed to make their best stuff, in one sense, successful,” explained Mann (who had a massive #1 hit in 1976 with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s “Blinded by the Light”).
“We never quite managed to get the blues stuff to be successful, and I think that is what happened to that memory of the ’60s,” he continued. “I must say I personally don’t bother too much about it. The ’60s isn’t a period I remember with any great affection. I have to be careful about what I say about that time because I have a great respect for the people I worked with in that period, and they’re all very fine musicians, but somehow I don’t think we ever produced the best that we could do on record.”
Fans might disagree with Mann’s assessment of his early hits. After all, it might not have been the band’s “best,” but it was good enough to top the charts.
Related: 1969 Classic Ballad, From Bob Dylan’s Favorite Country-Rock Album, Became a Timeless Breakup Anthem
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