Very interesting listen. In my 20's I loved (obsessed over) Dylan's work, but this reminds me how superficially. He really is a remarkably learned and skilled American poetic and musical icon.

Nothing unexpected or unknown in the verses but the analysis, or lack, of the chorus is telling.

To cover for the shallowness, a shallowness that ABBA revived with "...the beat of the tambourine...yeah!" in Dancing Queen, with such a quick aside to an acquaintance and then to a "celebration" of all musicians isn't a fabulous effort.

Give the "tambourine man" played on the song it's likely a reference to him and a quick reference to the Pied Piper.

Everyone who has heard it, and understood English, has noted the difference between verses and chorus. To my mind the mystical/mythical descriptions of recent events and imagination alongside the seemingly throw away chorus comes across as fey in comparison BUT it works because of THAT melody, the sounds of the words and the chords under it. Nt to make too much of the drug culture of the times as well.