 During a concert in Melbourne in 1966 , Dylan said of the song , " This is about a painter down in Mexico city who travels through the North of Mexico up to Del Rio Texas all the time , his name is Tom Thumb , and right now he is about 125 years old but he 's still going , and everybody likes him a lot down there , he 's got lots of friends , and this is when he was going through his blue period painting , and he 's made countless amounts of paints you couldn 't think of them all . This is his blue period of painting I just dedicate this song that is called Just Like Tom Thumb 's Blues . " 
