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"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song written by Bob Dylan originally released on the album Bringing It All Back Home in 1965. It was re-released on numerous other Dylan albums such as Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits.

References and allusions

song was, in fact, an extraordinary three-way amalgam of Jack Kerouac, the Guthrie/Pete Seeger song "Taking It Easy" ('mom was in the kitchen preparing to eat/sis was in the pantry looking for some yeast') and the riffed-up rock'n'roll poetry of Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business". [http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/bob_dylan/special_features/27

While Dylan was not a member of the original Beat circles of the 1950s, Kerouac's The Subterraneans, a novel published in 1958 about the Beats, has been cited as a possible inspiration for the song's title. [http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=1834 Stretching further back, the title alludes to Notes from Underground, a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, whose works were popular with Beat writers such as Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

The song's first line is a reference to the production of LSD and the politics of the era: "Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine / I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the Government". The song also depicts some of the growing conflicts between "straight" or "square" (40 hour workers) and the emerging 1960s counterculture. The widespread use of recreational drugs, and turmoil surrounding the opposition to the Vietnam War were both starting to take hold of the nation, and Dylan's hyperkinetic lyrics were dense with up-to-the-minute allusions to important emerging elements in the 1960s youth culture. The song throws up a number of references to the struggles surrounding the American civil rights movement ("Better stay away from those / That carry around a firehose"). Despite the political nature of the lyrics, the song went on to become the first top 40 hit for Dylan in the United States *.

Musical and political influence

Being listed by Rolling Stone magazine as the 332nd "Greatest Song of All Time" *, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" has played an influential role on many groups and individuals.

  • Most famously, the song's lyrics were cited as inspiration by the American Maoist group the Weathermen, (a breakaway from the Students for a Democratic Society); the group took its name from the line "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". *

  • In 2003 the rock band Jet was inspired to name their album Get Born after the lyrics from the last verse ("Ah get born, keep warm / short pants, romance, learn to dance").

  • The American stand-up comedian, satirist, and social critic Bill Hicks sometimes used the start of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as the opening to his act, and it can be heard on the bootleg I'm Sorry Folks - Part 1.

Music videos

In addition to the song's influence on music, the song was used in what became one of the first "modern" music videos. Although Rolling Stone lists it as the 7th on their list of "100 Top Music Videos" the original "video" was actually a segment from D. A. Pennebaker's film, Dont Look Back (a documentary on Bob Dylan's first tour of England in 1965). In the film, Dylan holds up cue cards for the audience with words from the song on them. While staring at the camera, he flips the cards as the song plays. Interestingly, there are intentional errors throughout the video. For instance, the song's lyrics say "eleven dollar bills," but the poster says "20 dollars". The original video takes place in an alley behind The Savoy Hotel in London where poet Allen Ginsberg makes a cameo. [http://imdb.com/title/tt0061589/trivia

In addition to the Savoy Hotel video, two alternate videos were shot: One in a park where Dylan and Ginsberg are joined by a third man, and another shot on the roof of an unknown building (possibly the Savoy Hotel). A montage of the videos can be seen in the documentary No Direction Home.

Similar Videos

The "Subterranean Homesick Blues" music video and its concepts have been popularly imitated by a number of artists. Influenced and imitative videos of note include:

References

External links

1965 singles | Bob Dylan songs

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

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