{"id":42522,"date":"2025-07-31T16:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/bob-dylans-subterranean-homesick-blues-video-is-still-influencing\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:54:09","slug":"bob-dylans-subterranean-homesick-blues-video-is-still-influencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/bob-dylans-subterranean-homesick-blues-video-is-still-influencing\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Dylan&#8217;s &#8216;Subterranean Homesick Blues&#8217; Video Is Still Influencing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Rolling Stone<\/em> named Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cFormation\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-lists\/best-music-videos-1194411\/beyonce-formation-5-1195750\/\">greatest music video of all time<\/a> in 2021. But when it comes to the most influential, first place can arguably go to a clip that isn\u2019t even a proper music video \u2014 and was shot in black &amp; white 60 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tLast week, Margo Price released a jaunty new single, \u201cDon\u2019t Wake Me Up,\u201d accompanied by a video in which she holds up white cards with snippets of lyrics \u2014 among them, \u201ccow pasture cemetery,\u201d \u201chonky tonk leaky tent,\u201d \u201cdive bar,\u201d \u201cmadness\u201d \u2014 as the song plays. It didn\u2019t take a classic-rock historian to see the video as a nod to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/bob-dylan\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bob-dylan\" data-tag=\"bob-dylan\">Bob Dylan<\/a>\u2019s \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues,\u201d the canonical footage of the young Bob of 1965 in a London alleyway holding, and discarding, cards with bits of the tune\u2019s lyrics; in the background is poet Allen Ginsberg talking to off-screen Dylan pal Bobby Neuwirth.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Margo Price ft. Jesse Welles - Don&#039;t Wake Me Up (Official Music Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/imHDHHKyxrs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tNot an actual music video, the scene was the opener of documentarian D.A. Pennebaker\u2019s penetrating 1967 film <em>Dont Look Back<\/em>, shot during Dylan\u2019s U.K. tour of two years before. As Pennebaker <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/05\/20\/movies\/da-pennebaker-interview-bob-dylan-documentary-dont-look-back.html\">later said<\/a>, the concept came from Dylan himself: \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019ve got this idea for a film where I take a whole lot of sheets of paper and write lyrics for a song, and hold them up as the lyrics come up in the song and then I just toss them away.\u2019 And I said, \u2018That\u2019s a fantastic idea.\u2019 So we brought along about 50 shirt cardboards.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe footage was shot in the alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London, and according to Pennebaker (who died in 2019), some of the handwritten lyrics were supplied by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/joan-baez-interview-trump-protests-dylan-a-complete-unknown-1235359143\/\">Joan Baez<\/a> and Donovan, who were both in Dylan\u2019s vicinity (and crosshairs) at the time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official HD Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MGxjIBEZvx0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOnce the MTV era began, the sequence, relatively primitive as it was, was seen as a music video prototype and began to inspire knockoffs and tributes. \u201cWhen Margo approached me with the concept, I did a deep dive on groups who\u2019d done similar projects with poster cards or cue cards and was shocked to see how many there were,\u201d says Hannah Gray Hall, who directed Price\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Wake Me Up.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s like keeping a tradition going.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe first may have been \u201cMisfit,\u201d the 1986 video by the stylish British pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat, which featured Andy Warhol dropping white cards during a brief cameo.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Misfit [Official music video] - Curiosity Killed The Cat (HD\/HQ)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/59M9ggdpFjQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe following year, INXS\u2019 \u201cMediate\u201d elevated the Dylan homage to another level. Starting with singer Michael Hutchence, all the band members held up and subsequently dropped lyric cards in sequence. \u201cYou had to get the timing right,\u201d INXS\u2019 Andrew Farriss tells <em>Rolling Stone <\/em>of filming outside of Sydney in the band\u2019s home country of Australia<em>.<\/em> \u201cYou had to make sure the cards landed.\u201d In another salute to the Dylan video, some of the words on the cards were intentionally misspelled.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"INXS - Mediate (Official Music Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pr-Vfnd7Yno?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn a sign that not everything was instantly available on YouTube in 1987 (of course, YouTube was yet to exist), Farriss says he wasn\u2019t aware of the source material at the time. \u201cI\u2019m not sure if it was the director\u2019s idea or Michael\u2019s, but I have to admit that I didn\u2019t even know Bob had a video like that,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe some of the other guys did. All I know is that it sounded like a good idea. I saw [the original] later and went, \u2018Oh, wow.\u2019\u201d The recreation was so obvious that one critic at the time noted that \u201cboth the filmmaker [Pennebaker] and his subject [Dylan] ought to round up the lawyers,\u201d but that didn\u2019t prevent the song from winning Video of the Year at the 1988 MTV Music Video Awards, in conjunction with the band\u2019s companion clip for \u201cNeed You Tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSince then, a cottage industry of \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues\u201d videos has risen up, each honoring the original in different ways. As with Curiosity Killed the Cat, some approached their remakes as parodies. \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic\u2019s \u201cBob,\u201d in 2003, found everyone\u2019s favorite satirical hero with a Dylan wig, vest, and alleyway of his own, a pretend Ginsberg behind him, as Yankovic tweaked Dylan\u2019s surrealistic imagery (\u201cRise to vote, sir\/Do geese see God\/Do nine men interpret\/Nine men, I nod\u201d).<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic - Bob (Official Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JUQDzj6R3p4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tEven though \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues\u201d isn\u2019t one of Dylan\u2019s topical songs, others have used the setup for protest shots of their own. Les Claypool and the Frog Brigade\u2019s \u201cBuzzards of Green Hill\u201d has typically carnivalesque Claypool lyrics, which could be about the perils of drunken driving, hence Claypool\u2019s use of cue cards in the song\u2019s video.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Les Claypool&#039;s Flying Frog Brigade &quot;Buzzards of Green Hill&quot; \u200c\u200c - Bohemia Afterdark\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tx6pSnq9EvI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tEarlier this year, Kim Gordon redid the packing-list lyrics of \u201cBye Bye\u201d into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/kim-gordon-bye-bye-25-donald-trump-1235364057\/\">a minimalist anti-Trump protest song<\/a>, \u201cBye Bye 25!,\u201d complete with a video with Gordon holding cards with the new lyrics (\u201cimmigrant,\u201d \u201chate,\u201d \u201cinjustice\u201d). Artist Ed Ruscha has a Sonic Youth connection of his own (the band named its song \u201cBrave Men Run\u201d after one of his paintings) and a Dylan one too: In 2012, his offered up a lyric-card homage, honoring friend and conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner with snippets of Weiner\u2019s own words.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kim Gordon - &quot;BYE BYE 25!&quot;\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TkyuLs3GHmA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWir sind Helden\u2019s 2005 video \u201cNur ein Wort\u201d (\u201cJust One Word\u201d) featured the now-defunct German pop band in their own alley, dancing and cavorting as they flashed their lyric sheets. (Since the song is about encouraging a private person to express themselves \u2014 \u201cyour silence is your tent\u201d \u2014 the use of words in the video made conceptual sense.) And before he was slaying zombies, Andrew Lincoln was wooing Keira Knightley in <em>Love Actually<\/em> with, yep, words on white cards.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wir sind Helden - Nur Ein Wort (Official Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X5kmM98iklo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn the case of Price\u2019s video, director Hall says Price\u2019s team approached her about doing something similar to Dylan, \u201cbut they said to make it my own and do a contemporary take on it.\u201d Using 77 different poster-board cards for her shoot, Hall thinks those lyric snippets also connect to the song\u2019s theme and to Dylan\u2019s own legacy: \u201cMargo and I didn\u2019t talk about it in depth, but to me, it speaks very heavily to our current social climate and people being isolated in their own ways and not looking into other people\u2019s opinions. It\u2019s more social commentary than protest song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFor Farriss, one thing unites nearly 40 years of \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues\u201d homages. \u201cIt\u2019s simple,\u201d he says. \u201cJust because something\u2019s complicated doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s necessarily good.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/bob-dylan-subterranean-homesick-blues-video-influence-1235395318\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rolling Stone named Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cFormation\u201d the greatest music video of all time in 2021. But when it comes to the most influential, first place&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}