Autour du "Subterranean Homesick Blues" de Bob Dylan (1965)

27 Mars 2010

"Subterranean Homesick Blues"

Johny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skip cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten.

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the DA
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try, 'No Doz'
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows.

Get sick, get well
Hang around an ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write Braille
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you failed
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters.

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles.

PARODIES

COVERS :
Gregory Isaacs

Tim O'Brien

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Doug Kershaw

Harry Nilsson

Alanis Morissette

Similar videos :

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

The video for the 1987 INXS track "Mediate" duplicated the format of the Dylan video, including the use of apparently deliberate errors.
The video clip for Bloodhound Gang's 1999 song "Mope", off their album Hooray For Boobies, imitates Dylan's use of cue cards in the "Subterranean" clip.
"Weird Al" Yankovic used the concept twice: first, for his 1989 song "UHF" and second, for the song "Bob" from his 2003 albumPoodle Hat. In "Bob", the lyrics are all palindromes, and the video depicts Yankovic dressed as Dylan dropping cue cards with each palindrome.
The 1992 Tim Robbins film Bob Roberts features Robbins in the title role as a right-wing folk singer who uses Dylan's cue-card concept for the song "Wall Street Rap"
The video for "Buzzards of Green Hill" by Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade borrows the cue card idea from Dylan's clip.
After being fired from his record company, French singer Alain Chamfort commissioned director Bruno Decharme to make an exact replica of the original video for his song "Les yeux de Laure"
Filk performer The great Luke Ski recorded two Star Wars-themed parodies of "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "Star Wars Trilogy Homesick Blues", about the Original Trilogy, and "Star Wars Prequel Homesick Blues", about the Prequel Trilogy. He also filmed a video for the former, with Ski dressed as Dylan dropping cue cards as in the "Subterranean" clip. For live performances of the songs, Ski reprised his costume from the clip and used cue cards appropriate to the song.
The film clip was referenced in Richard Curtis's film Love Actually, in the scene where Mark (Andrew Lincoln) tells Juliet (Keira Knightley) that he is in love with her, by holding up cards with messages on them.
The video for "Misfit" by 1980s UK pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat features Andy Warhol standing motionless in an alleyway, dropping cue cards that are blank, while the band's singer energetically dances to the left of him. Warhol directed the video in New York's Greenwich Village, although the directorial credit uses a pseudonym.
In an episode of Lost, Juliet holds up cards and removes them in a video she shows Jack to tell him that Ben is not wanted as a prominent figure in the Others community.
The Gothic Archies use the cue card idea for their "Scream and Run Away" video^.
The Canadian comedy group The Royal Canadian Air Farce had a segment on their TV show called "Bob Dylan News" which parodied the "Subterranean" clip.
The Flaming Lips parodied the film clip in a television advertisement for their 2006 album At War with the Mystics. In the clip, lead singer Wayne Coyne uses cue cards to inform viewers of the release, while the album's "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" plays.
Directorial duo Greifer & Krötenbluth shot a promo for the German band Wir sind Helden's 2005 single "Nur ein Wort", in which the group's singer and guitarist use cue cards and other effects.
Scottish band Belle and Sebastian pay homage to the Subterranean Homesick Blues film in the music video for the song "Like Dylan in the Movies" on the album If You're Feeling Sinister. The video was filmed and edited by band members, and was not released until the 2003 documentary/video compilation Fans Only. Part of the song lyrics are a play on the title of the Dylan documentary: "If they follow you, don't look back, like Dylan in the movies."
The American punk band Anti-Flag used the concept in the clip for their song "Turncoat".
Pop-punk band The Matches created a video for their song, "Salty Eyes", using televisions as opposed to flashcards - throwing them around and dropping the televisions as the lyrics are said. Also, in tribute to the clip, one television says "Clean Nose", which when the camera pans back around, shows lead singer Shawn Harris drawing white over letters and changing them to say "However Naive", one of the Salty Eyes' Lyrics.
Argentinian singer/songwriter León Gieco paid homage to Dylan by using cue cards in his video clip for the song El ídolo de los Quemados, in his 2001 album, Bandidos Rurales.
Chicago band Sundowner produced a video in 2007 for their song "This War is Noise" as a tribute to Dylan's clip.
Australian comedy team The Chaser parodied the clip twice. The first featured Chris Taylor advertising the second-half of the 2007 series return for their show, The Chaser's War on Everything. The second parody, aired during Episode 14, featured Andrew Hansen in a skit about APEC .
Joe Cartoon parodies the clip for the trailer to Blender Poll 2008.
Convention producers The Madow Brothers did a scene using the card-dropping theme which was shot in a Las Vegas alleyway for the opening video to TBSE 2007.
Joan O'Connor, RN, produced "Just Say No to Big Tobacco Co." in 2008, a music video of a song written and performed by her. The video was a collaborative project with her 'Smoking Reduction and Cessation Group for People Living with Mental Illnesses.'
In an early episode of the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete, entitled "Don't Tread on Pete," Big Pete, while talking about cafeteria food and the different names for a salisbury steak, is shown in black and white dressed as Dylan and holding up cue cards with the different names.
In late 2008, ESPN personality Kenny Mayne used a similar video to promote Mayne Street, a Web-only series on ESPN.com in which he stars.
In 2008, rapper Evidence shot a music video for his single "The Far Left" as a tribute to Subterranean Homesick Blues. The video also includes him holding words to the song and drawn pictures as well.
In the 2008 documentary "Gold and Silver and Sunshine - The Making of Dig Out Your Soul", the English band Oasis introduced each point of interest using the card-dropping theme from the Subterranean Homesick Blues video.
Singer-songwriter, Julian Velard, pays tribute to Dylan using the card-dropping motif on the intro page to his website.
A 2009 Fruit of the Loom commercial uses a similar tune with the fruit characters walking down a school hallway. Instead of cards, the actual items referred to in the song are held up and dropped.
In 2009 Austrian Oil company OMV uses cue cards in their image commercials.
In December, 2009, Johns Hopkins University released a video which includes Nobel Laureate Carol Greider in a Subterranean Homesick Blues Homage at the :57 point.
In January, 2010, a music video from the humor website Cracked used Bob Dylan's original video with new lyrics superimposed on the cards to list unanswered questions from the show Lost.