Bob Dylan – ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ Analysis
The music video is a conceptual clip, which draws attention to the lyrics of the song, which the music video is promoting. Bob Dylan, the artist in the music video, is renowned for his lyricism and is referred to as a poet; his lyrics often seen as more important than the song as a whole. This has lead him to make a music video, of his own idea, which would promote himself, mostly his documentary, through the deconstructing of his song, which, in turn, draws attention to the lyrics. He achieves this by holding up boards which have lyrics written on them. An example of one of these is “pawking metaws”, which kind of reflects the southern USA accent, and is spelt ‘phonetically’, meaning that he has spelt it how it would be said in some places. Furthermore another spells “success”, which connotes that success sucks, basically, and that he is against the fame. This is unconventional as many rock and roll stars aspire to achieve great success, however, Dylan was different.
Bob Dylan was infamous for his drug-taking. This is reflected in the music video, with the lyrics being “Johnny’s in the basement, mixing up the medicine”, which may be a reference to two things. It is possible that he is referencing his own drug use, with ‘Johnny’ being a drug dealer, making and dealing drugs to Bob, whilst the next lyric “I’m on the pavement, thinking about the government” highlights this, as Dylan is watching out for the police/government, as drug-use is against the law. Furthermore, the fact that he uses the word “basement” implies that they are up to no good; making drugs, because basements are away from public eyes. However, it could also connote that the “mixing up the medicine” is a reference to codeine distillation and the widespread use of recreational drugs, such as Alcohol and Tobacco, which he strongly opposed. The next line also emphasises this possible connotation, with the “thinking about the government” connoting that he is literally thinking about the government, and their support of recreational drugs, which he opposes. This is, therefore, up to interpretation.
Bob Dylan is represented, in the music video, as lazy and unprepared. “20 dollar bills”, which is written on one of the cards, should be “11 dollar bills”, but because he is represented as unprepared and care-free, it is wrong, most likely on purpose. This is also highlighted in his facial expressions. Additionally, one board writes “Here they come!” where the lyric is actually “you’re gonna get hit” which, again, connotes unpreparedness. This, to a certain extent, is a correct and fair representation as the music video was only intended to open the documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’, and was devised by Bob Dylan very quickly, leaving little time for the production of the boards. Bob Dylan’s lyrics often oppose society and government. This is emphasised by the way Bob Dylan looks directly in to the camera lens, as if he’s looking society in the eye and making bold statements; he’s not afraid to express his own opinions and beliefs. Unconventionally for Dylan, the music video shows him not wearing sunglasses. This accessory is seen on Dylan’s person for a lot of ‘Don’t Look Back’, but not in the music video. This may be because it was intended that he looked society in the eye, as if he wore sunglasses, it would make his facial expressions transparent, with his eyes not being visible. However, the facial expressions are a large part of the music video, with the uncertainty in his eyes visible when he is about to throw a board.
Further representations of Bob Dylan, seen in the context of ‘Don’t Look Back’, include the extensive amount of smoking. This represents him as cool and ‘hip’, but also relaxed about his own health and welfare. This conveys his attitude about life. Furthermore, in the documentary, we see him reading a newspaper. This represents him as knowledgeable and intellectual, something which his image defies. This is because he wears clothing including Jeans, a stereotypical rock item of clothing, and has connotative references to the working class (due to the hard-wearing material of denim, as well as its low price), and the working class are viewed stereotypically as uneducated. The audience, however, know that this isn’t the case, as we can see that his song-writing is very clever, as we see him deconstruct his song through the use of lyric boards. The use of black and white cinematography is conventional of the rock and roll genre, especially in modern day indie rock music videos, as it gives the sense of vintage. When this music video was made, colour was widely available, yet the director decided not to use it. This may be due to the budget restrictions or that the small easily-portable cameras weren’t available in colour at that time (the camera used was small in comparison to the extremely large ones which were used widely in that time period). Additionally, it may just be a choice by the director because he preferred the way black and white looked.
Dylan is also represented in a way that makes the audience view him as not a ‘people person’. This is because throughout the documentary, he is often harsh towards people, especially the press. Another artist, who I believe was a support act for Dylan during his UK tour, throws a glass bottle out of the window, or at least that is what I believe after watching the documentary. Dylan acts harshly and speaks strongly against this, as he is an unconventional rocker. He is said to be mad, but in a way, he is the most normal rock star ever. The throwing of stuff out of a window is seen to be very ‘rock ‘n’ roll’, with The Who, a top rock band, doing it. However, because Dylan opposes it, he is represented as nice and caring, although his reactions to his fellow artist are a little harsh, but then... he doesn’t appear to be a ‘people person’, like I mentioned. This goes against Dylan’s ‘bad boy’ image. However, although the throwing of items, including TV sets and furniture, out of hotel rooms by rock bands is conventional, Dylan may oppose it because he isn’t rock and roll, like The Who were. He was placed under a sub-genre of rock, which was folk-rock, amongst others.
Back to the music video, Dylan’s kindness and supportiveness of good causes is highlighted, just like in the documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’. The lyrics in the song say “better stay away from those/ that carry around a fire hose” which references the American Civil Rights Movement, in which protesters were battered back by police who were using high-pressure fire hoses. Dylan evidently supports the Civil Right Movement. In the music video, we can see two males in the background. One of them is Alan Ginsberg, the other was ‘Donovan’. Donovan was the top folk musician at the time of the documentary, and the fact that he features in Dylan’s music video/documentary connotes Dylan’s importance to the music industry at the time. Alan, on the other hand, was an American poet who influenced the work of Bob Dylan. Ginsberg vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. The former two can be seen in Dylan’s own ideologies. Alan was also a member of the group ‘Beat Generation’, an anarchic group of young men and women who joined poetry, song, sex, wine and illicit drugs, with political ideas. Some of these aspects can be seen in Dylan’s work, especially the mix of poetry and song. As well as this, Dylan also talks about T.S. Elliot in ‘Don’t Look Back’, the documentary, which connotes that he is strongly influenced by poetry and idolises many poets. The main ideology found in this is the fact that poetry is cool; Bon Dylan was cool, he likes poetry, so poetry must be cool. Furthermore, the opposition of drug-use, or the contrasting light-hearted view of drug-taking is seen as cool and acceptable, as he would have appealed to a younger generation, depending on the audience’s interpretation of the music video and, more importantly, the lyrics.
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