Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues (Music Video 1967) Poster

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Rodrigo_Amaro14 December 2017
Before going through my brief analysis of this brilliant clip comes an opportune moment about the times we live and the unwanted renewals we went through life during the crazy year of 2017 - sorry but I'm gonna have to make this review a little bit dated and somehow two Dylan song titles fit my impromptu here and in a way it also fits with this music/video sense. It really seems that "the times they are a-changing" and that "things have changed" around here and this makes my first review under the new loathed format created by this very place. I admit being away for some time but to make a whole game change and distort fans/film lovers perceptions about the things they loved about here just seems too awfully strange and saddening. End of "protest", now here's the review.

Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a spetacle of clip considering the time it was made and the honest, simple and safe idea about it - Bob displays card signs, throws them into the ground and in those cards he's using keywords and expressions from the song, that nowadays could be interpreted as a rap/hip hop song due its fast nature of using terms and creating a whole context and meaning to it. Won't even bother talking 'bout the historical/cultural context of the song because it's best if you search for it - but let's just say that part of it revolves around conflicts between the then right vs. the then counterculture which in an odd way just proves part of my "protest" here about the whole system change that affected this place during the year (suddenly we've become counterculture despite being mainstream for ages). Provided some changes here, I'll write another piece about this fabulous clip.

The clip isn't genial just because the great poet spew words like a machine gun. It has to be noted about his minimalist acting that goes beyond throwing cards on the floor while Allen Ginsberg and other guy keep muttering in the background (the song has plenty of references on Allen's contemporary Jack Kerouac. It's not an accident that he's there). Dylan's slight altering of expression in some moments makes it more relevant, or even the accidental "mistakes" where the song goes so fast that his timing for throwing the exact word that appears in the song doesn't follow exactly his moves but the director didn't seem to mind. I can't imagine how they did it. The music was playing in the background or Bob had it all committed to his mind? Whatever it was, here's a clip that generated plenty of other similar babies - Tim Robbins and his spoof in "Bob Roberts" is priceless - when the video clip presents parts of the lyrics and doesn't necessarily has the lead singer or artist lyp-synching the song. Not to mention: this is an one-take moment. One of my favorites for life. 10/10
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