Subterranean Homesick Blues

Dylan has said that when he attended the University of Minnesota in 1959, he fell under the influence of the Beat scene: "It was Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso and Ferlinghetti." Kerouac's The Subterraneans, a novel published in 1958 about the Beats, has been suggested as a possible inspiration for the song's title. In 2004, Dylan said of the song: "It's from Chuck Berry, a bit of 'Too Much Monkey Business' and some of the scat songs of the '40s." The song's first line is a reference to codeine distillation and the politics of the time: "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 "straights" or "squares" and the emerging counterculture of the 1960s. The widespread use of recreational drugs and turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War were starting to take hold of the nation, and Dylan's hyperkinetic lyrics were dense with up-to-the-minute allusions to emerging elements in the 1960s youth culture. According to rock journalist Andy Gill, "an entire generation recognized the zeitgeist in the verbal whirlwind of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'." ==Influence==

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" has had a wide influence, and is quoted or alluded to by artists and non-artists. Most infamously, its lyric "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" was the inspiration for the name of the American far-left organization known as the Weather Underground, which formed after breaking away from the Students for a Democratic Society. In a 2007 study of legal opinions and briefs that found Dylan was quoted by judges and lawyers more than any other songwriter, "you don't need a weatherman..." was distinguished as the line most often cited. John Lennon was reported to find the song so captivating that he did not know how he would be able to write a song that could compete with it. The group Firehose took its name from a lyric from the song: "Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose..." A line in the song provided the Australian garage rock band Jet with the title of their debut album Get Born. The song is alluded to by Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien" from the 1997 album OK Computer. ==Versions==

Covers of the song span a range of styles, including those by the reggae musician Gregory Isaacs on Is It Rolling Bob?, his 2004 album of Dylan songs, with Toots Hibbert; the bluegrass musician Tim O'Brien on his 1996 album of Dylan covers, Red on Blonde; the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers on the 1987 album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan; the Cajun-style fiddle player Doug Kershaw on Louisiana Man in 1978; and the singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson on his 1974 album Pussy Cats, produced by John Lennon, who admired the song. The song was also covered by Alanis Morissette when she stood in for Dylan at his 2005 induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In addition, Robert Wyatt's "Blues in Bob Minor", on his 1997 album Shleep, uses the song's rhythm as a structural template. In December 2009, the rapper Juelz Santana released the single "Mixin' Up the Medicine", which features lyrics in the chorus, performed by alternative rapper Yelawolf, and maintains some of the song's original acoustics. Ed Volker of the New Orleans Radiators also has performed the song in his solo shows and with the Radiators, often paired with "Highway 61 Revisited". In 1985, British actor Tom Watt, at the time enjoying a high profile playing the role of Lofty Holloway in EastEnders, released a version of the song that made number 67 in the UK singles chart. ==Promotional film clip==

" clip as seen in Dont Look Back film Dont Look Back The song was used in one of the first "modern" promotional film clips, the forerunner of what was later known as the music video. Rolling Stone ranked it seventh in the magazine's October 1993 list of "100 Top Music Videos". The original clip was the opening segment of D. A. Pennebaker's film Dont Look Back, a documentary on Dylan's 1965 tour of England. In the film, Dylan, who came up with the idea, holds up cue cards with selected words and phrases from the lyrics. The cue cards were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. In addition to the Savoy Hotel clip, two alternative promotional films were shot: one in a park (Embankment Gardens, adjacent to the Savoy Hotel) where Dylan, Neuwirth and Ginsberg are joined by Dylan's producer, Tom Wilson, and another shot on the roof of an unknown building. A montage of the clips can be seen in the documentary No Direction Home. The film clip was used in September 2010 in a promotional video to launch Google Instant. As they are typed, the lyrics of the song generate search engine results pages. 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". "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for the 2003 song "Bob" parodies Dylan's music and writing style with a series of 38 palindromic sentences. The word "Bob" is itself a palindrome and Yankovic mimics Dylan's video by dressing as Dylan and dropping cue cards that have the song's lyrics on them. Several other musicians have imitated or paid homage to the video by using a similar cue-card format, most notably Australian band INXS in the video for their 1987 song "Mediate" and the German band Wir sind Helden in their 2005 song "" (Just one word). == Personnel ==

• Bob Dylan – vocals, acoustic guitars, harmonica • John Hammond Jr. – electric guitar • Bruce Langhorne – electric guitar • Bill Lee – bass guitar • Bobby Gregg – drums ==Certifications==