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The Friday OT: Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan

Best. Video. Ever.

Part of the 1965 documentary “Don’t Look Back”, Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues is about the coolest performance ever. Lots of side-issues here, including beat poet Allen Ginsberg skulking around in the background, the filming location (behind the Savoy Hotel, London) and deliberate mistakes made on the cards (e.g. “twenty dollar bills” when the song is “eleven dollar bills” and the beautifully mis-spelled ‘suck cess’).

As an extra IKN bonus, you can even follow that bouncing ball with the words:

Johnny’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-skin 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 D. A., 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 a 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 fail, Look out kid, You’re gonna get hit, But users, cheaters, Six-time losers, 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.


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