Subterranean Homesick Blues and its References to the Beat Generation and 1960s Politics and Culture

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan, is a music video that started out as an opening clip to D. A. Pennebaker's documentary on Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, named Dont Look Back. In this film, Bob Dylan holds up lyric cards containing a certain word or phrase form the line of the song that accompanies the action.

The lyric, or cue, cards themselves were written by Bob Dylan, Donovan, Bob Neuwirth, and Allen Ginsberg - intentional misspellings and puns were inserted into the clip, such as "20 dollar bills" being shown on a lyric card when the lyrics played in the background say "eleven dollar bills". The clip was shot in London, in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel. Both Bob Neuwirth and Allen Ginsberg make cameos in the clip; you can see Neuwirth and Ginsberg in the background.

Three screenshots from the
documentary Dont Look Back

The lyrics of the song are heavily influenced by 1960's culture. The first line(s) of the song,

"Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the Government"

is/are a reference to the codeine distillation and politics of that period, with the first part of the above lyrics connoting codeine distillation and the second part connoting the politics of the time (e.g. the impact created by Martin Luther King and the assassination of J. F. Kennedy).

The lyrics of Subterranean Homesick Blues were packed full of up-to-date references to important emerging elements of 1960s youth culture. Rock journalist Andy Gill said: "an entire generation recognised the zeitgeist in the verbal whirlwind of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'."

In addition, the lyrics

"Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose"

reference the struggles surrounding the American civil rights movement at the time, as during the civil rights movement, peaceful protesters were beaten and sprayed with high pressure fire hoses. Despite all of these controversial political references, the track managed to become Bob Dylan's first USA Top 40 hit.

The Beat Generation

Subterranean Homesick Blues has many links and origins within the Beat Generation that preceded it - for starters, its name was possibly inspired by Jack Kerouac's novel The Subterraneans, published in 1958 (this novel was actually about the Beats).

Allen Ginsberg, at the Miami Book
Fair International of 1985

Bob Dylan fell into part of the group of American post-World War II writers that led the Beat Generation - Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, and Allen Ginsberg - when he met them at the University of Minnesota in New York in 1959. From here the Beat scene influenced Dylan; this is at least part of the reason why Ginsberg makes a cameo in the music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues. Another reason why is that Dylan and Ginsberg were close friends - Ginsberg toured with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975. As aforementioned, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Bob Neuwirth, and Allen Ginsberg were the writers of the lyric/cue cards - this is related to the facts that they were friends and Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth make cameos in the music video. Bob Dylan names Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac as major influences on his work. I will go into more detail on the Beat Generation itself in another, upcoming post.