Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, directors Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and The Stone Roses’ John Squire have contributed to a new version of Bob Dylan’s iconic 1965 video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” which was released today (May 6) in conjunction with an ongoing celebration of Dylan’s 60 years as a Columbia Records artist.
The original clip was part of the opening sequence of D.A. Pennebaker’s esteemed documentary Don’t Look Back and features Dylan rifling through a series of cue cards with lyrics from the song. In the new video, these cue cards have been visually reimagined by the aforementioned names, as well as artists such as Cey Adams, Julian House, Naoki Urasawa and French singer/songwriter Francis Cabrel.
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The new video appeared on Columbia’s just-launched “Dylan 60” Web site, in tandem with an AR filter allowing Instagram and Snapchat users to look through a virtual pair of Dylan’s Ray-Ban sunglasses.
All of this activity comes in tandem with the May 10 launch of the massive, long-awaited Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla. According to its Web site, the Center “houses and exhibits exclusive cultural treasures created and owned by Bob Dylan over seven decades. These include handwritten lyric manuscripts to some of the world’s most treasured songs, previously unreleased recordings, never-before-seen film performances, rare and unseen photographs, visual art and other priceless items spanning Dylan’s unparalleled career as one of the world’s most important cultural figures.”
Smith and her band will perform in the city’s Cain Ballroom tonight as part of the extensive grand opening celebration. As previously reported, Dylan will be back on the road in North America this spring and summer, beginning May 28 in Spokane, Wa.
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