I have never been the hugest fan of Weird Al Yancovic…but always respected his ear for music, humour and parody and such. But it wasn’t until now that I came across his pure genius.
But first, check this out… this is a video Bob Dylan did in the documentary Dont Look Back for the song ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.’ This is one of the most iconic scenes for Dylan in an era when no one had any notion of what a music video was. The concept is so simple and really plays up the notion of Dylan’s lyrics as the star of his songs.
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While watching this video again on YouTube, I found a link to this Weird Al parody called ‘Bob’…
[youtube]XqlGWPeXqj8[/youtube]
The video itself is a spot on recreation and homage to the Dylan video. But Yancovic also treads his parody nicely into the surreal, yet oft-difficult to decipher literary allusions that made Dylan famous. Yancovic truly understands Dylan’s music, lyrics and imagery. Then it hits me… Weird Al’s strange and non-sequitar phrases in this song are palindromes! What’s a palindrome, you ask? Lets consult the dictionary.
pal·in·drome (p
l
n-dr
m
) n.
Ah yes, Yancovic is thinking on a third stream level of parody and wit here. I wanted to share this with someone, anyone who might equally appreciate it…or at least give a crap. Amazing.