Dylan under the microscope: microbiology in Subterranean Homesick Blues

Excerpt

Titles of songs by Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan are regularly quoted in biomedical publications [1]. The most quoted Dylan songs in the titles of biomedical publications are The Times They Are a-Changin’ (n = 125) and Blowin’ in the Wind (n = 38). In the singles chronology of Bob Dylan, the song released directly after The Times They Are a-Changin’ is Subterranean Homesick Blues, Dylan’s first international hit song [2]. Unfortunately, not a single scientist from the biomedical sciences has ever used it in the title of a publication. This song is likely to be remembered better for its video clip than the music [3]. In fact, the video clip is the opening segment of the documentary movie “Dont Look Back” by Donn Alan Pennebaker from 1967. Dylan has the keywords of the song written on a stack of cue cards which fall like autumn leaves. Some of the words are deliberately misspelled or differ from the authentic lyrics. All of this in the spirit of the Beat poets, co-emphasized by the appearance of Allen Ginsberg in the video and the title of the poem/song being inspired by the novel “The Subterraneans” by Jack Kerouac (1958). …