"Subterranean Homesick Blues" video. My visit to the shooting location

Visiting London with my girlfriend Mariana was really good. We attended at Manic Street Preachers concert in Brixton Academy, bought lots of records and met the TATEs (both ones). These museums were really of her interest, so after going to the newest one (just across river Thames), we headed to the original TATE. But what happened? I remembered that an inconic videoclip was filmed somewhere in the middle of our way, just at the back of a famous hotel. Well, let me introduce you to “This the story of how I met the Subterranean Homesick Blues shooting location”

“Maybe there are some put out cigarrettes that both Bob and Allen (Ginsberg) smoked” / “Perhaps I can find some of those signs Dylan used in the video. Hope I get the one that says –Wind Blows-, it´s my favourite”. All these thoughts were dancing over my head, as Mariana looked at me kind of scared. My heart-beating was dramatically increasing at the same time we were getting close of our destination, when all of a sudden it appeared in front of us: The Savoy Hotel. A couple of security guards looked down on us. The tallest one, suddenly spoke to his partner. I guess he said “This poor young people cannot afford a single room for half an hour” at the same time we held our hands nervously tight, acting like a “young and enthusiastic NOT criminal tourist couple”.

We kept on walking, turned round the block through “Savoy Hill” and headed to that ¿legendary? alley. There it was: Sublime. Dark. Dusty. Well, it was a dead-end street, after all. I started to walk all through it in its entirely. I searched for some lost Allen Ginsberg´s writings, “Bring it all back home” outtakes, or at least a broken Ray-Ban that Mr Zimmerman left on the ground in 1965. Well, none of this really happenned, but at least I confirmed that it´s impossible to find anything thrown on the ground about fifty years ago in a dead-end alley.

On one side of “Savoy Steps”, some offices we built. Busy workers stopped their duties to watch me come in and out the tiny street, like some hamster trapped in a cage looking for freedom. Well, my “freedom” was to be able to find any souvenir from that amazing video. Suddenly, I realized that a pretty big sign on the ground could be one of those which Dylan carried in the “Homesick..” video. I turned it back and said “London City Council”. Worthed a try, though.

Mariana looked at me tenderly. Trying to overcome my frustration, I asked her to take me a picture just like Dylan in the video. She agreed. I used a London map because there wasn´t any Bob Dylan close enough to write me a sign. Glamorous.

“Shall we go to the TATE? It´s getting dark” she said. I turned round and gave a last glance to the alley. My eyes were kind of wet for the excitement. We held our hands, kissed, and headed to the Museum.

The same security guys were standing at the front of the Hotel, and watched us made our way through Victoria Embankment.

“I told you they didn´t have the money” the tall guy must have said.

Search for Bob Dylan records in this week´s PopMarket "Folk/Rock Legendes III" section.