"Subterranean Homesick Blues" derivatives

A category of songs, similar to list songs, which take their lyrical and stylistic cue from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

List generously seeded by hatless.

• It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. - Johnny Cougar
• We Didn't Start the Fire - Billy Joel
• Prigorodnyi Bliuz ("Suburban Blues") - Mike Naumenko
• La Vie Boheme - From the musical Rent
• Silver Wheels - Bruce Cockburn

It is hard to imagine a list such as the one in the writeup above that doesn't include the INXS song, "Mediate". Included on INXS's album, Kick (1987, Mercury), it is the second half of a two-song combination that segues from "Need You Tonight" to "Mediate".

With Michael Hutchence apparently a big fan of Dylan, the song was recited in a rapid-paced, streaming manner, with muted instrumentation, akin to Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The similarities do not, of course, end there, however. The video, too, for "Mediate" is a direct homage to Dylan's song, using the same "scrawled-upon, tossed cue card" motif popularised by the elder artist's own video, circa 1965.

An interesting footnote to all this, is that both videos appear on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos of All Time. "Need You Tonight/Mediate" eekes its way onto the list at #88, whereas "Subterranean Homesick Blues" appears at #28.

• http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_greatest/62198/episode.jhtml