“Bob”: Palindromic in the Extreme

I took a chance on Weird Al‘s eleventh album – 2003’s Poodle Hat – and had a good laugh when I realized that his send-up of Bob Dylan‘s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” was palindromic from beginning to end:

At the time of the album’s release, MTV reported that Eminem gave permission for Weird Al’s “Lose Yourself” parody, “Couch Potato” – but not a video (unfortunately, already in pre-production). Thus, Weird Al had to scramble to put together another video that, luckily for us palindrome fans, ended up being a hilarious spoof of Bob Dylan’s iconic series of rapid-fire lyrical images that accompany “Subterranean Homesick Blues” from the Don’t Look Back documentary of Dylan’s 1965 UK tour.

The lyric’s rhyme scheme is likewise impressive:

I, man, am regal – a German am I
Never odd or even
If I had a hi-fi
Madam, I’m Adam
Too hot to hoot
No lemons, no melon
Too bad I hid a boot
Lisa Bonet ate no basil
Warsaw was raw
Was it a car or a cat I saw?

Rise to vote, sir
Do geese see god?
“Do nine men interpret?” “Nine men,” I nod
Rats live on no evil star
Won’t lovers revolt now?
Race fast, safe car
Pa’s a sap
Ma is as selfless as I am
May a moody baby doom a yam?

Ah, Satan sees Natasha
No devil lived on
Lonely Tylenol
Not a banana baton
No “x” in “Nixon”
O, stone, be not so
O Geronimo, no minor ego
“Naomi,” I moan
“A Toyota’s a Toyota”
A dog, a panic in a pagoda

Oh no! Don Ho!
Nurse, I spy gypsies – run!
Senile felines
Now I see bees I won
UFO tofu

We panic in a pew
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
God! A red nugget! A fat egg under a dog!
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog