Bob Dylan, both in conversation and in execution, has made it clear how much recording the mid-century pop of Shadows in the Night meant to him — and the just-released video for “The Night We Called It a Day” only underscores his passionate reverence for that time.
We find him not amidst the sticky-sweet love stories of Hollywood’s black-and-white glories, but instead its gory, noir-y late-night intrigues. The clip, also starring Robert Davi and Tracy Phillips, turns on a love triangle gone wrong — terribly wrong, bloody wrong — with double and then triple crosses. And it’s done with nary a knowing wink. Instead, Bob Dylan makes clear he’s playing for keeps.
Moreover, the video’s shocking twist adds a new complexity to a song that might have only been about two lovers’ theoretical last evening together before. No, this time, they actually call it a night.
The images also underscore how sensitively Bob Dylan’s compatriots reconceptualized these big band-era arrangements on Shadows in the Night. Where the claustrophobic climax, as he squares off against a murderous showgirl, might have more typically (and far less interestingly) been accompanied by swooning strings, Dylan and company instead leave plenty of empty space.
Bob Dylan, the actor, fills that space with a turn keyed as much by loneliness as still danger.
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