Bob Dylan is often the anti-hero of his own stories. So it goes in his new film noir music video for "The Night We Called It a Day." It's the latest single off Shadows in the Night, Dylan's interpretations of old standards popularized by Frank Sinatra. There's Dylan in black and white, leering in the back of a gentleman's club and taking shots at a bar with a friend-cum-enemy (Robert Davi). Later, he's inside the apartment of a femme fatale (Tracy Phillips), and the scene quickly turns bloody. As Rolling Stone notes:
Davi's presence likely has a deeper meaning: Not only did Davi make his acting debut alongside Sinatra in the crime flick Contract on Cherry Street, Davi moonlights as one of Las Vegas' premier Sinatra tribute acts. In 2011, Davi released his own album of Sinatra covers, Davi Sings Sinatra – On The Road To Romance.
*Spoiler*
Did you really expect Phillips to start bludgeoning Davi with a fire poker?
Thematically, guns-to-the-gut and near-lethal encounters with beautiful women are nothing new for Dylan. (See "Motorpsycho Nightmare" from his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan.)
