Bob Dylan’s Tempest comes out Sept. 11, and the first public airing of one of its tracks isn’t on NPR or a similarly demographic-appropriate outlet—instead, the stompy bit of blooze “Early Roman Kings” got its debut in a commercial for the Cinemax original series Strike Back, which according to the party line is “a high-octane, globe-spanning thriller with storylines ripped from today’s headlines.” Hey, any port in a marketing storm!
Another song from Tempest will debut in the August 17 premiere of Strike Back. I’d make a joke about how this bit of synergy will allow people to justify subscribing to the pay-TV channel for reasons that don’t involve consumption of its “After Dark” programming, but I suspect that the internal marketing memos circulated when this pitch came across the transom made that particular bit of gaiety all too real.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting the Village Voice and our advertisers.