Bob Dylan - 'Murder Most Foul'

[grassbath]

I stayed up much too late last night listening to Bob Dylan. I've been listening to him a lot the last few weeks.

This morning I woke up and he'd released this, his first original song to be released in 8 years, with the tweet:

'Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years.
This is an unreleased song that we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and God be with you.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NbQkyvbw18

It's a 17-minute epic about the Kennedy assassination, among other things.

As much as he is a songwriter Dylan is a connoisseur of the popular song. Here he invokes a host of twentieth century music from Charlie Parker to the Eagles, all framed around the cultural moment that he exploded into and out of.

It feels like an elegy for America, which has gone into such irretrievable decline in fifty years, and now, governed by Trump and in the grip of coronavirus, all this music is its death serenade. 'Twelve million souls are listenin' in.'

It also feels like taking stock, drawing the curtain across, and if I'm honest feels a bit Blackstar, though I sincerely hope it's not.

I've basically resigned myself to not doing any work today and just sitting listening to this on repeat. I heard an hour ago about the first person I know well to have the virus - he lives right around the corner from me, and I'm wondering whether all that dumb stuff people said about this man being a prophet, whether there was a bit of truth in that.

[Astronaut Omens]

All the musical references could start to seem like a straightforward elegy for classic American music, which is nice but has been done many times.from Don Maclean to all the hip-hop shout outs to the departed, Rest in Peace Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur etc.
But in the first half especially I think his attitude toward pop is a bit more ambivalent, as if the explosion of pop that followed Kennedy's death was part of the assassination cover-up, or as if the jauntiness and raunchiness of pop was a kind of denial of what had happened, or the pleasures of music were a poor substitute for democracy. In this context I think the more list-like verses are less meant to be a roll call of greats than they are a portrait of a consumer of music barking, restlessly, "Play Art Pepper" and "Play Stevie Nicks" at his Alexa.
Since it's impossible to imagine the story of pop without Bob, there is something of a disavowal of his own work here too.

[PeasOnSticks]

Yeah, there does seem to be some ambivalence towards pop music in the song. Seems to be addressing its power as a distraction ('Hush little children, you'll soon understand, The Beatles are coming to hold your hand') and later culture more generally as an escape: that long list of all kinds of songs, films, plays - play this, play that - underpinned with a kind of sadness and yearning, a wish to be elsewhere. With the grimness of a murder/decay/'36 hours past judgment day' casting a shadow over every one of those names.

First time I heard it, it seemed a bit scattershot and weird. Second time it all fell into place. And it's not 'a song about JFK,' or at the very least not only that.

[popcorn]

When this came out I listened to half of it on YouTube and dismissed it as dull and schmaltzy. Then it just came on the radio while I was in the shower and I couldn't turn it off. Even after I'd finished the shower I mean. The song is a lot longer than most of my showers.

[Jockice]

Mentions my home town very near the end. Apparently anyway. I'm not listening for seven hours or however long it lasts just to hear that.

[popcorn]

Yes, I never thought I'd hear Dylan sing about Stoke on Trent but it's quite affectionate.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

It mentions 'Dumbarton's Drums', a folk song in which the titular drums are those of the Earl of Dumbarton's Regiment, so the reference is essentially two steps removed from the actual town of Dumbarton.

Still, you never heard, say Leonard Cohen, mention Clydebank in any of his songs.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I will never not be delighted by the fact that Kirkcaldy is mentioned in a Beatles song.

[SteveDave]

Are we supposed to giggle when he starts naming bands and that? It's almost as bad as "Roll On John" from "Tempest"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9MCXJuG3KA

Slow down you're moving way too fast
Come together right now over me

[Jockice]

Still, you never heard, say Leonard Cohen, mention Clydebank in any of his songs.

Even Wet Wet Wet never did that and they're from there. Unless you count Hold Back The River.

[famethrowa]

Still, you never heard, say Leonard Cohen, mention Clydebank in any of his songs.

Pink Floyd tho

[PeasOnSticks]

Another new Bob song just dropped - 'I Contain Multitudes.' And it's rather lovely. These two new songs are some of the best Bob there's been for quite some time.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Gotta agree, these new songs are very pleasant, although oddly heavy on cultural references. Weird to hear him refer to anything after 1955, but him shouting out Woodstock and Altamont in 'Murder Most Foul' after sort of notably refusing to play ball with the 60s mythology for years is quite a striking moment. I kind of like it, it's like he's summing up

[PeasOnSticks]

Gotta agree, these new songs are very pleasant, although oddly heavy on cultural references. Weird to hear him refer to anything after 1955, but him shouting out Woodstock and Altamont in 'Murder Most Foul' after sort of notably refusing to play ball with the 60s mythology for years is quite a striking moment. I kind of like it, it's like he's summing up

Yes, the songs are very broad in scope, embracing a lot of culture and a host of human facets. It seems to be the universal 'I' being invoked in 'I Contain Multitudes.'

[Shaky]

Well, well... that new one is absolutely gorgeous.