Using the word "masterpiece" when one is only citing references, and "delving" to understand a new song seems a little overboard. It is a word specially used to describe depth, symbolism, and other literary virtues. Speaking for just me, I hear the ruminations, from Bob, and also fans, but no synthesis. Spotting references isn't the same as insight. Cites can be piled up to infinity but without any synthesis, or analysis, it just seems like an exercise in itself. I'm not sure what it adds up to. So yes when the masterpiece word gets brandished it begs a big question.
I would find it hard to believe that anyone following this thread is merely finding random references without also searching for patterns and seeking meaning.
What kind of meanings or patterns do you think are being sought? We have a wide open field. It can go CIA, Mafia, other conspiracies, the illuminati, the freemasons, christ, Dylans own life, viet nam, johnson, nixon, dylans converisons, the beatles. If these are insights what are they moving towards? Yes they are all part of history. What pattern is being pointed out beyond that fact? What references make meaning with other references (patterns)? The M word has come up most often with no bidding or rationale that I hear. Basically it's "Ready, Fire, Aim..."
...And then you got the " Bob writes straight with crooked lines " reasoning to justify the cheap rhymes...
Been listening to some Bob Dylan podcasts while doing some painting in the back garden whilst under lockdown here in the UK. Some interesting things crop up. One that I don't think I had considered before was centred around the Kennedy assassination. It speculated that this may have been part of Bob Dylan's reasoning behind his stepping back as a 'spokesman for his generation'. Obviously this was always pinned upon him rather than being something he sought out but he definitely pulled back from this position at a point. The vulnerability of even the President of the United States must have sent out some signals. "If they can get him, I would be an easy target," must have crossed his mind. Not sure how the dates match, but it is an interesting speculation.
If they could trick everyone in 63' why not in 2020 with the rise of the right all over the planet. Who knows the truth. Trumpy. Haha. Heres my cover of MMF.
The last time Bob was in the studio before JFK died was three weeks prior, on October 31. He recorded one song that day - “Restless Farewell.” And though the line is cut It ain’t quite the end I’ll just bid farewell till we meet again
Hi Everyone, I co-host a weekly Dylan radio show, Hard Rain & Slow Trains, on KEPW, a non-profit radio station in Eugene, Oregon. We just finished a two-episode feature on "Murder Most Foul" and last Thursday's show's centerpiece was a "soundscape," which featured the song with 141 different audio references edited in as ghostly echoes. It was a fun project that took a long time to put together...basically about 50 hours of work in the week following the song's release. Those of you identifying some of Dylan's references and allusions in the song will be able to listen to the soundscape with attentive and informed ears. In any event, I am a member of this forum and Expectingrain (the Dylan site) and a member over there encouraged me to share the link to the radio show in question here, so I am going to do that, in case you might be interested in listening to it. The following link goes right to the episode in question, if you want to skip right to the soundscape, it starts at 13:17 exactly. Here is the link: Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan & Fellow Travelers Incidentally, through this link you can also access the archive to our other shows, all 57 of them (episode 58 will broadcast, and then be archived, this Thursday). Feel free to listen to any and all of them. They are all free and done as a volunteer labor of love for anyone who likes Dylan's music and that of his fellow travelers.
“I fell into a trap once—last December—when I agreed to accept the Tom Paine Award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. At the Americana Hotel! In the Grand Ballroom! As soon as I got there, I felt up tight. First of all, the people with me couldn’t get in. They looked even funkier than I did, I guess. They weren’t dressed right, or something. Inside the ballroom, I really got up tight. I began to drink. I looked down from the platform and saw a bunch of people who had nothing to do with my kind of politics. I looked down and I got scared. They were supposed to be on my side, but I didn’t feel any connection with them. Here were these people who’d been all involved with the left in the thirties, and now they were supporting civil-rights drives. That’s groovy, but they also had minks and jewels, and it was like they were giving the money out of guilt. I got up to leave, and they followed me and caught me. They told me I had to accept the award. When I got up to make my speech, I couldn’t say anything by that time but what was passing through my mind. They’d been talking about Kennedy being killed, and Bill Moore and Medgar Evers and the Buddhist monks in Vietnam being killed. I had to say something about Lee Oswald. I told them I’d read a lot of his feelings in the papers, and I knew he was up tight. Said I’d been up tight, too, so I’d got a lot of his feelings. I saw a lot of myself in Oswald, I said, and I saw in him a lot of the times we’re all living in. And, you know, they started booing. They looked at me like I was an animal. They actually thought I was saying it was a good thing Kennedy had been killed. That’s how far out they are. I was talking about Oswald. And then I started talking about friends of mine in Harlem—some of them junkies, all of them poor. And I said they need freedom as much as anybody else, and what’s anybody doing for them? The chairman was kicking my leg under the table, and I told him, ‘Get out of here.’ Now, what I was supposed to be was a nice cat. I was supposed to say, ‘I appreciate your award and I’m a great singer and I’m a great believer in liberals, and you buy my records and I’ll support your cause.’ But I didn’t, and so I wasn’t accepted that night. That’s the cause of a lot of those chains I was talking about—people wanting to be accepted, people not wanting to be alone. But, after all, what is it to be alone? I’ve been alone sometimes in front of three thousand people. I was alone that night.” -Bob, 10/24/64
”Johnson sworn in at two thirty-eight” Apparently Acts 2:38 is sometimes referred to as ”Satan’s favourite Bible verse” ... Turns out that the interpretation of this verse is a source of major disagreement between Catholics and protestants. Something to do with baptism as a necessary prerequisite for salvation. All of which seems far fetched - but who knows ...
Not sure how much the production/arrangement has been discussed..but I have my doubts on who exactly could be on this recording. There seems to be two maybe 3 string players (not including the bass with bow which I assume is being played by Tony Garnier) and I am not fully convinced that Dylan is playing the piano himself. The piano work doesn't exactly match up with the style he's been playing in lately.
I'm no musician but Im guessing Tony, Donnie and Matt (therefore placing the recording from sometime post mid July 2019 when the Summer tour ended in Kilkenny and George departed). I'll further guess not Bob on piano but possibly Alan Pasqua who did the Nobel Lecture background piano. Agree there is a 2nd string in there - don't forget Charlie was credited with being a 2nd violin player on CTGM even tho we don't associate him with that instrument. Alternatively, maybe Donnie over dubbed a 2nd violin layer afterwards?
Article of interest to many here from The Nation: JFK, Bob Dylan, and the Death of the American Dream How Dylan’s new song, “Murder Most Foul,” speaks to my generation and pierces our collective soul. By Tim ShorrockTwitter APRIL JFK, Bob Dylan, and the Death of the American Dream
And another article from The Nation, much broader look at Dylan and his persona. Bob Dylan and Nostalgia of Patriarchy A new generation of fans admires his music but does not see him as a prophet. By Richard Goldstein APRIL 27, 2006 Joan Baez and Bob Dylan at the 1963 March on Washington. (Rowland Scherman) Bob Dylan and Nostalgia of Patriarchy
So delighted. I made it for folk like the readers and posters here, so this makes me happy...your most welcome, Wildest Cat!
SPIN: Who would you want to interview? Bob: “A lot of people who aren't alive: Hank Williams, Apollinaire, Joseph from the Bible, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Mohammed, Paul the Apostle, maybe John Wilkes Booth, maybe Gogol. I'd like to interview people who died leaving a great unsolved mess behind, who left people for ages to do nothing but speculate.” December 1985
108 pages (and half as many over at ER) and every time I think we've reached the end of what could be a plausible connection, there's something else. Who knows if he really intended this, but it's fascinating to consider!
