No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool. TS Eliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Does it matter that Bob has said he was writing to himself too, on every one of them? A little negative capability is always welcome in art.
Whew. Not sure what to say, except that doesn't strike me as too far out. I can't dismiss this as easily as some. It's definitely a loaded "song" or whatever the hell this is!
Also, wanted to point out that Dallas locals capitalize "Triple Underpass." It's a location, a thing.
I believe that there are two main objections to the song: 1) The language lacks the wit, inspiration, and insight of his great work. (Viz. Side 2 of BIABH) 2) The topic of JFK plus rock and roll is trite. That the fabs came after JFK is one of the most repeated factoids about the 20th century. And to rub it in really good we have just lived through the 50th anniversary of all the fabs LPs. This is about as unexpected as downing a six pack and then having to pee. I don't have a strong opinion on Bobs take on the meaning of JFK or the killing. It's not relevant to me and I'm OK whatever he feels. It has nothing to do with whether I want to listen to it or not. But I don't sense any real feeling about it from the song. I don't get why he is singing. For me it has to be more than Bob being Bob. I am not denying that it is artful, I am just saying I find it to be unartful. I would guess that if you love some of Bobs work there are some things you won't want to hear from him, but you don't know what they are just yet.
I remember the day of the assassination we got let out of school early. I was 7 and first or second grade. There was a weird feeling in the air. The next week was depressing and I couldn't stand to be in the house with all the adults. Most of the women were very emotional and crying all the time but the men were more stoic and trying to figure it all out but I could detect fear and concern in the men. I was just a goofy kid playing Combat with my friends. Knock on the door...hey,wanna come out and play army...yeah,sure...off to get my plastic helmut,gun, and canteen.
Drad when I heard "Dylan released 17 min song hooked of JFK" I did cringe. It sounded like a bad idea. It sounded un-Bob as I prefer to imagine him. Sounded like a cliche thing some bad novelist writing about a Bob like character would come up with---"Oh he's the bard of the 60s guy, right, surely he wrote an epic about JFK." Didn't like the idea of it. The performance and music, especially, blew away those objections, and on later listens a lot of the lyrics did as well and now I am very glad he did it, though had he asked MY opinion I'd have said, naw, Bob, maybe don't.
This is the thing: What if he just read stuff about this like we are, and then he put it in the song, like we are doing now? Then he's kind of just like you and me. Where would that leave us?
In my opinion, a load of side two of BIABH lacks all the qualities you just cited. "The motorcycle black madonna Two-wheeled gypsy queen And her silver-studded phantom cause The gray flannel dwarf to scream" If MMF had lines that impenetrable and nonsensical, critics would be eviscerating Dylan for releasing a caricature of his amphetamine fueled mid-60's lyrics.
You are probably right, but if I have understood correctly, they have specifically said that they are not going to be releasing any other information which does seem to be quite a coy position. My point is, I can understand them being coy if there is a new album because they have would have decided on a strategy for how they wish to launch and promote the album and not giving too much away is a well used strategy. However if this track is simply a release of an outtake because Bob is feeling generous in these dark times then I would have thought they wouldn't feel the need to be so tight-lipped. Indeed, as you say in relation to bootleg series releases, they are quite lucid about releasing details. So if this is just another outtake why not provide more information? But I take your point that there isn't necessarily a precedent.
You are one tough crowd! Dylan has been filmed saying that the stuff on that side was stunning and unrepeateable. "The hand made blade, the childs balloon" He mentions the alliterations. Any poeteic resonance, amphetamine fueled or not would be very welcome on MMF. No one would complain.
Re Gates of Eden lyrics.....I do think the end result of getting really cruelly analytical about all this would be admitting Dylan has ALWAYS been terrible. And I think you can write a convincingly scabrous analysis that would lead to that conclusion. Only problem is: I and the world have been listening to and being moved and thrilled by him for generations, so on SOME level, he's not terrible..... The 33 thing is more simple and obvious: a reference to the highest degree of freemasonry, that's been hashed out earlier in thread. And I don't think Bob "knows" anything anyone else doesn't. He just framed it in a verbal, melodic, musical structural flow I find deeply moving and worthy of much contemplation. That's true of MMF and most of his best work.
I really don't want to trigger folks again, but this song challenges people's core beliefs on a deep level. Bob always asks the right questions at the right time--he's perhaps unique in that ability
I was forced to this realization about April several years ago as I began noticing personal catastrophes (or blunders) happening around that time every year! Last year I had a break. This year, well, we all know what's going on here...
Like, when Dylan thrills me to my core it's usually not "I never knew that Bob"! but "Wow I've seen or felt exactly that, but could never have framed and delivered it with those words, that voice, that music."
Interesting take for sure Kennedys And King - The Dylan/Kennedy Sensation Kennedy author Jim DiEugenio analyzes the surprising new song released by Bob Dylan about the JFK assassination, Murder Most Foul, and interprets it as a poem for those with familiarity with the case.
Yeah, he waited until the exact right time to raise questions about JFK's assassination. Sometimes being timely requires an almost inhuman patience...
Well, I guess the story is that he did it for the 50th anniversary and he references 50 years in the lyrics. Do people think the vocals were maybe redone more recently? Complicated subject as to why he didn't address it at the time when people like Phil Ochs did...he may be talking to himself as much as to us as to why he waited until now to open this sore spot
Some have said he isn't a poet, more a lyricist, going back almost 60 years. And he has been criticized, but mostly just parodied I'd say, for some of his 60s stuff. But I take this as circular reasoning: Whatever he does he's great because he's great. If he's not great, he never was, so nothing mattters. Something has been happeing for generations so on some level he is not terrible. I don't get that. People are unpredictable. They are beyond your command. They can be terrible or middling or great. If they can't then they aren't human beings. Now if you can explain why I ought to care about a reference in the song that he put in about the freemasons I'm all ears. When you put freemasons, kennedys, fabs, rock and roll into songs do you expect no one to ask what you are talking about? You are invoking a lot of hot buttons. To me I would like a better song to justify it.
