More Thoughts on Murder Most Foul: Most Foul Indeed

Zürich. I shall never forget, President Kennedy was assassinated, the pain we felt for America and the bewilderment and disillusionment experienced by the many former soldiers in World War II and former inmates in Soviet camps in prison. The failure of the US judicial authorities to uncover the real assassins of Kennedy was all the worse because of the inability or the lack of desire by the American judicial authorities to uncover the assassins and clear up the crime.. 

We had the feeling that powerful, openhanded and generous America, so boundlessly partial to freedom, had been smeared in the face with dirt, and the feeling persisted. Something more than respect was shaken--it was our faith.
--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

So begins an essay on Henry Kissinger in a book of Solzhenitsyn's selected writings titled World Communism: A Critical Review. That's quite a quote when you consider the Nobel laureate who said it.

How interesting that I stumbled upon this passage (above) while listening to Dylan's latest album Rough And Rowdy Ways, which culminates in the explosive epic 17-minute lament "Murder Most Foul."

It takes but a glance to see what this song is about. The photo of JFK fills the back panel of RARW, with the Old English lettering Murder Most Foul beneath. The lyrics begin with a matter-of-fact alliteration: "It was a dark day in Dallas, November 1963"

So much has been written about the assassination that you'd think it difficult to add anything, yet Dylan adds much, in the manner only Dylan can. Really. Assemble a thousand songwriters with a thousand typewriters for a thousand days and how many would have come up with something like "Murder Most Foul"?

Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb
He said, "Wait a minute, boys, you know who I am?"
   (I automatically hear in my mind, "Wait a minute boys, this one's not dead" from Hurricane.)
"Of course we do, we know who you are"
Then they blew off his head while he was still in the car
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Now here's an interesting aside. While editing this I have been listening to Murder Most Foul on YouTube and as YouTube usually does, they follow up with related videos. After two or three cuts from RARW the next song in the playlist is Hurricane. What are the odds that this is a coincidence?

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Earlier this week I came across Eyold Østrem's "Murder Most Foul (2020) – An American Litany" at Expecting Rain and was wholly into it, an excellent breakdown on this song. Østrem first breaks down the song's structure, provides a musical analysis of the verses in order to set up the discussion of the lyrics.

In the first “great verse” Dylan sets down the historical framework, the storyteller holding the microphone, like a news commentator.

In the second verse, writes Østrem, "The narrator has put on a different hat: it is no longer the storyteller speaking, but the tutor, the 'wise old owl' who observes the events cooly and communicates to us children what he sees, in short sentences, clichés, commands."

Hard to believe that it's already nearly four months's since the song went viral on Twitter in late March. That Friday morning I listened to it three times before doing anything else that day and it was the second verse that said "listen up" from the very first time I listened. The middle of this verse hit me with graphic force on a couple levels. First the visual, which all who have seen the Zapruder film will agree was disturbing enough. Second, the comparison to a great magic trick.

This is where the Solzhenitsyn quote comes to mind. I still remember the first magic show I attended. "How did he do that?" is what a child's mind will ask. Solzhenitsyn raises the question, "Why this lack of desire, lack of curiosity to know how they did it?"

The day they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing
It happened so quickly, so quick, by surprise
Right there in front of everyone's eyes
Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done

"Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave."

I've mentioned it before that Dylan was a great fan of magic, especially the masterful magician and showman Harry Houdini. When Dylan was asked what historical moment he'd like to go back and see he replied that he'd like to have been there when Houdini was shackled, chained, trussed, nailed into a box and thrown into the East River off Governor’s Island.

The song is so dense that one can easily miss many of its features, but Østrem places a spotlight on this unique aspect of the Dylan account of the assassination.

"The third 'great verse' is mindblowing, both metaphorically and literally," Østrem writes. "We are inside the head of the President while it is being blown to pieces – a unique insider perspective from a dying man, and we witness his surprised hallucinations while he observes his own death, partly as a very close observer ('Ridin’ in the back seat next to my wife, … leaning to the left, I got my head in her lap'), partly as a detached soul, hovering over the scene, following the events depicted in the Zapruder film closely, before leaving it at 2:38 when the president’s dead and Johnson is sworn in."

There are songs and movies in which the impact is strong at first, but diminishes after time. I think that is the difference between good and great. Dylan's Nobel Prize was no fluke. The more you listen to this incredibly painful reminiscence, the deeper it penetrates the deep places in your soul.

Tommy, can you hear me? I'm the Acid Queen
I'm riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine
Ridin' in the back seat next to my wife 
Headed straight on in to the afterlife
I'm leaning to the left, I got my head in her lap
Hold on, I've been led into some kind of a trap
Where we ask no quarter, and no quarter do we give
We're right down the street, from the street where you live
They mutilated his body and they took out his brain

This song is no joke, even when he says rub-a-dub-dub. Just as the album begins with "I Contain Multitudes" so does this song contain an incredible multitude of references that will reverberate beyond whatever you think you understand. Just as a garden of perennials continues to produce riches year after year, so will this song as does the rest of the Dylan catalogue.

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If I manage to get you to listen more attentively to "Murder Most Foul" and read Eyolf Østrem's Murder Most Foul (2020) – An American Litany, then I've accomplished my purpose here. You can find my first response in March here: Dylan Dishes Up A New Meal with a Feast of References: Murder Most Foul.

Dylan's brilliance has never been simply the writing, but the entire experience, the evocative manner in which we encounter him through his delivery and the supporting musical accompaniment.

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For what it's worth, if you are Dylan fan and don't own Rough and Rowdy Ways, what are you waiting for? I'm serious. Like nearly every Dylan album I've every owned the more you listen, the more you appreciate everything you find here.

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You can find the complete lyrics for this song at www.bobdylan.com/songs/murder-most-foul/

Dylan Dishes Up A New Meal with a Feast of References: Murder Most Foul

Twas a dark day in Dallas, November '63, the day that will live on in infamy

Dylan does it as only Dylan can do. Near 17 minutes, a lyric tapestry of historical references against a backdrop similar to slowly moving waves a sustained cello foundation, oceanic in depth, embellished with ominous, haunting percussion and piano, perfectly choreographed to produce a mood, a mood perfectly suited to the event most central to this song and our generational angst.

Last night, Bob shared the new song with his several hundred thousand Twitter followers, accompanied by these words: Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years. This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you. Bob Dylan

The song's title is Murder Most Foul, a song about the Kennedy assassination in Dylan's carefully crafted stream-of-consciousness style that he has used frequently in his songs. Stream-of-consciousness and crafted may seem contradictory, and I doubt anyone but Dylan can tell you which of these poles carried more influence. The objective is achieved brilliantly, capturing that mood, that historical moment, that murder most foul.

"The day they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching the whole darn thing
It happened so quick and so quick by surprise
Right there in front of everyone's eyes
The greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, carefully done."

So many great lines, you want to go right back into it a second time because it is so packed.

"What is the truth? Where did it go?"

And this one: "You've got unpaid debts, we've come to collect."

As I listened to it the first time through I couldn't help but think I'd heard a similar chord structure and mood song before. That is, it kept reminding me of something, so afterward I found myself searching my memory vault for this other song that had a similar mournful sound. I first turned to Tempest, then other nooks and crannies from the Dylan catalog ("Not Dark Yet" came to mind) but nothing was precisely what I was thinking. Once I opened the door to other considerations I hit upon it. Johnny Cash: "I Hung My Head." Both the mood and delivery cadence seem to echo one another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M53FcPoWtA

All the references to people and places mirror stylistically Chronicles: Vol. 1 in places. Here are a few people that pepper the landscape of Murder Most Foul: Marilyn, Wolfman Jack, the Invisible Man, Tom Dooley, John Lee Hooker, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, the Birdman of Alcatraz, Pretty Boy Floyd. There are places, too. Dallas, The Crossroads, New Orleans, the Trinity River, Tulsa--along with song references as well: Please don't let me be misunderstood, the Old Rugged Cross, Cry Me A River, Turn the Radio On, etc.

It seems like every line in the song could be elaborated on and thereby produce a book. It wouldn't surprise me if someone somewhere hasn't already started it.

There's also an American Pie quality to the song in a sense, a long song packed with references and minutia about which much has been written. Of course Maclean was emulating Dylan to a certain extent, the songwriter who broke the 3-minute song barrier with densely packed lyrics like Desolation Row and Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

It's too early to start picking favorite lines, but I liked this one, playing off Lee Harvey Oswald's response to being fingered for the deed. "I'm just a patsy, like Patsy Cline."

Here's the song itself:

The timing of its release is interesting. We're in a very strange time again, sobering and surreal.

Related Links

Wordless Wednesday: The JFK Assassination

Will AI Finally Solve the JFK Assassination?
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Tech Tuesday: Will A.I. Finally Solve the JFK Assassination?

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago." 
--Walter Cronkite, excerpt from his broadcast, Nov. 22, 1963

More than a week before the 2016 presidential election an A.I. supercomputer predicted, despite what all the polls were predicting, that Donald Trump would be our next president. I read the story on TechCrunch or some other tech eNewsletter, but you can read it here in this U.S. News & World Report story. The article stated, 'If Trump loses, it will defy the data trend for the first time in the last 12 years,' the AI's developer says.

Well, with the JFK assassination anniversary today I couldn't help but wonder if one of our A.I. supercomputers could help us out a little bit on this unsolved mystery.

Sunday's NYTimes published a story about Microsoft's latest foray into quantum computing. Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing have been big stories this year, in part as a result of Big Blue's victory in Jeopardy and the DeepMind A.I. that defeated the world champion Go player. The Times article stated, There is a growing optimism in the tech world that quantum computers, superpowerful devices that were once the stuff of science fiction, are possible — and may even be practical. If these machines work, they will have an impact on work in areas such as drug design and artificial intelligence, as well as offer a better understanding of the foundations of modern physics.

And maybe useful in helping solve one of the biggest mysteries of our lives...

The New York Post just published this twist on the JFK assassination, that a Cuban double agent led the plot. The evidence comes from secret diaries and the details are contained in a new book that tells all.

Another book has just come out that tells how a famous journalist who was hot on the trail of the killers was herself "taken out" before she could break her story.

Her name was Dorothy Kilgallen and after 18 months of research she was nearing the completion of a book on the JFK shooting that debunked the "Oswald acted alone" theory. Random House never received the manuscript and her findings remained buried now for more than 50 years.

That's the essence of criminal defense lawyer Mark Shaw's book titled, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much. The title hearkens back to the Hitchcock thriller starring Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, which was a re-make itself of Hitchcock's earlier version of a story by the same title. The pre-release publicity for this book indicated that Kilgallen's the one reporter who was getting it right while the others pushed theories with "cherry-picked" facts designed to confirm their own notions of what happened at Dealey Plaza shortly after noon 53 years ago today.

For additional reading check out this article published yesterday on the failed investigations of JFK's murder. Public sentiment leans away from blindfolded acceptance of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. What I'd like one of our contemporary supercomputers to do is sift through all that has been written and draw for us a conclusion that is totally convincing. Big Blue? DeepMind? Are you ready?