Murder Most Foul

This brings back so many memories as a child. Hard to believe I lived to be a witness to such astounding and impacting history. Thank you Mr. Dylan for reminding us of the lessons learned and not learned.

Bob Dylan surprised a locked-down world with a new song a few minutes after the stroke of midnight on Friday morning. The new epic, “Murder Most Foul,” is the first original song that he’s put out since 2012.

The 17-minute opus — the longest song Dylan has ever recorded — is ostensibly about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and borrows its title from another bard. In Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a ghost remarks to the protagonist: “Murder most foul, as in the best it is / But this most foul, strange and unnatural.”

Dylan’s “Murder Most Foul” arrives at a most strange and unnatural time in American history, as the corona-virus has brought life as we knew it to a sudden halt. It speaks to the present moment by addressing a tragedy that stopped the nation in its tracks on Nov. 22, 1963.

The song is a hazy mood piece in which the singer’s raspy whisper is accompanied by piano, violin, and barely-there drums. It takes its sweet time as he puts forth an elegiac, apocalyptic vision. The lyrics reference people and events in pop culture during the tumultuous years that followed Kennedy’s death.

Dan DeLuca, Updated: March 27, 2020