ORMojo
03-28-2020, 01:58 PM
The first original Bob Dylan song in 8 years. Murder Most Foul (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NbQkyvbw18)
At 17 minutes, also his longest ever. And different from anything he has ever done, but still unmistakably Dylan.
I grew up with Dylan. I grew up with JFK (the "Murder"), and subsequently RFK, as two of the most indelible memories from my childhood. I'm scheduled to see Dylan on his current tour when he's in town June 9th, but obviously that is now in question.
It is interesting to read the articles written about this new song within the first 24 hours of its release.
This dizzying, utterly extraordinary song — as allusive as it is elusive — starts off seeming like it might be a straightforward recounting of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but expands into an impressionistic, elegiac, increasingly apocalyptic journey through what feels like the entire Sixties (complete with references to the Who’s Tommy, Woodstock, and Altamont) and then perhaps all of 20th-century America, especially its music.
The song’s structural freedom and mesmerizing arrangement — a dusting of piano, a lilting violin, distant percussion — feel like fresh territory for Dylan, occasionally evoking Van Morrison at his most mystical. Its themes of doom — and possible redemption — feel alarmingly in tune with our current moment, which may have prompted Dylan to choose it for release.
. . . or . . .
People have mooted that it’s a standalone release, appearing now because Dylan understandably thinks it’s timely, March 2020 being a pretty apropos moment to release an epic song filled with death and horror and apocalyptic dread (“The age of the antichrist has just begun … it’s 36 hours past judgment day”), or perhaps to give his diehard fans further incentive to stay indoors. You rather get the feeling some of them will still be self-isolating months after the coronavirus all-clear has sounded, delicately unpicking its manifold knotty allusions – the line about playing it for Carl Wilson down Gower Avenue requires the listener to know that the late Beach Boy sang backing vocals on Desperados Under the Eaves, the concluding track from Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 album, which ended with the line “look away down Gower Avenue” – and arguing on message boards as to whether the Susie mentioned midway through is just a reference to the Everly Brothers, or to Suze Rotolo, the girlfriend with whom Dylan watched the aftermath of Kennedy assassination unfolding, holed up in their New York apartment.
. . . or . . .
It also suggests an artist nearing 80, but continually moving forward – musically, it’s unlike anything Dylan has done before – and as wilfully contrary as ever.
. . . or . . .
It's worth many repeated listens and will occupy any Dylanologist holed up at home.
And finally, as noted above, the song spends its last ~7 minutes referencing/intertwining a play list. Here it is, as compiled by NPR, which they also helpfully turned into a playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tI8AbGGKHdNcnqeJWfLcR?si=JgTT95uzQ-aSg5bDCwIS8g).
Children's Music - "Hush Little Baby"
The Beatles - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
Gerry & The Pacemakers - "Ferry Cross the Mersey"
Joni Mitchell - "Woodstock"
The 5th Dimension - "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)"
Shirley & Lee - "Let The Good Times Roll"
Wanda Jackson - "There's A Party Goin' On"
Robert Johnson - "Crossroads"
The Grateful Dead - "Deep Ellum Blues"
Jr. Walker & The All Stars - "Shotgun"
Kay Kyser - "The Wise Old Owl"
The Who - "Tommy Can You Hear Me?"
The Who - "The Acid Queen"
Elvis Presley - "Long Black Limousine"
Roomful of Blues - "Backseat Blues"
John Michael King - "On the Street Where You Live"
Joan Baez - "Oh, Freedom"
Little Richard - "Send Me Some Lovin'"
Burt Bacharach - "Walk On By"
The Everly Brothers - "Wake up Little Susie"
Larry Williams - "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"
Billie Holiday - "You Go To My Head"
Patsy Cline - "Crazy"
The Kingston Trio - "The New Frontier"
Tom Jones - "What's New Pussycat?"
Ray Charles - "What'd I Say"
Wolfman Jack - "Dust My Broom"
Billy Joel - "Only the Good Die Young"
The Kingston Trio - "Tom Dooley"
Louis Armstrong - "St. James Infirmary (Gambler's Blues)"
Etta James - "Tell Mama"
John Lee Hooker - "Boom Boom"
Slim Harpo - "Baby Scratch My Back"
Guitar Slim - "The Things That I Used To Do"
Marilyn Monroe - "I Wanna Be Loved By You"
Nina Simone - "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Warren Zevon - "Desperados Under the Eaves"
Eagles - "Take It to the Limit"
Elvis Presley - "Mystery Train"
The Platters - "Twilight Time"
Bob Wills - "Take Me Back To Tulsa"
Queen - "Another One Bites The Dust"
Jo Stafford - "The Old Rugged Cross"
Gaither Carlton - "Look Down That Lonesome Road"
Oscar Peterson - "Stormy Weather"
Stan Getz - "The Girl From Ipanema"
Dickie Betts - "Blue Sky"
Thelonious Monk -" 'Round Midnight"
Charlie Parker - "All The Things You Are"
Chicago Cast - "All That Jazz"
Charlie Chaplin - "Chaplin and Keaton Piano and Violin Duet"
The Allman Brothers Band - "Blue Sky"
Woody Guthrie - "Pretty Boy Floyd"
Ella Fitzgerald - "Cry Me A River"
The Beatles - "Revolution 9"
Nat King Cole - "Nature Boy"
Nancy Sinatra - "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"
Stevie Nicks - "Rooms on Fire"
Billy Joe Royal - "Down in the Boondocks"
Elvis Presley - "One Night Of Sin"
Miles Davis - "Stella By Starlight"
The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun"
Erroll Garner - "Misty"
Miles Davis Quartet - "That Old Devil Moon"
Eileen Rodgers - "Anything Goes"
Benny Goodman - "King Porter Stomp"
Little Richard - "Lucille"
Chet Baker - "Deep In A Dream"
Randy Newman - "Lonely at the Top"
Ludwig van Beethoven - "Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement)"
Little Walter - "Key to the Highway"
Tennessee Ernie Ford - "Marching Through Georgia"
The Corries - "Dumbarton's Drums"
Hoagy Carmichael - "Memphis In June"
At 17 minutes, also his longest ever. And different from anything he has ever done, but still unmistakably Dylan.
I grew up with Dylan. I grew up with JFK (the "Murder"), and subsequently RFK, as two of the most indelible memories from my childhood. I'm scheduled to see Dylan on his current tour when he's in town June 9th, but obviously that is now in question.
It is interesting to read the articles written about this new song within the first 24 hours of its release.
This dizzying, utterly extraordinary song — as allusive as it is elusive — starts off seeming like it might be a straightforward recounting of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but expands into an impressionistic, elegiac, increasingly apocalyptic journey through what feels like the entire Sixties (complete with references to the Who’s Tommy, Woodstock, and Altamont) and then perhaps all of 20th-century America, especially its music.
The song’s structural freedom and mesmerizing arrangement — a dusting of piano, a lilting violin, distant percussion — feel like fresh territory for Dylan, occasionally evoking Van Morrison at his most mystical. Its themes of doom — and possible redemption — feel alarmingly in tune with our current moment, which may have prompted Dylan to choose it for release.
. . . or . . .
People have mooted that it’s a standalone release, appearing now because Dylan understandably thinks it’s timely, March 2020 being a pretty apropos moment to release an epic song filled with death and horror and apocalyptic dread (“The age of the antichrist has just begun … it’s 36 hours past judgment day”), or perhaps to give his diehard fans further incentive to stay indoors. You rather get the feeling some of them will still be self-isolating months after the coronavirus all-clear has sounded, delicately unpicking its manifold knotty allusions – the line about playing it for Carl Wilson down Gower Avenue requires the listener to know that the late Beach Boy sang backing vocals on Desperados Under the Eaves, the concluding track from Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 album, which ended with the line “look away down Gower Avenue” – and arguing on message boards as to whether the Susie mentioned midway through is just a reference to the Everly Brothers, or to Suze Rotolo, the girlfriend with whom Dylan watched the aftermath of Kennedy assassination unfolding, holed up in their New York apartment.
. . . or . . .
It also suggests an artist nearing 80, but continually moving forward – musically, it’s unlike anything Dylan has done before – and as wilfully contrary as ever.
. . . or . . .
It's worth many repeated listens and will occupy any Dylanologist holed up at home.
And finally, as noted above, the song spends its last ~7 minutes referencing/intertwining a play list. Here it is, as compiled by NPR, which they also helpfully turned into a playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tI8AbGGKHdNcnqeJWfLcR?si=JgTT95uzQ-aSg5bDCwIS8g).
Children's Music - "Hush Little Baby"
The Beatles - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
Gerry & The Pacemakers - "Ferry Cross the Mersey"
Joni Mitchell - "Woodstock"
The 5th Dimension - "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)"
Shirley & Lee - "Let The Good Times Roll"
Wanda Jackson - "There's A Party Goin' On"
Robert Johnson - "Crossroads"
The Grateful Dead - "Deep Ellum Blues"
Jr. Walker & The All Stars - "Shotgun"
Kay Kyser - "The Wise Old Owl"
The Who - "Tommy Can You Hear Me?"
The Who - "The Acid Queen"
Elvis Presley - "Long Black Limousine"
Roomful of Blues - "Backseat Blues"
John Michael King - "On the Street Where You Live"
Joan Baez - "Oh, Freedom"
Little Richard - "Send Me Some Lovin'"
Burt Bacharach - "Walk On By"
The Everly Brothers - "Wake up Little Susie"
Larry Williams - "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"
Billie Holiday - "You Go To My Head"
Patsy Cline - "Crazy"
The Kingston Trio - "The New Frontier"
Tom Jones - "What's New Pussycat?"
Ray Charles - "What'd I Say"
Wolfman Jack - "Dust My Broom"
Billy Joel - "Only the Good Die Young"
The Kingston Trio - "Tom Dooley"
Louis Armstrong - "St. James Infirmary (Gambler's Blues)"
Etta James - "Tell Mama"
John Lee Hooker - "Boom Boom"
Slim Harpo - "Baby Scratch My Back"
Guitar Slim - "The Things That I Used To Do"
Marilyn Monroe - "I Wanna Be Loved By You"
Nina Simone - "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Warren Zevon - "Desperados Under the Eaves"
Eagles - "Take It to the Limit"
Elvis Presley - "Mystery Train"
The Platters - "Twilight Time"
Bob Wills - "Take Me Back To Tulsa"
Queen - "Another One Bites The Dust"
Jo Stafford - "The Old Rugged Cross"
Gaither Carlton - "Look Down That Lonesome Road"
Oscar Peterson - "Stormy Weather"
Stan Getz - "The Girl From Ipanema"
Dickie Betts - "Blue Sky"
Thelonious Monk -" 'Round Midnight"
Charlie Parker - "All The Things You Are"
Chicago Cast - "All That Jazz"
Charlie Chaplin - "Chaplin and Keaton Piano and Violin Duet"
The Allman Brothers Band - "Blue Sky"
Woody Guthrie - "Pretty Boy Floyd"
Ella Fitzgerald - "Cry Me A River"
The Beatles - "Revolution 9"
Nat King Cole - "Nature Boy"
Nancy Sinatra - "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"
Stevie Nicks - "Rooms on Fire"
Billy Joe Royal - "Down in the Boondocks"
Elvis Presley - "One Night Of Sin"
Miles Davis - "Stella By Starlight"
The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun"
Erroll Garner - "Misty"
Miles Davis Quartet - "That Old Devil Moon"
Eileen Rodgers - "Anything Goes"
Benny Goodman - "King Porter Stomp"
Little Richard - "Lucille"
Chet Baker - "Deep In A Dream"
Randy Newman - "Lonely at the Top"
Ludwig van Beethoven - "Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement)"
Little Walter - "Key to the Highway"
Tennessee Ernie Ford - "Marching Through Georgia"
The Corries - "Dumbarton's Drums"
Hoagy Carmichael - "Memphis In June"