Murder Most Foul. Bob Dylan

It is 8 years ago Bob Dylan released original work, releasing cover songs from his youth and before for years since. For me it is even longer that new work by Dylan truly captured me, 'Time Out Of Mind' is the last album that truly touched me. That's 21 years ago. So to say that I was awaiting new work eagerly, is wide beside the truth.

This Friday Liesbeth List was trending on Twitter, so, my hunch was right. She had died. When not much later Bob Dylan was trending, my heart skipped a beat. Of course, the man is 78 and I had not seen his name come by for a while. Many people do not make it to that age. The news was good though. A new song, nearly 17 minutes long too.

Murder Most Foul being so long is the kind of song I expected it to be. An endless song with a stream of consciousness like lyric, but far from a 'Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Low Lands' or 'Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts, nor a 'Hurricane'. I did not expect a lot of melody for some reason, let alone a recognisable chorus. It goes even further. Murder Most Foul is a sketchy song. The music is totally secondary to the broken voice of Dylan.

A piano, strings and some percussion. The music is almost patchy, while Dylan conjures up images and recites titles of songs and artists and actors, alive and dead. Online already playlists have popped up that have the titles mentioned in it. A musical game in times of Corona. There will be a lot of music to discover on the list too, as it is a diverse set.

Looking at it without any compassion and fanship Murder Most Foul is deadly boring. I can imagine many people would go crazy having to listen to this endless song. Nothing happens, right? And what about that croaky voice? But this is Dylan and Dylan has this extra. Even in an endless song where nothing seems to happen, his voice captures me and is able to bring me into the mood to listen to the song again and again. There are so many Dylan songs that are so much better than Murder Most Foul, yet it is so welcome. It is Dylan, his Bobness and he has given us a new song that starts with that day in Dalles in November 1963. One of those days the world went into shock as happens every once in a while. Like it is now. A killing that more or less sanctified a man who would have ended up in history totally different had he lived longer. Too many things happened that needed shielding from the public eye, apart from the Vietnam war he would have been dragged into as well.

For Dylan it is the starting point for a trip down in time, with The Beatles singing 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'; going for the throat, of American popular music of pre-1964, including Dylan's beloved folk music and all the music he has been singing on his albums after 2012. Would Dylan have become this big without The Beatles and vice versa? A good question.

Going for the throat is what Dylan does in Murder Most Foul. Ever so subtly. Yes, it is impressive what he does here. A deep bow is in order.

As an afterthought. The way of this song reminds me of Van Morrison. In the early 80s he had some songs that seemed more atmospheric doodles than "real" songs. Those songs stopped after three minutes or so. By the way, I saw a co-line up of Morrison and Dylan years ago. Must be close to 20 years now I suppose.

Wo.

Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g