Track Talk 503: Murder Most Foul

[ballyho]

^ and there’s a mobility, momentum too carried by the pianos

[Still Go Barefoot]

Good entries above.
It’s truly a Masterpiece, on so many levels.
Don’t you think?

[Still Go Barefoot]

Article snippet from today’s front page:

“Murder Most Foul” features Pasqua, who joined Benmont Tench (keyboards) and Blake Mills (guitar) in the recording session. Fiona Apple also plays keyboards on the song, though she wasn’t on the same session. “Benmont’s on the left, Alan’s on the right, Fiona’s in the middle. It’s like the early days of stereo. It’s a really cool collaboration. She sounded beautiful too.”

https://americansongwriter.com/keyboard ... bob-dylan/

Good shoutouts to Ray Padgett’s
‘Flagging Down the Double E’ blog too!

[ballyho]

^ nice! And:
“They were playing a demo. I heard it and I just couldn’t believe it. In rock music, things usually have a specific beat and pulse. This was free. The time was free. It was elastic. It wasn’t specific to a certain time, feel or tempo. It just moved and flowed.”

[Pauley]

The fact that it was live in the studio without overdubs goes against my understanding of it. Cool. I am thinking of Blake's comment about how bob would use certain cheats aka not the old fashioned recording techniques. From this I assumed, wrongly that bob used overdubs and replaced vocals/instrumental parts that he didnt like.

Also that mmf was done in some demo takes and then a handful of proper takes is interesting and enlightening.

Thanks for posting this

[yopietro]

The fact that it was live in the studio without overdubs goes against my understanding of it. Cool. I am thinking of Blake's comment about how bob would use certain cheats aka not the old fashioned recording techniques. From this I assumed, wrongly that bob used overdubs and replaced vocals/instrumental parts that he didnt like.

If Fiona Apple played her part at a different session, that already indicates that there were overdubs in the song.

[toilandblood546]

I've been reading Jim Douglass' provocative book "JFK and the Unspeakable" and there's testimony from a Wayne January who was working as an airfield mechanic in Dallas the week leading up to the assassination. He has since said that a man he was working on a plane with identified himself as a Cuban exile who had worked with the CIA and January says he was told that "they" were going to kill JFK soon. He also is quoted as telling January:

"They are not only going to kill the President, they are going to kill Robert Kennedy and any other Kennedy who gets into that position."

Which seems like a place where Dylan got: "Brothers? What brothers? We'll get them as well"


I've also been trying to find what the heck is meant by "the man with the telepathic mind." Kennedy himself is reported to have told Jackie on the morning of the assassination: "...if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it." Hours later, something just like that happened.

[Fred@Dreamtime]

I've been reading Jim Douglass' provocative book "JFK and the Unspeakable" and there's testimony from a Wayne January who was working as an airfield mechanic i...

I've also been trying to find what the heck is meant by "the man with the telepathic mind." Kennedy himself is reported to have told Jackie on the morning of the assassination: "...if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it." Hours later, something just like that happened.

"Provocative" is probably the right term for theories claiming that JFK's assassins were informing people that they intended to kill him. It somehow seems counter-productive.

The best--or at least most workable--theory about Dylan's meaning of "the man with a telepathic mind" I've seen is that it's a reference to mind-control by the CIA or other MKULTRA-like entity. Several conspiracy books have it that Oswald was being telepathically controlled, as was Sirhan Sirhan. On the other hand, maybe it's a reference to The Amazing Criswell, who, Dylan seems to have a liking for, and also predicted that Kennedy wouldn't be re-elected because "something would happen to him." Jeanne Dixon, Kennedy's secretary, and even Nostradamus were also among the hordes of psychics who reportedly predicted Kennedy's death. Or maybe Penn Jillette told Dylan about Bill McCaffrey, Pick a number.

[Tim Finnegan]

I find it keeps getting better and better with each listen. I think they nailed it with the two pianos, percussion, violin (I think that’s a violin?) and whatever other instrument(s) are in there. I think they blend together perfectly. Something about his voice on it too. And the sound is amazing.

[ballyho]

Hey Tim, it’s only a year now..., imagine later

[zdrake314]

Some thoughts on "Murder Most Foul", after over a year:

It works on me. I'm in the "it's a masterpiece" camp. I can tell you a story about why I think it is, but I'm not certain that would be the real story. ("Key West" on the other hand, does not bind me with its spell--somehow that one I look at from the outside, rather than get pulled in.)

I think the central conflict in the song is between overwhelming cynicism and evil, represented by the killing of Kennedy, and the power of music to heal wounds and offer solace in the face of despair. I think Dylan has music "win" the battle, but it's not obvious. But at the end, "Murder Most Foul" no longer refers to the assassination so hideously depicted earlier in the song: it now refers to the song itself, and it is the last shot fired in Dylan's barrage of DJ Wolfman Jack invocations against hopelessness. This is a great bit of sleight-of-hand as well as a bit of braggadocio, but who's gonna argue that Dylan can't put himself in that cavalcade? Not me.

In the first group of lines ("Twas a dark day in Dallas" through "Rub-a-dub-dub...", the assassination dominates, and the Wolfman (who often began his show with a howl) is invoked for the first time, but does get any requests.

In the second group of lines ("Hush lil children..." to "business is business"), the theme of music being a balm or comfort is invoked, but it doesn't seem fully up to the task. The Beatles holding your hand can't possibly console us for this death, the optimism of Woodstock segues quickly to Altamont and its notorious killings. The Wolfman doesn't show up here, but the song invocations are beginning to slip in. But the Kennedy assassination imagery still dominates.

In the third group of lines ("Tommy can you hear me..." through "It is what it is...") the dark imagery dominates as we enter in and out of Kennedy's point of view. We do manage to get the radio on, but that's about it. There are a lot of song allusions, but they are in the service of the depiction of the grisly events; they don't offer solace.

In the fourth and final group of lines ("What's New Pussycat?..." through the end), the battle is really joined. After the first line, we get three lines of bleakness: I said the soul of a nation been torn away /It’s beginning to go down into a slow decay / And that it’s thirty-six hours past judgment day. In response, the Wolfman reappears, "speaking in tongues", perhaps infused with divine power. At last, the invocation is made explicit: "Play me song, Mr. Wolfman Jack..." Now the musical invocations begin to dominate. They don't dispel the pain or drive it off: many of the selections are clearly infused with the grief and violence of the situation. And the lurid, grotesque imagery still interjects itself, e.g. "Stand there and wait for his head to explode". The personification of the assassins get in one more couplet: "Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell? /Tell ‘em we’re waitin’- keep coming - we’ll get ‘em as well". But after a few more lines about the aftermath of the killing it's almost all song requests, and the overall balance of the final section is very tilted towards the musical invocations. The tone of the background instrumentation shifts as well, sounding more hopeful. The musicians get the last word, even if that last word is a reference to the heinous act that we've been trying to console ourselves about.

Other thoughts:
Was Dylan thinking, "Hmm...the first original song I release after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Better be a good one!" I'd be really nervous if it were me.

I think the narrator of the song is clearly immersed in Kennedy assassination conspiracy lore, and seems to believe sinister forces were behind the act. Whether or not Dylan believes it, I don't know. Dylan is a great channeler of the American spirit: he could be just representing that angle because that's what the despair and bleakness of the act requires for the song: it's too big and catastrophic an act not to be part of something scripted by a powerful "they" (into whom the point of view sometimes steps, becoming "we"), think it's always tricky how much to identify Dylan with the narrators in his songs. But if I had to guess, it does seem that Dylan gives credence to the idea of a wider conspiracy.
[/list]

[Tangled up]

Wow, great write up, drake! A lot of interesting thoughts, there, and I think I agree with pretty much all of it. And yep, I'm firmly in the "masterpiece" camp on this one as well. And holy crap, the same guy who wrote Like a Rolling Stone, and wrote Tangled up in Blue... he also wrote THIS song! Dylan really is like the Davinci or Shakespeare of our times. One masterpiece isn't enough for him, he's a greedy bastard, isn't he? And to write one in your 20's and still be able to write one when you're pushing 80?!?! Who does that???

[zdrake314]

Wow, great write up, drake! A lot of interesting thoughts, there, and I think I agree with pretty much all of it. And yep, I'm firmly in the "masterpiece" camp on this one as well. And holy crap, the same guy who wrote Like a Rolling Stone, and wrote Tangled up in Blue... he also wrote THIS song! Dylan really is like the Davinci or Shakespeare of our times. One masterpiece isn't enough for him, he's a greedy bastard, isn't he? And to write one in your 20's and still be able to write one when you're pushing 80?!?! Who does that???

Thanks, Tangled Up. Yes, it is amazing that Dylan, who was making masterpieces in the 1960s, is continuing to work at this level in 2020. I think it is a blessing that Dylan is always interested in moving forward and keeping his past achievements at a certain distance. No one could rest on their laurels more than Dylan ("Grammy? I got the NOBEL PRIZE!"), but no one is less interested in doing so ("You want a greatest hits show? Check out my FIVE ALBUMS worth of Frank Sinatra covers!").

Sometimes I wonder if Dylan is using workaholism to avoid issues in his life. I mean, who tours as much as he does in their late 70s? It's not like he has to: he sold his song catalog for $300 million dollars recently. But whatever the reasons, I'm glad he's still working, because I get to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Bringing this back to "Murder Most Foul", I wonder if he'll do this song live. I hope so. I really think it would be an opportunity for the band to show off their improvising skills. Of course, maybe it'll be completely transformed! I wonder if he'll worry about forgetting the lyrics. I heard the one time he did "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" live he had a "cheat sheet" on his sleeve. He seems to have a pretty good memory for words though, so I bet he could do it. Of course, by the time he starts touring again, maybe he'll be obsessed with Sousa marches and only play tuba for for the entire concert. I certainly don't want to pin my hopes on getting to here a Xerox of the studio recording if I get to see him live again.

[Mary32]

I've been reading Jim Douglass' provocative book "JFK and the Unspeakable" and there's testimony from a Wayne January who was working as an airfield mechanic i...

I've also been trying to find what the heck is meant by "the man with the telepathic mind." Kennedy himself is reported to have told Jackie on the morning of the assassination: "...if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it." Hours later, something just like that happened.

"Provocative" is probably the right term for theories claiming that JFK's assassins were informing people that they intended to kill him. It somehow seems counter-productive.

The best--or at least most workable--theory about Dylan's meaning of "the man with a telepathic mind" I've seen is that it's a reference to mind-control by the CIA or other MKULTRA-like entity. Several conspiracy books have it that Oswald was being telepathically controlled, as was Sirhan Sirhan. On the other hand, maybe it's a reference to The Amazing Criswell, who, Dylan seems to have a liking for, and also predicted that Kennedy wouldn't be re-elected because "something would happen to him." Jeanne Dixon, Kennedy's secretary, and even Nostradamus were also among the hordes of psychics who reportedly predicted Kennedy's death. Or maybe Penn Jillette told Dylan about Bill McCaffrey, Pick a number.

Except telepathy has nothing to do with hypnosis or clairvoyancy, telepathy is simply the ability to read another person's mind, it can also mean you are able to communicate with another through the mind. There have been claims that the CIA experimented with channeling, how that would enter into the JFK conspiracy I am not sure. https://listverse.com/2017/04/17/top-10 ... ic-powers/

[Tangled up]

"Of course, by the time he starts touring again, maybe he'll be obsessed with Sousa marches and only play tuba for for the entire concert."

I love it! Great thought, zdrake! Gimme some tuba, and play it f*cking loud! I have to admit, I nearly spit out my morning tea whilst laughing over your post a moment ago! Thanks for jump starting my morning!

[zdrake314]

JFK was on Elm Street when he was shot.

I don't think Dylan is talking about the movie.

True, but by phrasing the situation as a "Nightmare on Elm Street" as he does in the song it has to be a pun on the movie too, no?

Of course it's a pun on the movie (as well as the street where Kennedy was shot)! I mean, this is the same album in which he likens himself to Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark was released 1981, Nightmare on Elm Street was 1984: I think 80's movies were on his mind. I can't definitively prove it one way or another, but when I heard it I immediately thought of the movie (and I haven't even seen that movie: horror flicks aren't my thing). This seems like a slightly humorous injection, both from Dylan's delivery of the line (he goes up on the word "Elm" in kind of a funny way) and from the cheesy associations I have with that movie and with 80s horror in general. I think it's some dark comic relief and a silly rhyme with "cop on the beat" in the previous line.

[Crayfish]

Blake Mills posted a photo of a "Murder Most Foul" lyric sheet in his Instagram story yesterday (as well as congratulations to Bob on his birthday). It shows the first verse and there is one "alternate lyric":

"...president Kennedy was riding high (going by)"

Also after the second line someone added a word by hand but it cannot be read because it is hidden by the birthday text posted by Blake.

[fishcane]

Some thoughts on "Murder Most Foul", after over a year:

It works on me. I'm in the "it's a masterpiece" camp. I can tell you a story about why I think it is, but I'm not certain that would be the real story. ("Key West" on the other hand, does not bind me with its spell--somehow that one I look at from the outside, rather than get pulled in.)

I think the central conflict in the song is between overwhelming cynicism and evil, represented by the killing of Kennedy, and the power of music to heal wounds and offer solace in the face of despair. I think Dylan has music "win" the battle, but it's not obvious. But at the end, "Murder Most Foul" no longer refers to the assassination so hideously depicted earlier in the song: it now refers to the song itself, and it is the last shot fired in Dylan's barrage of DJ Wolfman Jack invocations against hopelessness. This is a great bit of sleight-of-hand as well as a bit of braggadocio, but who's gonna argue that Dylan can't put himself in that cavalcade? Not me.

In the first group of lines ("Twas a dark day in Dallas" through "Rub-a-dub-dub...", the assassination dominates, and the Wolfman (who often began his show with a howl) is invoked for the first time, but does get any requests.

In the second group of lines ("Hush lil children..." to "business is business"), the theme of music being a balm or comfort is invoked, but it doesn't seem fully up to the task. The Beatles holding your hand can't possibly console us for this death, the optimism of Woodstock segues quickly to Altamont and its notorious killings. The Wolfman doesn't show up here, but the song invocations are beginning to slip in. But the Kennedy assassination imagery still dominates.

In the third group of lines ("Tommy can you hear me..." through "It is what it is...") the dark imagery dominates as we enter in and out of Kennedy's point of view. We do manage to get the radio on, but that's about it. There are a lot of song allusions, but they are in the service of the depiction of the grisly events; they don't offer solace.

In the fourth and final group of lines ("What's New Pussycat?..." through the end), the battle is really joined. After the first line, we get three lines of bleakness: I said the soul of a nation been torn away /It’s beginning to go down into a slow decay / And that it’s thirty-six hours past judgment day. In response, the Wolfman reappears, "speaking in tongues", perhaps infused with divine power. At last, the invocation is made explicit: "Play me song, Mr. Wolfman Jack..." Now the musical invocations begin to dominate. They don't dispel the pain or drive it off: many of the selections are clearly infused with the grief and violence of the situation. And the lurid, grotesque imagery still interjects itself, e.g. "Stand there and wait for his head to explode". The personification of the assassins get in one more couplet: "Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell? /Tell ‘em we’re waitin’- keep coming - we’ll get ‘em as well". But after a few more lines about the aftermath of the killing it's almost all song requests, and the overall balance of the final section is very tilted towards the musical invocations. The tone of the background instrumentation shifts as well, sounding more hopeful. The musicians get the last word, even if that last word is a reference to the heinous act that we've been trying to console ourselves about.

Other thoughts:
Was Dylan thinking, "Hmm...the first original song I release after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Better be a good one!" I'd be really nervous if it were me.

I think the narrator of the song is clearly immersed in Kennedy assassination conspiracy lore, and seems to believe sinister forces were behind the act. Whether or not Dylan believes it, I don't know. Dylan is a great channeler of the American spirit: he could be just representing that angle because that's what the despair and bleakness of the act requires for the song: it's too big and catastrophic an act not to be part of something scripted by a powerful "they" (into whom the point of view sometimes steps, becoming "we"), think it's always tricky how much to identify Dylan with the narrators in his songs. But if I had to guess, it does seem that Dylan gives credence to the idea of a wider conspiracy.
[/list]

Great stuff. Thanks for putting into writing what was in your mind