Downhill After Dallas

Bob Dylan gifted listeners living under quarantine a doozy last month with a song about the JFK assassination. While many will first notice its staggering length, this is not the first time Dylan has recorded a lengthy tune. In 2012, for example, he released “The Tempest”- a song about the Titanic that was almost as long as this latest historical epic. I’ve listened to “Murder Most Foul” several times now and for me it does not feel too long or difficult to sit through unlike musical works of similar length. This is due not only to the reverent tone of the subject matter but also to the poetic, almost rap like qualities the song possesses that allow listeners to pick out and contemplate different references along the way and not hear the song the same way even after repeated listenings.

One artist’s meditation on not only the death of Camelot but also his own life as well as the sounds and images that filled the era and followed Dallas, the song is what it is; not really a free association so much as an example of what gets kicked loose when the poet is asked to ruminate on the death of the king almost 60 years later- and it all comes rushing back. At this stage, boomers have earned the right to rant about whatever they want, and perhaps the most interesting thing about this song is Dylan waited so long to sing about an event that- like many folks his age- is seared in his soul. Impending death has a way of cutting through the guff. Dylan, the aged jester, doesn’t point any fingers in the song but let us wait and see what history has to say about LBJ’s rumored involvement in “murder most foul”.

Bob Dylan in 1963

As our only Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy has long been a source of pride for American Catholics and while- like Jesus- JFK’s enemies killed him on a Friday, there was no Resurrection after Dallas, no hope arising from the suffering. JFK’s murder marked the end of America as a land of hope and idealism- a notion that only becomes clearer the farther we move away from Dealey Plaza, Memphis, Ford’s Theatre, the Ambassador Hotel- and that feeling is probably what Dylan and Americans his age are now recalling in their golden years. It all went downhill after Dallas, and we have finally reached rock bottom. Mention JFK and, for many, memories from their youth begin flowing fast like blood from the king’s blown apart head onto his wife’s lap. They say long-term memory is the last thing to go. Grade: A

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