Dylan's 'Murder Most Foul'

JFK's Killing, Wolfman Jack, and the Book of Lamentations.

This review of 'Murder Most Foul' preceded the release of Bob Dylan's most recent album "Rough and Rowdy Ways." (2020). Now that the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is over (I can confirm that because "Flaggin' Down the Double E's", the

Ray Padgett

Dylan Substack, says so), here's a look back to the very long "single" that got those E's rolling. It was originally published in the March 2020 issue of the online magazine Copper.

'MURDER MOST Foul', Bob Dylan's newly released song, is long. It is 17 minutes and change, about as long as 'Desolation Row' and 'Like a Rolling Stone' combined.It is Bob's longest single studio recording, coming in about 23 seconds longer than the entertaining Dylan dream that was 'Highlands' from 1999's Time Out of Mind. I'll always have a fondness for 'Highlands', for its scene in a coffee shop, where the waitress bets Dylan that he doesn't read women writers. As a retort, Dylan rhymes "wrong" and "Erica Jong."

'Murder Most Foul', released on March 27, 2020, is not a new song o…