Murder Most Foul by Bob Dylan

 
Maya sent me a link to Murder Most Foul, a new Bob Dylan song filled with musical and cultural references that are transformed by his linking them to President Kennedy's assassination and the ending of dreams for a new frontier, a new Camelot.

The title of the song is from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The song begins with words from a 19th century Christmas poem then segues seamlessly into FDR's December 1941 speech after the attack on Pearl Harbor. These are followed by a line from a Cole Porter song, a Native American battle cry, and a quote from the Book of Isaiah.

And that's just the first minute and a half of this seventeen-minute song!

Bob Dylan has put a lifetime of reading and listening into this cultural tribute to a short-lived era... and some painfully graphic descriptions of the assassination. "Try to make it to the triple underpass."

The powerful line, "only dead men are free" seems to be Dylan's own. The band of brothers, two of whom had died before JFK...  Eisenhower's farewell address... Do the many references to musical legends say something about the power of memory? And undoubtedly, Dylan is comparing today's politics and culture to that golden age. (I love Stevie Nicks, but I'm not sure why she and Lindsey Buckingham merit a mention.)

I spent much of the day trying to pin down some of the references Dylan makes in the song. I took many wrong turns down YouTube Alley, but even that was enjoyable and instructive.

Later in the day, I started reading The Sense of Style, a book about writing by a cognitive scientist named Steven Pinker. Arlan recommended the book to me a few weeks ago, and he's right-- it's wondrous! 

Someone from DaggiDog delivered cat food this afternoon. Later, when I went out to feed the cats, I saw that two cops had stopped a couple of pedestrians on Derech Harim. I wondered what had drawn the cops' attention. They kept asking one of the women for her Teudat Zehut but she wouldn't produce it. Perhaps she was more than 100 meters from her home. (I'll be sure to carry my Teudat Zehut and my lease whenever I go outside from now on.)

I met Arlan in Canada Gardens. He has been dealing with isolation by planning lots of trips. Today, he had researched travel in the southern hemisphere, settling on a journey through South America and perhaps to Patagonia.

There were lots of people outside! We enjoyed watching a father and son kick a soccer ball around the park.

John's wife, Mary Jean, made chicken soup for me, which she and John delivered this evening. It's the best chicken broth I've ever had! (They are being very conscientious about isolation because she's in her first trimester. Mazel tov!)

My abdomen is still uncomfortable. It's not going to clear up as quickly as I'd hoped, but as long as I avoid solid food a few more days...

The eighth day of the Counting of the Omer begins tonight:

If you find yourself struggling with faith, you are in the company of
Jacob-who-became-Israel, the father-in-faith of us all.