Murder Most Foul is his Dylan’s best work in years. The song – more of a recitation with minimalist music – plays like an obituary to the last 70 years; a lament for the dream of America, “the shining city upon the hill.”

Maybe even an elegy for the entire 20th century; for popular culture and music in particular; of that hope which sprang up post-WWII.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 (where nuclear extinction was narrowly averted) the world was moving beyond the paranoia and fear which had reigned for years. There was finally a sense of optimism for the future and a changing world order. Kennedy and Khrushchev were laying the groundwork for complete nuclear disarmament.

By 1964, JFK was out of the way and the industrial military complex that Eisenhower warned about was back on top. America’s slide into a ‘permanent war’ state had begun…

I’ve annotated all the cultural references in Murder Most Foul that I could think of off the top of my head and included them here. I’m sure there are a few I’ve missed; if so, let me know. Most of the song titles at the end of the song are self-explanatory so I didn’t bother so much with those.

The only question I have for Bob is: why now?

MURDER MOST FOUL – annotated

[verse 1]

It was a dark day in Dallas, November ’63 (November 22, 1963)

A day that will live on in infamy (borrowing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous speech about the Pearl Harbor attack)

President Kennedy was a-ridin’ high

Good day to be livin’ and a good day to die

Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb

He said, “Wait a minute, boys, you know who I am?”

“Of course we do, we know who you are!”

Then they blew off his head while he was still in the car

Shot down like a dog in broad daylight

Was a matter of timing and the timing was right (JFK was killed at exactly 12:30pm)

You got unpaid debts, we’ve come to collect (Kennedy was loathed by corporate America for his domestic policies and was considered a traitor and soft on communism by the military-industrial complex for his foreign policy)

We’re gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect

We’ll mock you and shock you and we’ll put it in your face

We’ve already got someone here to take your place (Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson – alleged to be involved in the plot. He had the most to gain)

The day they blew out the brains of the king

Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing

It happened so quickly, so quick, by surprise

Right there in front of everyone’s eyes

Greatest magic trick ever under the sun (The assassination supposedly had many occult  connections…it was considered by some a ritual murder, the “killing of the king” scenario was played out – orchestrated – in real time by the planners…who were not only Freemasons, but were rumored to belong to satanic cults and such as well…)

Perfectly executed, skillfully done (JFK was killed by a conspiracy involving elements of the CIA, military, mafia and corporate interests).

Wolfman, oh Wolfman, oh Wolfman, howl (Wolfman Jack was a famous radio  DJ at the time)

Rub-a-dub-dub, it’s a murder most foul 

[verse 2]

Hush, little children, you’ll understand (a lullaby)

The Beatles are comin’, they’re gonna hold your hand (The Beatles’ famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964 is widely viewed by historians as the moment America began to come out of its collective shock over the assassination. The Beatles are credited with helping to heal America’s wounds…Bob Dylan is according to all accounts the first person to get the Fabs high when he smuggled a joint up to the suite they were in at the Delmonico Hotel in New York. He’d misinterpreted the chorus on I Want To Hold Your Hand as “I get High” instead of the actual lyric, “I can’t hide”)

Slide down the banister, go get your coat

Ferry ‘cross the Mersey and go for the throat (Gerry and the Pacemakers’ early hit)

There’s three bums comin’ all dressed in rags (reference to the 3 ‘bums’ or ‘tramps’ photographed being arrested in Dealey Plaza following the assassination…somehow the arrests were never recorded on the police blotter…one tramp bears a distinct resemblance to E. Howard Hunt, future Watergate burglar…)

Pick up the pieces and lower the flags

I’m goin’ to Woodstock, it’s the Aquarian Age (recognized as the height of the peace& love generation)

Then I’ll go over to Altamont and sit near the stage (Altamont, the free rock concert featuring the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, referred to as the end of the 60’s hippie “peace and love” dream. The Stones hired the Hells Angels motorcycle gang as security and it was a complete disaster. The Angels were paid with Michelob and speed and one of them stabbed Meredith Hunter in front of the stage while the Rolling Stones played Sympathy For The Devil…)

Put your head out the window, let the good times roll (possible reference to Sam Cooke’s 1964 hit, Good Times)

There’s a party going on behind the Grassy Knoll (where the kill shot came from…)

Stack up the bricks, pour the cement

Don’t say Dallas don’t love you, Mr. President (an alliteration of Nellie Connally’s last words to JFK: “You can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you, Mr. President!”)

Put your foot in the tank and then step on the gas (Big Oil hated JFK for legislating to repeal the Oil Depletion Allowance. It’s estimated that the removal of the oil depletion allowance would result in a loss of around $300 million a year to Texas oilmen. On 17th January, 1963 – my Birthday! –  President Kennedy presented his proposals for tax reform to the American people. Besides removing the ODA, it included policies relieving the tax burdens of low-income and elderly citizens. Kennedy also wanted to remove special privileges and loopholes for corporations).

Try to make it to the triple underpass (freeway overlooking the kill zone…he didn’t make it)

Blackface singer, whiteface clown

Better not show your faces after the sun goes down

Up in the red light district, they’ve got cop on the beat (Oswald’s killer Jack Ruby owned a strip club where many of the Dallas law enforcement and FBI hung out including the night of the assassination)

Living in a nightmare on Elm Street (the street where the assassination took place; and the crappy horror movie from the 80s)

When you’re down on Deep Ellum (the downtown section of Dallas which includes Elm St; also a lyric in the traditional folk tune “Deep Ellem Blues”)

put your money in your shoe

Don’t ask what your country can do for you (as JFK said in his famous inaugural address in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your county”)

Cash on the barrelhead, money to burn

Dealey Plaza, make a left-hand turn (the limo had to make a left turn onto Elm)

I’m going down to the crossroads, gonna flag a ride (reference to the Robert Johnson Delta-blues song about meeting the devil at a crossroads and selling his soul to play guitar…made famous by the band Cream)

The place where faith, hope, and charity died (the 3 theological virtues)

Shoot him while he runs, boy, shoot him while you can (Shotgun – Junior Walker & The Allstars)

See if you can shoot the invisible man

Goodbye, Charlie! Goodbye, Uncle Sam! (The film GOODBYE, CHARLIE! is about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. Kennedy was hated and envied by his enemies for his well-known womanizing).

Frankly, Miss Scarlett, I don’t give a damn (reference to movie Gone With The Wind)

What is the truth, and where did it go?

Ask Oswald and Ruby, they oughta know (Kennedy’s supposed assassin; Oswald’s assassin)

“Shut your mouth,” said a wise old owl

Business is business, and it’s a murder most foul

[verse 3]

Tommy, can you hear me? I’m the Acid Queen (from the 1969 rock opera TOMMY by The Who)

I’m riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine (song by OC Smith)

Ridin’ in the back seat next to my wife

Headed straight on in to the afterlife

I’m leaning to the left, I got my head in her lap

Hold on, I’ve been led into some kind of a trap

Where we ask no quarter, and no quarter do we give

We’re right down the street, from the street where you live (On The Street Where You Live – sung by Andy Williams)

They mutilated his body and they took out his brain (Kennedy’s brain was removed and subsequently “lost”)

What more could they do? They piled on the pain

But his soul was not there where it was supposed to be at

For the last fifty years they’ve been searchin’ for that

Freedom, oh freedom, freedom over me

I hate to tell you, mister, but only dead men are free

Send me some lovin’, then tell me no lie

Throw the gun in the gutter and walk on by (song by Dionne Warwick)

Wake up, little Susie, let’s go for a drive (Everly Brothers song)

Cross the Trinity River (river in Texas), let’s keep hope alive (Obama campaign slogan)

Turn the radio on, don’t touch the dials

Parkland Hospital, only six more miles (where Kennedy was taken after he was shot and was subsequently pronounced dead)

You got me dizzy, Miss Lizzy, you filled me with lead (song by Little Richard)

That magic bullet of yours has gone to my head (The ridiculous magic bullet theory was concocted by former Senator Arlen Specter. It supposedly proved that only 3 shots were fired. The theory posited that a pristine bullet found on a stretcher at Parkland  passed through Kennedy’s torso from back to front; through Connally’s torso from back to front; passed through Connally’s wrist, finally entering Connally’s thigh…somehow ending up on the stretcher with barely a scratch. A “normal” bullet would have disintegrated into fragments, as subsequent tests proved)

I’m just a patsy like Patsy Cline (Oswald was a ‘patsy;’ Patsy Cline was an American singer)

Never shot anyone from in front or behind

I’ve blood in my eye, got blood in my ear

I’m never gonna make it to the new frontier (The term ‘New Frontier’ was coined by JFK in his acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. It became a label for his administration’s domestic and foreign programs: “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of the 1960s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats…Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus…”

Zapruder’s film I seen night before (the now famous Zapruder film of the assassination wasn’t seen by the American public until it was shown in 1975 late night on Geraldo Rivera’s talk show)

Seen it thirty-three times, maybe more (33 is a possible reference to 33^rd degree Masons…many of the conspirators were Freemasons…LBJ, Richard Nixon, J Edgar Hoover, Allen Dulles…33 is the highest degree one can reach in that hierarchy)

It’s vile and deceitful, it’s cruel and it’s mean

Ugliest thing that you ever have seen

They killed him once and they killed him twice

Killed him like a human sacrifice (The occult connection again)

The day that they killed him, someone said to me, “Son

The age of the Antichrist has just only begun” (ain’t that the truth?)

Air Force One comin’ in through the gate

Johnson sworn in at 2:38 (the famous photo of LBJ standing next to Jackie in her blood-stained dress on Air Force One)

Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel

It is what it is, and it’s murder most foul

[verse 4]

What’s new, pussycat? (1965 comedy starring Peter O’Toole and Peter Sellers) What’d I say? (song by Ray Charles)

I said the soul of a nation been torn away

And it’s beginning to go into a slow decay

And that it’s thirty-six hours past Judgment Day

Wolfman Jack, he’s speaking in tongues

He’s going on and on at the top of his lungs

Play me a song, Mr. Wolfman Jack

Play it for me in my long Cadillac

Play me that “Only the Good Die Young”

Take me to the place Tom Dooley was hung (North Carolina; supposedly an innocent man who took the rap for others…his story was famous in the folk song Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley. Possible reference to Oswald’s innocence.)

Play “St. James Infirmary” and the Court of King James

If you want to remember, you better write down the names

Play Etta James, too, play “I’d Rather Go Blind”

Play it for the man with the telepathic mind

Play John Lee Hooker, play “Scratch My Back”

Play it for that strip club owner named Jack (Jack Ruby, Oswald’s assassin).

Guitar Slim going down slow

Play it for me and for Marilyn Monroe (Monroe was supposedly killed for her intimate involvement with both JFK and his brother, Bobby. Supposedly killed by poisoned suppository…)

Play “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (hit by British group The Animals).

Play it for the First Lady, she ain’t feeling any good

Play Don Henley, play Glenn Frey (Eagles – soft rock pioneers)

Take it to the limit and let it go by (song by Eagles)

Play it for Carl Wilson, too (Beach Boys…California ‘bubblegum pop’)

Looking far, far away down Gower Avenue (an important street in Hollywood – played a major role in the city’s film and musical history).

Play tragedy, play “Twilight Time”

Take me back to Tulsa to the scene of the crime

Play another one and “Another One Bites the Dust”

Play “The Old Rugged Cross” and “In God We Trust”

Ride the pink horse down that long, lonesome road

Stand there and wait for his head to explode

Play “Mystery Train” for Mr. Mystery (a series of spy novels)

The man who fell down dead like a rootless tree

Play it for the reverend, play it for the pastor

Play it for the dog that got no master (Pushinka – gift from Khrushchev)

Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz

Play “Blue Sky,” play Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers Band).

Play Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk

Charlie Parker and all that junk

All that junk and “All That Jazz”

Play something for the Birdman of Alcatraz (Robert Franklin Stroud – prisoner who kept pigeons; movie starring Kirk Douglas).

Play Buster Keaton, play Harold Lloyd

Play Bugsy Siegel, play Pretty Boy Floyd

Play the numbers, play the odds

Play “Cry Me a River” for the Lord of the gods

Play Number nine, play Number six (Revolution #9, The Beatles).

Play it for Lindsey and Stevie Nicks (fronted latter-day Fleetwood Mac).

Play Nat King Cole, play “Nature Boy”

Play “Down in the Boondocks” for Terry Malloy

Play “It Happened One Night” and “One Night of Sin”

There’s twelve million souls that are listening in

Play “Merchant of Venice”, play “Merchants of Death”

Play “Stella by Starlight” for Lady Macbeth

Don’t worry, Mr. President, help’s on the way

Your brothers are comin’, there’ll be hell to pay

Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell?

Tell them, “We’re waiting, keep coming,” we’ll get them as well (RFK was assassinated in 1968; Teddy was neutralized by Chappaquiddick…)

Love Field is where his plane touched down (Dallas airport where JFK flew in from Ft. Worth).

But it never did get back up off the ground

Was a hard act to follow, second to none

They killed him on the altar of the rising sun

Play “Misty” for me and “That Old Devil Moon”

Play “Anything Goes” and “Memphis in June”

Play “Lonely at the Top” and “Lonely Are the Brave”

Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave

Play Jelly Roll Morton, play “Lucille”

Play “Deep in a Dream”, and play “Driving Wheel”

Play “Moonlight Sonata” in F-sharp

And “A Key to the Highway” for the king on the harp

Play “Marching Through Georgia” and “Dumbarton’s Drums”

Play darkness and death will come when it comes

Play “Love Me or Leave Me” by the great Bud Powell

Play “The Blood-Stained Banner”, play “Murder Most Foul”