Bob Dylan releases 17-minute song about John F. Kennedy assassination

New York Post ^ | March 27, 2020 | Variety

[Fresh Wind]

It’s awful beyond belief, and I like a lot of Dylan’s stuff.

I knew it was bad as soon as I heard the “day that would live in infamy” line.

I only lasted another 20 seconds, and that was it for me.

[Fresh Wind]

PS: Your epic was "Tangled up in Blue", Bob Dylan. I still love it.

Likewise. Add "Idiot Wind" and "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts". Three masterpieces.

[Fiji Hill]

Calling JFK a king is just piling it too high.

Sounds like a Goldwater Republican. In the summer and fall of 1963, buttons and bumper stickers reading "Kennedy for King, Goldwater for President" began to appear across the US.

[Fiji Hill]

My favorite unusually long song is Night and Day by Paul Whiteman & His Concert Orchestra (1933), but it's only about a third as long as the Dylan opus.

[MagnoliaB]

; ) It’s all good.

[Fiji Hill]

On December 13, 1963, Bob Dylan received the Tom Paine award at a Bill of Rights dinner held by the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in New York.

The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee was a Communist front.

[SamAdams76]

I went ahead and listened to it. All 16:54 of it.

Interesting and haunting song. I played it with the lights turned down and a glass of red wine. This was not so much a song but a mournful dirge with a lot of name-dropping, like The Beatles, Patsy Cline, Wolfman Jack, Marilyn Monroe, among many others. A lot of song titles got mentioned as well.

Will have to listen to it more times - and only hard-core Dylan fans like myself would do that - but there's a strong implication in the lyrics that Dylan feels Johnson was behind the assassination and that America began to slowly decay from that point on. Should also mention that 1963 was the year that Dylan attained international fame. "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album had just come out and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" would be released in January (1964).

The day that they killed him, someone said to me, "Son
The age of the Antichrist has just only begun"
Air Force One comin' in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at 2:38
Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel
It is what it is, and it's murder most foul

[MagnoliaB]

As an enjoyer of almost all genres I appreciate people’s musical talents but I am a worshiper of none. Except the time I was a wannabe groupie of the Monkees but I was 12. My biggest groupie achievement was almost getting enough of those bubble gum trading cards to put together an 8 by 10 picture puzzle.

I like a lot of Dylan songs but this one just came flying out of left field at an odd time with lyrics that make you go hmmmmmmmm....

I have often wondered what we would find out once people are not scared.

Also wonder the age group of which doesn’t even know who he is.

[MagnoliaB]

I didn’t really know anything about his life until this came up and I started looking him up. Grew up in Minnesota. Family migrated from Russia to America because of antisemitism in early 1900s.

Seems like he fell in ‘love at first sight’ with this girl whose parents were communists. HER parents were successful in breaking them up by sending the daughter away. She was pictured with him on an album. He must not have met their standard for a communist boyfriend.

I looked up the award you talked about because I like to gather as much info as I can before I condemn someone and I found the following link.

My word, I read the acceptance speech. Apparently they didn’t like it and he wrote some kind of apology. I don’t think he was a very good communist but see what you think after reading the speech and the apology. It wasn’t long after this that the mother orchestrated a break up. It almost looks like he was trying to impress a girl or something.

https://www.corliss-lamont.org/dylan.htm

[Fiji Hill]

Corliss Lamont, who hosted the event, was another commie. I skimmed through the acceptance speech and the apology. Dylan might be a critically acclaimed poet, but speechwriting was definitely not his calling.

Note that many of his early releases such as Talkin' John Birch Society Paranoid Blues (1963) leaned left. But you're probably right--if he was, indeed, a Communist at the time, he wasn't a very good one.

[DesertRhino]

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll give it a listen tonight

[MagnoliaB]

I have never heard that song before and now that I have listened to it, it’s like a puzzle of more things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm.....

I would have to listen again and read the lyrics but it sounds like a lot of double speak to me. He was around 22 and looks like he was over his head and not having his heart into some kind of commie movement. Committed people don’t ramble around like that. I’m going with impressing the girl thing which doesn’t look like it went well with the parents.

He definitely seems focused and precise on what he is saying in this new song.

[iowamomforfreedom]

I’ve always like Telegraph Road by Dire Straits - that one’s pretty long. Some great guitar playing in that song, IMHO.

[Fiji Hill]

A similar song was The John Birch Society by the Chad Mitchell Trio, which actually nosed into the Billboard Hot 100 national chart of hits in early 1962.

In response, the New Breed released "John Birch, American," a paean to the Society's namesake, on the Impact label in 1963. However, although I have a 45 rpm copy, it is totally unavailable on the Internet. Impact Records was owned by Anthony Hilder, who produced "doo-wop" groups such as the Jaguars in the 1950's. I actually met him at a couple of conservative confabs out here several years ago.

[MagnoliaB]

That’s very interesting. I will know where to come for music info ; )