Yesterday, I changed the sheets, vacuumed the two front rooms, and washed and dried a few days’ worth of dirty dishes. Rebecca’s returning from a week-long bike ride across Iowa.

With earbuds secured, I got to work.

Each task took, give or take, 17 minutes, the running time of Bob Dylan’s 2020 song Murder Most Foul, which can be found on page 688 of the book of his lyrics you see in the photo.

On page 941 of Shakespeare’s Complete Works, also in the picture, and the textbook used in a 1972 college class, from Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5, is this line from the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the old King, who was assassinated by Hamlet’s uncle,

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder

That I underlined 54 years ago.

So we’re in the land of spirits, Dear Reader, which is exactly where Bob placed us with his epic creation.

My story is short, as I hope you will spend some of your valuable time with this most extraordinary track. Whether a fan or not, I believe it will be minutes well spent. One of Dylan’s themes is that America, on that day, never recovered, “that the soul of a nation been torn away,” and that this crime still affects the USA.

I’ve linked the lyrics to the song’s title, Dylan’s performance here, and Timothy Hampton’s (author of Bob Dylan’s Poetics: How the Songs Work) analysis of Murder Most Foul here.

If you’re around my age, 75, you likely remember where you were on November 22, 1963. I was in a Catholic high school study hall as a freshman student when the announcement came over the loudspeaker. What Dylan gives us, according to Hampton, is a way to

Grasp and make legible what an event feels like, what it means, from the inside.

I’d be interested to know what you think.

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