Today is the four year anniversary of Bob Dylan’s release of “Murder Most Foul.” Much has been written about the song itself, far more detailed and eloquently than I am capable. The release itself was seismic, completely out of nowhere after eight years without a new album. It wasn’t long after COVID was declared a national emergency. That the song would be the closing track on an upcoming album that would be Rough and Rowdy Ways wasn’t mentioned. The only word, amazingly, came from Bob himself:

Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years. This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you. Bob Dylan

March 27, 2020

Of course he had to toss in “recorded a while back.” A “while back” was only January through March of that year, though who knows when the writing of “Murder Most Foul” began. I can’t even attempt to effectively describe what the release meant to his fans, especially coming at that that particular time. “Murder Most Foul” may very well be his greatest artistic achievement. P.J. Harvey, David Byrne, Neil Young, Iggy Pop, Chrissie Hynde, Jarvis Cocker, and Bruce Springsteen were among the many artists to moved to comment on how great it was. Margo Price and Elvis Costello said they were moved to tears by the recording.

Nick Cave beautifully described his reaction in an exchange with fans on The Red Hand Files https://www.theredhandfiles.com/ in Issue #91 in April 2020:

The instrumentation is formless and fluid and very beautiful. Lyrically it has all the perverse daring and playfulness of many of Dylan’s great songs, but beyond that there is something within his voice that feels extraordinarily comforting, especially at this moment. It is as though it has travelled a great distance, through stretches of time, full of an earned integrity and stature that soothes in the way of a lullaby, a chant, or a prayer.

Perfect. But today’s post isn’t about all of that.

Much has been written about the song itself, and the performance. It is immediately legendary when heard for the first time. It is unlike anything he has ever recorded. Listen to it with headphones, with nothing else happening. Phone down. Because the recording itself is extraordinary, engineered by Chris Shaw at the famous Sound City studios in Los Angeles. Shaw has been Dylan’s overall main choice as engineer since the Love And Theft sessions in 2001.

The instrumentation on “Murder Most Foul” features violin, drums, percussion, upright bass, two pianos, and organ. The pianos are placed center and right, played by Fiona Apple, and Alan Pasqua who toured with Dylan back in 1978. Dylan’s vocal is dead center in the mix, surrounded by the instruments. The upright bass is thunderous in chord changes as the song progresses. There is no discernible time signature throughout the song other than a two measure passage about 15:00 in. Oh yeah, “Murder Most Foul” clocks in at 16:57, making it the longest Dylan song, beating out “Highlands” by twenty-six seconds.

Back to the recording. The mic placement is incredible, especially on the bass. The violin is mixed pretty dryly I think, coming and going in the mix from way in the back to the forefront. The drums rise and fall throughout, with cymbal crashes, light brushes on the snare and toms, and occasional hits on the foot as a bottom to the upright bass in the chord changes.

And the vocal. A spoken word performance though it can still be heard as “sung.” The sound on his track seems pretty unaffected, with some reverb added. But it sounds like Dylan is only an inch from the mic. Recording it so cleanly is truly an achievement, especially with Dylan who still pops P’s sometimes. The recording is a sonic wash while maintaining the sound of the individual parts. It is one of the best engineered recordings I’ve ever heard.

Remember: Headphones, ideally over the ear. The buds can’t cut it with this. Now for the source: ultra ideally, on vinyl. “Murder Most Foul” takes up Side 4 of the Rough and Rowdy Ways album. The CD would be the next option. If you’re going to stream it, use Amazon Music. I’m told Tidal has excellent sound quality but I am not a subscriber. What I do know is that Spotify doesn’t deliver sound quality. I use them for the SomethingIsHappening Playlists but that is more for the widespread use. Amazon Music has substantially better sound quality. For the sake of the blog post though, here you go:

Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium of the songs Bob Dylan cites in “Murder Most Foul.” All 76 of them:

Please share this blog post or any of our post blogs with anyone you think would be interested.