[Tim McGrath]

In "Murder Most Fowl," Dylan gives us a free-wheeling tour of many of the cultural touchstones of the last hundred years, including popular music and, most prominently, the Kennedy assassination. However, the assassination is just a hook for Dylan to hang his coat of many colors on. He is free associating here, a technique he uses frequently, and the song's scaffolding or spine--it's organizing principle--is rhyme. By my count, the song has 82 couplets, or 82 rhyming opportunities, and in 80 of them the rhymes are exact. That works out to a little more than 97 percent, a good percentage even for Dylan, no slouch in the rhyme department, as Damian appreciates. Besides referring to rock, jazz and blues, he also mentions Shakespeare and the "Moonlight Sonata," although he gets the key signature of the sonata wrong. "The Moonlight" is written in C-sharp minor, not F-sharp as Dylan says, although the key does include an F-sharp note. You'd think that Dylan would know such things, and he probably does. As always, it's hard to fathom his intentions.

[Max Goodman]

I haven't asked for a justification of his Nobel prize. I am curious about what anyone sees in the line "We're gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect."

[Damian Balassone]

Fair call Max. It's a rough as guts line and to say you don't respect someone after you've killed them probably goes without saying. But I think Dylan is using the idiom of the folk/blues/jazz cat tongue. It's not what he's saying, it's the way he's saying it. To my ear, he pulls it off. There's probably a thousand worse Dylan lines that don't cut the mustard on the page e.g. He sings "Whenever someone around him died and was dead" in Red River Shore. Now to my knowledge, it goes without saying that someone who dies is dead, but strangely this line works.

Interesting observation Tim about Moonlight Sonata. That's not my area of expertise, but maybe Dylan's hinting at something with that line. On the subject of the music in "Murder Most Foul", I hear the violin almost mimicking the violin in Van Morrison's "Madame George" threatening to burst out of the shadows. But it never does.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Damian Balassone

It's not what he's saying, it's the way he's saying it.

The way he's saying it is what grates on my ear. He's using cliches and other empty words so he can hit his rhymes. But I appreciate knowing that others hear it differently. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Tim McGrath

By my count, the song has 82 couplets, or 82 rhyming opportunities, and in 80 of them the rhymes are exact. That works out to a little more than 97 percent, a good percentage even for Dylan, no slouch in the rhyme department,

Some listeners find other kinds of rhymes more interesting. And even those who agree that exact rhyme is always best (as this calculation implies), cringe when they hear a line as baldly rhyme-driven.

[Jim Moonan]

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It's hard swallow John Prine's death to coronavirus. His wife is sick too.

Here's him performing "Hello In There".
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[Damian Balassone]

John Prine dead? Are you sure?
I thought he was serious, but had improved.

[Roger Slater]

I have seen no reports at all of his death on his own site, Wikipedia, or anywhere else. I think Jim jumped the gun on this one. At least I hope he did.

[Jim Moonan]

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Oh man, sorry! I could have sworn I had read it that day.

Strangely, I had just now come back to the thread, still under the false impression he had died (only to discover he had not) to post another video of John Prine I had come across... It almost seems now like the thread was meant to come around to being about John Prine from the very beginning.

What an amazing storyteller. Here is a brilliant set of songs he performed in a perfect setting for storytelling — with his songwriting hero Gordon Lightfoot listening in the front row. Beautiful storytelling, plain and simple.

https://youtu.be/w5Rkm_dqm7A
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[Tim McGrath]

Esmeralda and the Hunchback of Notre Dame,
They humped each other like they had no shame.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...ml#nt=screamer

And Gordon Lightfoot won immortality for rhyming 'Fitzgerald' with 'imperiled.'

[Mark McDonnell]

It seems you were right, Jim.

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/20...r-dies-aged-73