Dylan’s first new song in eight years is a fascinating portrait of his obsession with JFK’s assassination, rich with pop cultural detail and apocalyptic dread
As with pretty much anything Bob Dylan does these days, you can only speculate at his reasons for unexpectedly releasing a 17-minute song, ostensibly about the assassination of John F Kennedy, that gradually turns into a litany of cultural references taking in everything from Shakespeare to Stevie Nicks to silent-movie comedians, from the Moonlight Sonata to Jelly Roll Morton to A Nightmare on Elm Street.
And – as with pretty much anything Bob Dylan has ever done – speculate people have. They’ve suggested it’s a harbinger of his first album of original material since 2012. That it’s an outtake from his last album of original songs, Tempest, that’s noticeably better than anything on Tempest, and Dylan has form in leaving the best song off an album: this is, after all, the man who came to the conclusion that Shot of Love was better without Caribbean Wind on it, and Infidels somehow improved by removing Blind Willie McTell.