Bob Dylan’s Murder Most Foul

A Playlist for the Apocalypse

December 7, 1941, and America in shock.

“Me, I was born in 1941,” Bob Dylan says onstage a few minutes before Barack Obama is officially declared the 44th President of the United States. “That’s the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I’ve been living in a world of darkness ever since. But it looks like things are going to change now.”

November 22, 1963, and America again in shock. “America leads the world in shocks,” says Gil Scott-Heron. “Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock.”

Is the world just one big magic trick and we’re the hoodwinked audience?

Esquire Magazine September 1965 — By this time both JFK and Malcolm X were dead, gunned down by assassins and possibly both victims of conspiracies

Bobby Zimmerman didn’t vote in the 1960 election, the 19-year-old being far too busy with the task of becoming Bob Dylan. As far as anyone knows, Bob Dylan doesn’t vote in any election — evading the question the few times he’s been asked about exercising his franchise. On the other hand, in Chronicles Dylan does relate an anecdote of his mother seeing…