Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan released a new track just after midnight Friday, a 17-minute piece about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The song, called “Murder Most Foul,” begins with bass and piano over Dylan’s raspy croon: “'Twas a dark day in Dallas, November ’63, a day that would live on in infamy. President Kennedy was a-riding high — good day to be livin’ and a good day to die.”
In a Twitter post to fans, the 78-year-old Nobel Prize winner cryptically noted that the song was recorded “a while back,” but revealed no other specifics about the timing. It is the first new music Dylan has released in eight years.
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“Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” he wrote. “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.” He signed the post simply Bob Dylan.
Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years.
— bobdylan.com (@bobdylan) March 27, 2020
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 Dylanhttps://t.co/uJnE4X64Bb
Dylan emerged from the American folk-rock scene of the early 1960s, writing some of the most enduring protest music of the era. Among his most celebrated albums are 1963′s “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” 1965′s ″Highway 61 Revisited," “Blonde on Blonde” from 1966, and “Blood on the Tracks" from 1975.
The iconoclastic performer has continued to put out music for decades and in 2016 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Hayley Kaufman can be reached at hayley.kaufman@globe.com. Follow her @GlobeHayleyK.