DYLAN NEWS UPDATE (and Rough & Rowdy Ways Tour reviews) | RAY PADGETT

FLAGGIN’ DOWN THE DOUBLE Es Newsletter updates

RAY SAYS: 

Last night marked the end of the Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour.

Maybe.

When the tour was first announced, the posters read “2021-2024.” Many assumed that meant it would go until the end of 2024, but this summer Bob Dylan is, for the first time since the pandemic, embarking on a tour with a totally different name and vibe: The superstar Outlaw tour, alongside Willie Nelson and others. So it seems likely that the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is now over, and he is moving onto the next thing.

Even amidst a bit of uncertainty (what else is new with Dylan?), I didn’t want to let the moment pass without commemorating it. He’s been on the same tour for two and a half years, playing mostly the same songs, all over the world. He’s never done something like this before. If this is indeed the end, it’s the end of a truly unique chapter in his career.

So today I’m kicking off a five-part series looking back at the entire Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, from the first show in Milwaukee on November 2, 2021 (I was there!) through last night (Lee Ranaldo was there!). Today’s introductory post will be an overview: What he played, where he played, with whom he played, etc. Much of which you may already know, but perhaps it will be helpful to look back at the big picture, the journey we and he have been on from Fall 2021 to here.

Then tomorrow, we start getting into the real nitty gritty. First I’ll do a (very) deep dive tracking all the different arrangements. Bob used to change which songs he played every night; now he changes how he and the band deliver the same songs. It’s been fascinating to watch.

Following that, the third entry will look at the (many!) covers that have shaken up the standard setlist; the fourth entry will look at his harmonica playing on the tour, which I found surprisingly fascinating going back through all this; and the fifth and final entry will look at my personal highlights among the 16 shows I was lucky enough to see.

(And if, after all this, he does announce one more leg of the tour in the fall, I will update all of these with any new arrangements/covers/etc at the end of the year.)

Note: Only today’s overview entry in the Rough and Rowdy finale series will be open to everyone. The remaining four—arrangements, covers, harmonica, my personal highlights—will be partly or fully for paid subscribers only. These are for people who really want to get in the weeds on the tour. If that sounds likes you, sign up: 

THEN TODAY HE NOTES:

Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour Finale II: The Arrangements

Nine different "Gotta Serve Somebody"s! Seven different "Key West"s!

 “It used to go like that, and now it goes like this.” That was Bob Dylan’s famous line introducing a dramatically revamped full-band “I Don’t Believe You” on the 1966 going-electric tour. That energy pervaded the entire 2021-2024 run of the Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. Though it was more like “It used to go like that, and now it goes like this…and in another week it’ll go like something else entirely.”

Today, for part two of our Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour wrap-up series (part one is here if you missed it), I’m tracking the many (many!) different arrangements the songs got as the tour continued.

READ ON HERE . . . .