Announcing the 'Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour' Finale Series
Part 1: Tour Overview
Flagging Down the Double E’s is an email newsletter exploring Bob Dylan concerts throughout history. Some installments [like this one] are free, some [like the other four in the series] are for paid subscribers only. Sign up here:
Update Fall 2024: When I first published this series, in April, I and many others assumed the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour was finished. It wasn’t! After a break for the entirely different Outlaw Tour in the summer, he resurrected Rough and Rowdy for one more run in the fall.
As a result, I am updating this and all the other entries in the series to incorporate everything that happened on the just-finished fall European tour.
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. [Update: It’s here]
Following that, the third entry will look at the (many!) covers that have shaken up the standard setlist [here]; the fourth entry will look at his harmonica playing on the tour, which I found surprisingly fascinating going back through all this [here]; and the fifth and final entry will look at my personal highlights among the 16 shows I was lucky enough to see [here].
(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. Update: He did, and I did.)
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:
Okay, to quote one of the few songs it seems Dylan didn’t cover on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, let’s begin…
The Shows
There were nine basic legs of the tour:
Fall 2021 — USA (northern)
Spring 2022 — USA (southern)
Summer 2022 — USA (western)
Fall 2022 — Europe & UK
Spring 2023 — Japan
Summer 2023 — Europe
Fall 2023 — USA (northern) & Canada
Spring 2024 — USA (southern)
Fall 2024 — Europe & UK
You’ll notice “USA” popped up a lot in that list. This led to some understandable griping from fans overseas that what was billed as a “World Wide Tour” had a limited definition of “world wide” (another gripe, although maybe just my own pedantry: “worldwide” should be one word). There were reasonable guesses as to why he roamed so little. Maybe the reason was financial; he didn’t want to tour places where he might lose money (which in the post-Covid touring environment could be more places than ever). Maybe the reason was practical given his age; he’s been in his 80s for this entire tour, and it’s a very long flight from Malibu to Australia.
Regardless, the “World Wide” in the title (which should be one word dammit!) didn’t include a whole lot of the world.
The Band
The band lineup was almost entirely consistent, with just one change (until the final leg, that is):
Bob Dylan — vocals, piano, harmonica, guitar (occasional)
Tony Garnier — bass
Bob Britt — guitar
Doug Lancio — guitar
Donnie Herron — steel guitars, violin, electric mandolin, accordion (2021-Spring 2024)
Charley Drayton — drums, percussion (2021-2022)
replaced by…
Jerry Pentecost — drums (2023-Spring 2024)
replaced by…Jim Keltner — drums (Fall 2024)
Update Fall 2024: That last leg, though, saw more changes, both holdovers from the Outlaw tour over the summer. After almost 20 years playing with Dylan, Donnie Herron was gone. His position was not filled, leaving the backing band a leaner-and-meaner quartet. And Dylan’s longtime collaborator Jim Keltner took over the drum stool.
Honorable mention to the one and only special guest of the entire run: bluesman and Dylan’s former tourmate Jimmie Vaughan, who sat in for much of the final show in Austin, taking Lancio’s guitar position for a number of songs. A sign of changes to come, or just a fun cameo from a friend? Only time will tell.
The Sound
Pick your adjective: “spare.” “subdued.” “quiet.” “minimalist.” “stripped-down.” “sleepy.”
All of those words came up a lot when reading tour reports. This was not a band for ripping off hot solos. Pretty much everyone on stage, with the occasional exception of Bob on piano, operated under the less-is-more rubric. Do you really need to play that note, that chord, that drum hit? If not, don’t.
I and many others found the effect largely mesmerizing. But there were periods—and we’ll get to the varying arrangements in the next post—where shows had basically no uptempo songs to break up the languid pace. During those shows you could understand how someone might doze off, as I saw a couple people actually do. Rarely has Dylan demanded more from his audience in terms of focus, undivided attention, and meeting him where he is.
It paid off for those who could meet him on his wavelength. His singing has not sounded better in decades. It’s remarkable that 80-something Bob sings better than 60- or 70-something Bob usually did.
I’m editing this the night after his New Orleans show, where he covered the lesser-known Hank Williams single “On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain.” Again, we’ll get to the covers in a later post (subscribe if you want it!), but what struck me from the tape is the audience applause after the first time he sings the word “Pontchartrain.” This is an obscure song I’d be surprised if more than a handful of people in the room knew. But, for all the years of people bitching “you can’t understand him”…last night, they could understand him. They could make out the local reference he dropped clear as could be. Dylan has rarely sang with as much clarity and care as he has every night for the past two-and-a-half years.
Instrumentally as well, the MVP player of the tour, was—of all people—Bob himself. He’s been playing piano onstage as long as I’ve been a fan, and for most of that time his playing was considered at worst a joke and at best something to be politely tolerated. Even early on this tour, I remember the first time I saw “Every Grain of Sand” being marred by Bob’s choppy chords at seemingly random moments throughout the song. That changed over the course of the tour, with many, myself included, calling his playing a high point by the end. He seemed to get more confident as well, transitioning from violently plink-plonking in the background to building the entire arrangement around his nuanced playing. A number of songs began almost solo on piano by the end. (Like, a lot of them—just wait’ll the arrangements post.)
Update Fall 2024: Everything I wrote in this section remained mostly true on the final leg, but a bit less so. Songs were (somewhat) louder. Dylan’s piano was (somewhat) less prominent. He played (somewhat) more guitar. Not a wholesale change from the usual Rough and Rowdy sound, but slight tweaks to the formula right up to the end. 10% rougher, 10% rowdier.
The Setlist
For the entire tour, the setlist remained basically—and the word “basically” is carrying a lot of weight there, as we’ll see in the part three’s Covers piece—unchanged. It generally looked like this:
Watching The River Flow
Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)
I Contain Multitudes
False Prophet
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Black Rider
My Own Version of You
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Crossing The Rubicon [Spring '22-present] / Early Roman Kings [Fall '21]
To Be Alone With You
Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
Gotta Serve Somebody
I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
Melancholy Mood / That Old Black Magic / wildcard cover
Mother of Muses
Goodbye Jimmy Reed
Every Grain of Sand
The covers we’ll get to in a few days. Which of Bob’s own songs he played changed very little. The most substantial shift you see in slot #9. For the first leg, he played “Early Roman Kings” every night, a staple of many tours before this one, then switched it to “Crossing the Rubicon,” the one obvious unplayed Rough and Rowdy Ways song. No, he never did play “Murder Most Foul.”
The only other originals to make brief appearances were several quickly-dropped songs in the first two shows while he was still figuring things out, plus a fun fiddle-driven “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum” that appeared a few times in Summer 2023.
Update Fall 2024: After a summer break for the Outlaw Tour, the setlist did change for the final European leg! All the Rough and Rowdy Ways album songs remained, but the older songs got switched substantially.
Out: Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine), I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Gotta Serve Somebody, the nightly cover song
In: All Along the Watchtower, It Ain’t Me Babe, Desolation Row, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Dignity (two times only)
Remaining: When I Paint My Masterpiece, To Be Alone With You, Watching the River Flow, Every Grain of Sand
The Lyric Changes
Even singing the same songs over and over again every night, Bob didn’t always sing the same words to those songs. I asked @dylyricus, the expert on live lyric changes and the pseudonymous person behind the new and excellent Dylan setlist database bobserve.com, to send in some high points. Over to him, with some clips to illustrate:
The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour has Dylan firing on all cylinders, not just in terms of revitalized vocals and ever-changing musical arrangements, but also in his lyrical revisions. These ran the gamut from the lighthearted to the deadly serious.
Some songs inherited prior radical rewrites (Watching the River Flow, Gotta Serve Somebody and Masterpiece), although not without some surprises: “People disappearing everywhere you look / Makes you wanna shake somebody's hand / Yesterday, I seen somebody / Who really didn't understand.” Other song updates were simply playful: “Shut the door, shut it tight / Shut it, and then keep it shut all night” and “You know what I mean? I know you know what I mean!” Fans of Dylan’s asides were not overlooked: “Maybe I’ll take the high moral ground – maybe!”
Most Like You Go Your Way had a nightly date with improvisation of varying degrees of success, including “You say you hold me, you're always singin' / But it's always the same old song” and “200 to 300 pounds, that's too much weight to be carrying around!”
Some revisions served as minor corrections to what he actually meant to sing on the album. These were dramatically overshadowed, however, by a clarification of intent behind the G-rated Black Rider warning about “The size of your cockerel.”
An entire (short-lived) extra verse was added to the Multitudes: “It's All Saints Day on Albert Street / You can sell your soul to the first man you meet / I'll keep it on track with lightning speed / I ain't giving nothing to nobody unless they beg and they plead / I fuss with my hair and I fight blood feuds / I contain multitudes.”
The most shocking revisions of all were reserved for the live debut of Crossing the Rubicon. It started out relatively small, with “The summer turned to gold, and the winter chill is gone.” Then it peaked just a few days later with the highly explicit and violent: “Well, you foxy man, you’re the talk of the town / You’ve been suckin’ off all of the younger men / I trusted you once and that was more than enough / I’ll never trust another person again / I’ll rip your heart, cut your heart out with a crooked knife / And I’ll weep until it’s gone / I stood between heaven and earth, and I crossed the Rubicon.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Dylan later asks: “Right or wrong what can I say / What more needs to be said? / I’ll spill your brains out on the ground/ You’d be better off over there with the dead / Seems like ten – maybe 20 – years now that I’ve been gone / I stood between heaven and earth and I crossed the Rubicon”
The BobTalk
While many aspects of the tour improved as time went on, the BobTalk—that is, the things he said onstage (when he said anything at all)—peaked in that first leg, Fall 2021. Almost every night, he would share some fun fact about the city he was playing, shouting out local icons or digging out forgotten chestnuts of local history.
I’ve pulled a sample of the best from that leg of the tour, with some of the mumbling cleaned up and the locations noted where it isn’t obvious (but surely you already knew where truck-driving country music singer Red Sovine was born right??):
“Nice to be here in Cincinnati, home of King Records, one of the best record labels that’s ever been. Also, the birthplace, I think, of Roy Rogers. Charlie Manson, he was born here too. I wonder if they knew each other?”
“We were supposed to play the Dollywood festival, but we couldn’t make it. We’re playing here tonight instead… Don’t forget to go to Dollywood, now!” [Knoxville, TN]
“Everybody in this band’s got a Louisville Slugger bat, and we’re gonna use it.”
“Red Sovine charted with a song, uh, “Giddyup and [sic] Go.” I think he’s from here.” [Charleston, WV]
“We’re all fans of Mister Rogers. We know he was from here, and we miss him a lot.” [Moon Township, PA]
“I knew this town is famous for something, what is it? I can’t remember.” [Hershey, PA]
“It’s good to be back here in the Big Apple. George Gershwin lived here, I know that. Jackie O. Herman Melville was born here. Talk about the greats, Sylvester Stallone is also from here. And if you haven’t seen his latest movie, you got to go see it. It’s called, what’s it called? It’s called “the last something.” That’s right. Last Blood. I tell ya, it shoulda won an Academy Award, but of course it didn’t. Maybe next time.”
“Nice to play here in this Capitol Theatre. I think Gone With The Wind premiered here in, when was it? 1939 I think. It cost five cents.”
“It’s nice to be here in Providence, home of the Separatist Movement. We know that. We’re separatists too.”
“Nice to be here in Boston. Bunker Hill, Beacon Hill, Blue Hill, all those hills. And what about the Midnight Ride? Yeah! Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. I think he made the Liberty Bell. He worked with iron too, ya know? I work with iron myself. Anyway, let’s have a cheer for Paul Revere.”
“Home of the Philly— is it called a Philly Cheesesteak? Oh yeah. Let me tell ya, those are yummy. You eat one of them, you won’t have to eat for the rest of the year.”
“Nice to be here in DC, home of the Mayflower Hotel… I don’t know if J. Edgar Hoover used to eat breakfast or dinner there. Every day. That was the good ol’ days. I used to come down here to see the Country Gentleman. Anybody remember them? Charlie Waller and John Duffey.”
“Nice to be back in Phoenix again, home of Alice Cooper. Does he still live here? Stevie Nicks, she’s here too right? Yeah! Barry Goldwater still around? No. My man, Barry. Gonna tell ya, I was on the Biltmore Hotel over there, it was Marilyn Monroe’s favorite swimming pool anywhere. They got a plaque there just in the spot where she used to swim. We all swam there today.”
BobTalk went through other phases after that first leg, like after “Masterpiece” saying “Thank you art lovers!” (sometimes “baby lovers” after “Baby Tonight” too), or noting what types of guitar his guitarists were playing. There was the one time he made national news for apparently defending Jann Wenner (or maybe he was being sarcastic?) The dad jokes during his band introductions briefly returned too. For instance: “Doug gave up a medical profession…He didn’t have enough patience!” Or:
But the only other period in the running for the Best BobTalk Award came in Japan 2023, when he began making up fake CVs for his band members. Just pulling absolute bullshit out of the air when he introduced them. Here are a couple examples. Not a word of what he says is true except their names. (I did a whole podcast with Steven Hyden about 2023 BobTalk if anyone really wants to get in the weeds)
“On the other guitar, Doug Lancio. You’ve heard Doug before on lots of records. He’s played with the Boss…he's played with the Rocket Man…and he's played with Macca! On some of their greatest hit records.”
“Bob [Britt] gave up a promising career on Columbo. The cop show. He played a detective on Columbo a few years back… Tony Garnier’s on the bass guitar. I can’t remember all the shows Tony’s been on. Oh, Bonanza!”
“Doug was in the hit musical Tommy. Had a starring role. He left that play to be in this band. He thought it was a better band.”
“Doug was born with a guitar in his hands… You’ve seen Bob Britt before, he’s on Perry Mason reruns… Tony Garnier—I can’t say enough about Tony.”
Update Fall 2024: The final leg was not huge for BobTalk (some nights he didn’t even introduce the band), but there were a couple good lines:
One phrase that stuck with me was him calling his music “serious songs for serious people” in the band intros one night. Prolific remaster-er Bennyboy even named his Best-Of compilation after it. (More humorously, at another show, when introducing Tony after “My Own Version of You,” he added, “Tony’s bought a lot of things to life. Lot of people.”)
In Liverpool, after playing “Key West,” he shared a bit of the song’s backstory: “I wrote that song at Ernest Hemingway’s house. I think there's a lot of him in that song.” (This reminds me he also gave Blake Mills credit for the “Black Rider” melody at a show earlier in the year.)
The night after the U.S. Presidential Election, he made a comment that some considered—in addition to the more overt nod to the beautiful theater in Edinburgh—obliquely related to the election results: “We could play here every night actually. Maybe we ain’t going back.”
Thanks to Daniel Mackay, who’s been transcribing the recent BobTalk for the late great Olof Bjorner’s bjorner.com. Bonus thanks to Adam Selzer and Laura Tenschert who jogged my memory for the Fall 2024 update.
The Yondr
Starting in Japan 2023, fans at every Dylan show had to lock their phones in pouches for the duration of the show. Reviews of the system were mostly positive. It’s great to attend a show and not have to be staring at phone screens.
However, for those not at the show, those screens were how we could see pictures and video, both of which have become rare things indeed. Most photos we do have came during the curtain call, and most videos are of the final song—since if you smuggled your phone in undetected, at that point it’s too late for security to kick you out. So we’ve got some really great “Every Grain of Sand” videos clips, but not many of any of the other songs (even the surprise covers).
Thankfully, the audio tapers were undeterred, and tapes sound better than ever. Shoutout to Spot and soomlos and Bennyboy and nightly moth and Whofan70 and Sway and Gonzo and RovingGambler and DK-WI and the many people who even just recorded one or two shows on their phone or watch (both of which can sound surprisingly decent these days). This newsletter—heck, just about everything about being a big Dylan fan—would look very, very different without their hard work.
That’s it for part one! Tomorrow, we take an extremely close look at those tapes, tracking how the arrangements of the songs have changed over the 2.5 years he’s been playing them [update: it’s here]. Then cover songs in part three [here], and two more after that [here and here]. Upgrade if you want the full five-part series:
long live Rough n Rowdy Ways.
Looking forward to your (no doubt) wildly in-depth look at this tour.
This last leg was one of the highlights. Great vocals and piano playing.