Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour Finale III: The Covers

Bob covers Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, Hank Williams, and a whole lotta Grateful Dead

Photo by Duncan Hume

Yesterday, I dove deep into the ever-changing arrangements Dylan gave his own songs on the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour. As I wrote there, the arrangements became the changes to watch out for, because every night, he sang the exact same songs.

Except!

Except he didn’t sing the exact same songs every night. Not quite.

True, his original material didn’t change much. But if you’ve paid even the most glancing attention the last two-and-a-half-years, you know what did change: The covers! Dylan’s live covers became such a phenomenon, last year especially, the New York Times wrote a whole story about it, interviewing some supposed expert who spends his time writing an entire newsletter about Dylan in concert. Get a life buddy!

By my count, Dylan covered 30 different songs during the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour. Over half of them he had never sung before. So today, I wanted to go through them one by one. Even if you’ve been following closely, it’s worth a look back at both the specific songs he did, and the themes that ran across them. The covers were a big part of what made the tour so special. With these songs, Bob honored his influences and peers, paid tribute to the cities he was in, and often delivered his best performances of the night.

“Melancholy Mood” / “That Old Black Magic”

• Times played: Dozens

• Ever played before? Oh yes

Many of the covers below he only played once or twice. But there are two he played dozens and dozens of times, so let’s get them out of the way first. They’re the least interesting two, not because he did them poorly (“Melancholy Mood” especially I thought was terrific) but because they’re a holdover from his last covers era: the American songbook records. Unlike every other cover on this list, these two were not surprises. They were as much a part of the nightly set as his own songs.

The first nine months of the tour, he did “Melancholy Mood” every night in the 14th slot. Then, in Summer 2022, he switched to “That Old Black Magic.” No knock on them, but they’re not really what this post is about. They’re basically just holdovers from his extended tribute to Frank Sinatra in the 2010s. Technically covers, yes, but they’re not the covers that made the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour special. Let’s jump ahead to the ones that did.

“Friend of the Devil” (Grateful Dead)

• Times played: 3

• Ever played before? Yes

The covers-heavy portion of the tour really began in 2023. That’s when surprise covers became a thing. But there were two previews in 2022 that hinted at what was to come when the floodgates opened.

The first of them foreshadowed two different trends we’d see in later covers. It was both: 

1. A Grateful Dead song

2. A cover tied to the place he was performing

In Oakland, within the Dead’s home base of the San Francisco Bay Area, Dylan busted out “Friend of the Devil” for the first time in 15 years. He made it the show-closer in place of “Every Grain of Sand.” He played it a couple more times in LA that week, then dropped it for good.

This is a fun choice on paper, and no doubt thrilling to witness in person, but I wouldn’t put it in the top-tier of these covers. He’s a bit mumbly in all three of the versions, so we don’t get the beautiful vocals we will on many of the later covers. Still: fun! And a preview of much, much more to come.

(Note: I’m skipping “Oh Susannah,” which he played instrumentally to open a couple shows in 2022 and 2023, since he didn’t sing on it and it was quite short. Just FYI for anyone keeping track and feeling like getting pedantic.)

“I Can’t Seem to Say Goodbye” (Jerry Lee Lewis)

• Times played: 1

• Ever played before? No

And here the second of the surprise covers that came before the floodgates burst a few months later. On October 28, 2022, Jerry Lee Lewis died. That same evening, in Nottingham, England, Dylan covered a very obscure Jerry Lee song to close the show: his Sun-era outtake “I Can’t Seem to Say Goodbye.” It was a beautiful and poignant choice. The song selection showed just how deep a Lewis fan Dylan was, and he took care to deliver every word. “Jerry Lee will live forever,” he said in his introduction. Then he delivered the first great cover of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. 

Interestingly, this cover did not preview a trend some of us thought might come: Cover songs playing tribute to the recently departed. Friends and peers like Gordon Lightfoot and Robbie Robertson died during the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. He’s covered both of them before, but he didn’t this time. Ditto Harry Belafonte, Jimmy Buffett, David Crosby, Tony Bennett, or anyone else who had just passed (I thought for sure he was gonna honor Coolio!).

“Truckin'“ (Grateful Dead)

• Times played: 7

• Ever played before? No

Okay, here we go folks. The real covers run starts now. In Japan 2023—which, as we saw in the Arrangements post, saw more changes than any other leg—he began what I’ll call the first major trend of the tour’s covers: Grateful Dead songs. A year prior, “Friend of the Devil” seemed like a one-off. Far from it.

First out of the gate was “Truckin’.” On the tapes I’ve heard, I’d call this the worst of the bunch. It’s too fast and he can barely get the words out. It sounds like a garbled mess. On the tapes, at least.

But let me tell you something. “Truckin’” is not meant to be listened to at home. It is meant to be experienced in the room. When I saw him do it live in Chicago last fall, the explosion of energy was unlike anything I saw at any other Rough and Rowdy Ways show. The audience members, up until that moment seated, polite, and respectful, bolted out of their seats and start dancing, singing along, finger-pointing. He could have missed every single word. It didn’t matter (though actually he got more of them than usual). The recording doesn’t capture the feeling in the room at all. 

I didn’t see any of the other fast rock-and-roll covers he did, but I expect it’s the same. They mostly don’t move me on the tapes like the meditative slow songs do, which he can knock out of the park vocally, but I bet they’re all a blast in the room.

“Brokedown Palace” (Grateful Dead)

• Times played: 7

• Ever played before? No

Speaking of those meditative slow songs, two nights after “Truckin’” in Japan, Dylan debuted another Grateful Dead tune: “Brokedown Palace.” It didn’t go well. Appropriate to the title, it broke down quickly, and Dylan called it off after a couple verses. “Sorry about that, I thought everybody knew this song,” he said to the audience. He tried again the next night. Still didn’t make it all the way through before waving the band to stop.

Thankfully, he persevered. Third time was the charm. It was stunning then, and stunning every subsequent time he sang it too. It’s my favorite of the Dead covers; the only one that gives it any competition is only Dead-adjacent (we’ll get there).

“Not Fade Away” (Buddy Holly/Grateful Dead)

• Times played: 9

• Ever played before? Yes

On the night in between the first two aborted “Brokedown Palace” attempts, Dylan retreated into his comfort zone. He pulled out a song he’s covered many times before: Buddy Holly and the Crickets’ “Not Fade Away.” I consider this an honorary part of his Grateful Dead series too; it was a signature song for them, and Dylan’s band’s shuffling arrangement approximates theirs.

I wish the band went a little harder, but given how few uptempo songs there were in the set, this song offered a welcome change of pace. And the words didn’t fly by as fast as “Truckin’,” so he was able to hit them more easily. One of the best of the more uptempo covers he played (though, again, I generally think he did a better job on the slow songs).

“Only A River” (Bob Weir)

• Times played: 2

• Ever played before? No

At the final show of the Japan tour, reports surfaced that Dylan had covered the old folk song “Shenandoah” for the first time since 1990. Those reports were soon corrected though. He, in fact, covered a more recent song that borrows the chorus of “Shenandoah”: Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead’s 2016 solo track “Only a River.”

Who is listening to Bob Weir solo albums in the 2010s? Bob Dylan is, that’s who. Some Deadheads noticed that, while Dylan’s Dead selections in the past were written and sung by his close friend Jerry Garcia, several of the Dead songs he was selecting that tour (“Truckin’,” “Not Fade Away”) were songs sung by Weir, the band’s sometimes less-revered co-frontman. So, after a Weir-heavy run, it seemed appropriate that this leg of the tour, and the next leg too, would climax with Weir’s own “Only a River” at the final show. Another fun fact: It was also the first 21st century song Bob has ever covered (if you don’t count The White Stripes “Ball & Biscuit” with Jack White in 2004—and I don’t count it as a cover if the original artist is there.)

Remember when I said only a Dead-adjacent song came close to rivalling “Brokedown Palace” for me? It’s this one. I’ve heard a number of people say it’s their favorite cover he’s done this entire tour, and though I have a few other personal favorites, I can’t entirely disagree. It’s maybe been matched, but I don’t think it’s ever been topped.

“Into The Mystic” (Van Morrison)

• Times played: 1

• Ever played before? No

Now we skip ahead to Summer 2023 in Europe, where another four new covers emerged. Just like in Japan, three of them he’d never done before, including this first. Dylan has sung quite a few Van Morrison tunes over the years (some with the man himself), but never “Into the Mystic,” which he busted out one evening in Alicante, Spain.

To me, the incredibly poignant concept on paper—aging Bob Dylan near the inevitable end of his performing career covers “Into the Mystic”—sets a bar the actual performance can’t possible match. But he comes pretty close! The band sounds beautiful, and he does he best vocally despite some stumbles and mumbles. I wish he’d tried it a few more times to get this up to that “Only a River” level. It could have gotten there.

21 more covers below the jump for paid subscribers. Merle Haggard! Chuck Berry! Howlin’ Wolf! More Dead!