On October 4, Bob Dylan opened the 2024 European leg of his prolonged Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour. The musician landed at Prague’s O2 universum to commence a three-night run at the 10,000-capacity, multi-purpose arena. During the 17-song run, sans encore, Dylan and his veteran band pulled heavily from the tour’s namesake record while saving space for classics, some of which permeated as bust-outs during Friday night’s frame, ending a five-year lapse in plays for “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Dignity.” Listen below.
The night’s initial bust-out arrived after Dylan and company warmed up their audience with selections that included fan favorites “All Along the Watchtower” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” preluding the initial Rough and Rowdy Ways cut, “I Contain Multitudes,” which beckoned a waterfall effect with another 2020 arrival, “False Prophet.” Strategically parsing the performance, Dylan led the band through “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” ultimately cutting back to his 39th studio LP.
After surpassing the concert’s midsection, which saw “Desolation Row” flanked on either end by Rough and Rowdy originators, “My Own Version of You” to start and “Crossing the Rubicon” to finish, the band worked through “Key West (Philosopher Pirate),” which preluded “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” Last played over four nights: Oct. 19, 20, 22, and 23, during the bard’s Never Ending Tour in 2019. Originally, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” debuted in 1965 (performed 32 times in its inaugural year) and continued to arrive on the Dylan’s setlists, with a particular weight in the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s, becoming a concert staple for other bands including the Grateful Dead, who covered it 147 times, according to Setlist.FM.
Dylan and his band separated their bust-outs by adding “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” and “Mother of Muses” before “Dignity’s” arrival. The latter was recorded in the spring of 1989, during Dylan’s Oh Mercy studio sessions, but was not included on the LP. Instead, it appeared later, on 2007’s Dylan anthology. Before Friday’s dust-off, the song had not seen the live stage since it was last performed on May 4, 2019, during a tour stop in Fuengirola, Spain.
Listen to fan captured recordings of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Dignity” below.
Bob Dylan
O2 universum – Prague
October 4, 2024
Setlist: All Along the Watchtower, It Ain’t Me, Babe, I Contain Multitudes, False Prophet, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Black Rider, To Be Along With You, My Own Version of You, Desolation Row, Crossing the Rubicon, Key West (Philosopher Pirate), It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue+, I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You, Mother of Muses, Dignity+, Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Every Grain of Sand
Notes:
+ Bust out, last played in 2019
Setlist via setlist.FM.
The post Listen: Bob Dylan Busts Out “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Dignity” in Prague appeared first on Relix Media.
