Recommendations of the Editorial team
It’s officially the summer of Basement Tapes. The dance began on June 4 in Troutdale, Oregon, when Bob Dylan played the obscure Basement Tapes deep cut “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby” for the first time since he recorded it in Big Pink’s basement 59 years ago. On June 6th in Woodinville, Washington, he opened the evening with the first “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” since 2012. And on June 9th in Eugene, Oregon, he caused the audience to gasp when he closed the show with the first live take of “I Shall Be Released” since 2008.
Dylan’s Long Hot Summer Tour ’26 has included four concerts so far – and at three of them, Basement Tape songs surprisingly appeared. (He skipped the rarity on the second night in Woodinville.) If he keeps up this pace for the remaining 31 shows – which is highly unlikely – there will be 23 more Basement Tapes numbers.
In his entire live career, Dylan has performed just ten Basement Tapes songs: “Million Dollar Bash”, “Tears of Rage”, “Yeah! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread”, “Crash on the Levee (Down in The Flood)”, “This Wheel’s on Fire”, “Don’t Ya Tell Henry”, “Quinn The Eskimo”, “Minstrel Boy”, “I Shall Be Released” – and now new: “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby.” It’s hard to imagine that this trend will last all summer. But after the coup with “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby”, everything suddenly seems possible. (Incidentally, there was by far the longest gap of his career between the recording and the live premiere.)
Basement tapes in focus
What motivated Dylan to dust off the Basement Tapes now of all times cannot be said with certainty. But there are certainly precursors for such setlist themes within individual tour phases. In the fall of 2023, he paid homage to cities and local heroes by playing “Kansas City” in Kansas City, John Mellencamp’s “Longest Days” in Indianapolis, Dwight Yokam’s “South of Cincinnati” in Cincinnati and two Chuck Berry songs in St. Louis.
Earlier that year, he played so many Grateful Dead songs — “Stella Blue,” “Truckin’,” “Brokedown Palace,” “West LA Fadeaway” — that fans were already speculating he was working on an entire album of Dead covers. The project never came, and he hasn’t played any of these songs in the last two years. The city tribute also came to nothing, just when it was about to get really exciting for the fans.
This basement tapes revival will probably die down soon. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts – and keep hoping for the live debut of “Goin’ To Acapulco”. If it’s ever going to happen, it’s going to happen now.