This is the third Basement Tapes song that Bob Dylan has released in a week, following the returns of “Baby, Won't You Be My Baby” and “You Ain't Goin' Nowhere.”
It's officially the summer of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes. The festivities began June 4 in Troutdale, Oregon, when Dylan played “Baby, Won't You Be My Baby,” a rare gem from the Basement Tapes, for the first time since recording it in Big Pink's basement 59 years ago. They continued on June 6 in Woodinville, Washington, where he opened the evening with his first “You Ain't Goin' Nowhere” since 2012, then on June 9 in Eugene, Oregon, where he stunned fans by closing the concert with his first live performance of “I Shall Be Released” since 2008.
Dylan's Long Hot Summer Tour '26 has four dates so far, and three of them feature surprises from the Basement Tapes. (On the second night in Woodinville, he didn't play any.) If he maintains this pace over the remaining 31 shows — which is highly unlikely — we'll be treated to 23 more songs from the Basement Tapes.
Over his entire stage career, Dylan only performed ten Basement Tapes songs in concert: “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 “Baby, Won't You Be My Baby.” It's hard to imagine this trend continuing all summer, but anything seems possible after the thunderclap of “Baby, Won't You Be My Baby.” (This is, by far, the longest interval he has ever observed between recording a song and its first live performance.)
You can't get into Dylan's head to understand why he chose this specific moment to resurrect the Basement Tapes, but there is recent precedent for common threads in his setlists. By fall 2023, he had paid tribute to cities and their local heroes by playing “Kansas City” in Kansas City, John Mellencamp's “Longest Days” in Indianapolis, Dwight Yoakam's “South of Cincinnati” in Cincinnati, and two Chuck Berry songs in St. Louis.
Earlier that year, he had started playing so many Grateful Dead songs (“Stella Blue,” “Truckin',” “Brokedown Palace,” “West LA Fadeaway”) that fans had come to believe he was preparing an entire album of Dead covers. But the record never came, and he hasn't played any of these songs for two years. The series of tributes to the cities also stopped just when it was starting to become really enjoyable for the fans.
In all probability, this resurrection of the Basement Tapes will also run out of steam quite quickly. Let's enjoy it while it lasts, and continue to hope for the live premiere of “Goin' to Acapulco”. If it's ever going to happen, it's now.
