Bob Dylan Played a ‘Basement Tapes’ Song for the First Time Since Recording It 59 Years Ago

Diggin’ Deep blogherads.adq.push(function () ); Bob Dylan Played a ‘Basement Tapes’ Song for the First Time Since Recording It 59 Years Ago Only the most hardcore fans at the kickoff of Dylan’s summer tour in Troutdale, Oregon, recognized “Baby, Won’t You Be Me Baby” from the expanded Basement Tapes box set By Andy Greene Andy Greene Lindsey Buckingham Teases Project With Stevie Nicks: ‘Next Year Should Be Pretty Interesting’ Neil Young Releases Wistful, 11-Minute Title Track From New Album ‘Second Song’ 50 Years Ago Today: Bruce Springsteen Capped Off a Legendary Theater Residency in New Jersey View all posts by Andy Greene June 5, 2026 Special guest Bob Dylan performs in concert during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on Sept. 23, 2023, in Noblesville, Indiana. Gary Miller/Getty Images Bob Dylan kicked off his 2026 summer tour Thursday night in Troutdale, Oregon, and he stunned his most hardcore followers fans near the end of the night, and surely left the rest of the crowd baffled, when he broke out the Basement Tapes extreme deep cut “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby” for the first time since recording the original with the Band in the basement of Big Pink back in 1967. This new live rendition is remarkably faithful to the original recording.

Dylan has been playing Basement Tapes songs for decades, but this is the first time he’s done one that didn’t appear on the 1975 package. In his entire career, this is the longest he’s gone between recording a song and debuting it live, and there’s not even a remotely close second. It’s also the first time in recent memory he’s debuted any original song besides the material on 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody-uid0' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid-article","mid","in-article1","mid-article1","inbody","inbody1"] ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("music\/article\/inbody1") .addSize([[300,250],[620,350],[2,2],[3,3],[2,4],[4,2],[640,250],[6,6],[620,366]]) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); The rest of the set was quite familiar to anyone who saw Dylan on the Outlaw Festival in the past couple of years.

In includes tunes from throughput his vast catalog (“To Be Alone With You,” “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” “Under the Red Sky,” “Man in the Long Black Coat”), obscure covers (Bo Diddley’s “I Can Tell,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “I’ll Make It All Up to You,” Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Share Your Love With Me”), and just two songs (“All Along the Watchtower” and “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”) that a casual fan would would likely recognize. This kind of set list caused even Paul McCartney to complain recently. I get it if he doesn’t want to do ‘Mr.

Tambourine Man.’ Maybe he’s fed up with that, but I would like to hear it. And I’ve paid.” blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody2-uid1' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid-article2","mid","in-article2","mid-article","inbody","inbody2"] ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("music\/article\/inbody2") .addSize([[300,250],[300,251],[620,350],[2,4],[4,2],[3,3],[2,2],[6,6],[620,366]]) .setLazyLoadMultiplier(2) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century Dylan did play “Mr. Tambourine Man” at a single concert in 2025, but he otherwise hasn’t done it since 2010.

And he jettisoned nearly all of his other hits many years back. He also largely stopped changing around his set list from night to night. That’s why “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby” is such an enormous surprise.

If a song that rare is now in the mix, nearly anything feels possible. Trending Stories Why Is Everyone Scared of Hasan Piker? Watch Eddie Vedder Busk in Dublin in Honor of Glen Hansard Drake Turns Kick Stream Into a 20-v-1 Dating Show, Warns Rap Rivals His ‘Pen Isn’t Dry’ John Carpenter Has Been to Hell and Back Hey Bob, if you’re diving back into the Basement Tapes, might we recommend “I’m Not There,” “Goin’ to Acapulco,” “I’m Your Teenage Prayer,” and “Sign on the Cross?” Any one of them would sound sensational with this band.