Bob Dylan makes first Rough and Rowdy Ways setlist change of 2025, dropping All Along the Watchtower

The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour has received its first setlist change this year, with Bob Dylan dropping All Along the Watchtower.

Dylan opened many of the 2024 tour dates with the John Wesley Harding track, but opted for I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight on the Outlaw Tour and several Rough and Rowdy Ways tour dates at the start of last year. This marks not only the first change to the setlist this year but also the first performance of I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight in 2025. The swap-out of All Along the Watchtower is the only change made to the setlist, with Dylan’s April 1 show at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, featuring I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, also from John Wesley Harding.

Though the only change was to the opening track, those who attended the show in Omaha noted a “new arrangement” for Desolation Row, the Highway 61 Revisited classic which has featured on the Rough and Rowdy Ways setlist since the October 4 show in Prague. Dylan reintroduced the song in a wild performance on the Outlaw Tour at the Darien Center.

A clip of Dylan playing the song went viral, as he was seen tapping the microphone with a tiny wrench while he played. Dylan, who played the Orpheum Theater in Omaha on April 1, is set to play a second date there tonight (April 2) before a performance at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato, Minnesota.

A full setlist from Dylan’s April 1 performance can be found below.

• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
• It Ain’t Me, Babe
• I Contain Multitudes
• False Prophet
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Black Rider
• My Own Version of You
• To Be Alone With You
• Crossing the Rubicon
• Desolation Row
• Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
• Watching the River Flow
• It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
• I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
• Mother of Muses
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed
• Every Grain of Sand

All Along the Watchtower remains the song Dylan has played live most of all. A total of 2,260 performances of the song have been logged by Setlist.FM, making it the most-played song in Dylan’s career. The track is closely followed by Highway 61 Revisited and Like a Rolling Stone.

All Along the Watchtower, Highway 61 Revisited and Like a Rolling Stone are the only three songs Dylan has played more than 2,000 times. Tangled Up in Blue, his fourth most-played song, has been featured 1,711 times.