Bob Dylan has infuriated some fans after removing a song from his Spring 2026 setlist.
The veteran performer, 84, is currently touring North America on what was billed at the time as an extension of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. This has seemingly come to an end, with new advertisement banners removing all mention of his 2020 album. Instead, Dylan is playing songs from across his career and feeding a handful of Rough and Rowdy Ways songs into place. A performance at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois, featured two covers and a total of fourteen originals stretching as far back as the mid-1960s.
A full setlist for the Genesee Theatre show can be found below.
- To Be Alone With You
- Man in the Long Black Coat
- All Along the Watchtower
- I Contain Multitudes
- False Prophet
- Black Rider
- Love Sick
- Goodbye Jimmy Reed
- I Can Tell (Bo Diddley cover)
- I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
- Crossing the Rubicon
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- Forgetful Heart
- Soon After Midnight
- Nervous Breakdown (Eddie Cochran cover)
- Every Grain of Sand
This has been the same setlist as most other nights on the tour, bar the first of the Spring 2026 dates where Dylan also performed Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right. Some fans are upset to see one song from Rough and Rowdy Ways did not survive the cut, with some wishing Key West (Philosopher Pirate) was still included. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw fans share their thoughts on why the track had been cut.
One fan fumed: “Why the fuck did he remove Key West from the setlist?” Another replied: “The live versions at the very beginning of the tour in ‘21 were great, mostly because it sounded like the record. That song is one instance of rearranging where I felt like he could never find a new way into it that beat or even matched the original recording. After that first leg, it turned into a bathroom break song for me, which is a shame because the recorded version is an all-timer.”
A second listener added: “He’s playing less songs from Rough and Rowdy Ways on this leg of the tour. He has consistently played the nine tracks that aren’t Murder Most Foul for nearly all of the Rough and Rowdy Ways shows over the past few years. In 2026 he’s reduced it to 5-6 songs from the album. A third joked: “Specifically to piss you off.”
Other listeners suggested Key West (Philosopher Pirate) is a song Dylan could not find a way to improve or change enough on stage compared to the studio verison. One fan wrote: “I think it’s the one song he’s realized where the live version could never surpass the record.”
Another theorised the cut of Rough and Rowdy Ways songs was to “point out that the Rough and Rowdy Ways era is slowly ending.” A third suggested Dylan is simply “bored” with the song.
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