Bob Dylan has been surprising fans with his Outlaw Tour setlist. First he played only recent songs and ’50s covers, then he performed “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” for the first time in years. On Friday, the legendary singer-songwriter took the show to Somerset, WI, and opened the night with his 1988 song "Silvio," which he last sang in 2004.
"Silvio" was recently at the center of conversation after it was on Barack Obama's summer playlist (along with Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, and more). Dylan performed at the White House in 2010 but Obama didn’t get to hang out with him: "The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different," Obama told Rolling Stone in 2010. "Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I’m sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left. That was our only interaction with him." Then in 2012, Obama honored Dylan with the Presidential Medal Of Freedom.
Dylan brought back “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” shortly after it was in the trailer for A Complete Unknown. Are Dylan’s setlists being written in conversation with current pop culture moments? He remains inscrutable. He also has a song on the Reagan soundtrack. Watch him perform "Silvio" below.
