Bob Dylan is back in Memphis for two shows at the Orpheum: 5 things to know before you go
At 82, Bob Dylan — Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer, 10-time Grammy winner, Pulitzer and Nobel prize recipient and international music icon — has nothing left to prove, yet he continues to drive himself with an unusual sense of purpose.
Dylan has unofficially been on what’s known as his “Never Ending Tour” since 1988. Officially, he’s been out in support of his 2020 album "Rough & Rowdy Ways" since late 2021. Last year, Dylan played shows across Europe, Japan and North America. This year, kicked off the latest leg of his tour in early March with a series of shows in Florida, before moving on to dates in North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.
This week Dylan arrives in Memphis for a much anticipated two-night stand at Downtown’s venerable Orpheum, on Friday and Saturday. Here are five things to know ahead of this week's shows.
Bob Dylan's love for Memphis
A serious student of American music and early rock ‘n’ roll, Dylan has always paid homage to the great artists and innovators who came from Memphis — including making pilgrimages to Elvis Presley’s old haunts like Humes High School or working at legendary local studios like Phillips Recording Service.
Although Dylan rarely conducts interview anymore, in 2015 he gave a long and deeply felt speech when he was honored as “Person of the Year” by the Grammys' MusiCares Foundation. While most of the coverage of the speech focused on Dylan’s disses — he took shots at country music legends like Merle Haggard and Tom T. Hall, as well rock 'n' roll pioneers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun — he was also full of praise for a group of Memphis icons, specifically the alumni of his beloved Sun Records.
Dylan was especially eloquent in discussing Sun founder Sam Phillips. He noted that Phillips’ work with the label “shook the very essence of humanity. Revolution in style and scope. Heavy shape and color. Radical to the bone. Songs that cut you to the bone. Renegades in all degrees, doing songs that would never decay, and still resound to this day.”
Dylan also remembered his longtime pal and former Sun artist Johnny Cash as “a giant of a man, the Man in Black. And I’ll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there is no more days.”
But Dylan’s strongest praise was saved for Sun Records’ underdog, Billy Lee Riley. Riley, who died in 2009 at age 75, is perhaps best known for his classic 1957 single, “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll” — a rockabilly number inspired by the era’s U.F.O. mania — which birthed the name of his band, the Little Green Men.
That year, Riley also released the equally memorable rave-up “Red Hot.” In his MusicCares speech Dylan spoke at great length of his first exposure to and eventual friendship with Riley. “He was a hero of mine,” Dylan said. “I’d heard ‘Red Hot.’ I must have been only 15 or 16 when I did, and it’s impressed me to this day. I never grow tired of listening to it.”
Bob Dylan's Memphis concert legacy
Dylan’s love for Memphis can also be measured in how often he has performed in the Bluff City. He's been an especially frequent visitor to the Mid-South over the last quarter century.
In 1999, the Memphis venues visited by Dylan ranged in size from the New Daisy theater on Beale Street to the Pyramid arena (on a double bill with Paul Simon). In 2005 and 2013, he played at AutoZone Park. In 1997 and 2001, Dylan appeared at Memphis in May’s Beale Street Musical Festival. Dylan also played regional dates at BancorpSouth Center in Tupelo in 2002 and the former Pringles Park in Jackson, Tennessee, in 2004.
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Just like this year, in 2006, Dylan played back-to-back shows at Downtown’s Orpheum. It would be nearly a decade before he returned to the venue in 2015. In early 2020, Dylan had a summer show on the books for Southaven’s BankPlus Amphitheater, a concert that was postponed and ultimately canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He would eventually make it to Memphis in 2022 as part of the "Rough & Rowdy Ways" tour, again appearing at the Orpheum in April of that year, marking his most recent local stop.
Rough & Rowdy Ways tour setlists and reviews
Casual fans might expect Dylan to be like most of his veteran rock ‘n’ roll peers and play the expected greatest hits set. But Dylan, being Dylan, does nothing of the kind. The setlists on the Rough & Rowdy Ways tour have focused extensively on the material from his most recent album, as well as a few deep cuts from his catalog, the odd “hit,” and occasional often unexpected cover.
The best resource for Dylan these days is Ray Padgett’s Flagging Down the Double E’s. Padgett who published 2023’s essential collection, “Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members,” runs his Dylan-dedicated substack/newsletter, which features the author and occasional guest reviewers covering Dylan’s concerts, among other related matters (be sure check Padgett’s 50th anniversary deep dive into Dylan and The Band’s 1974 Memphis show).
The most recent review, done by musician Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Mountain Goats), captured the contrarian spirit of Dylan's current tour, offering a preview of what fans in Memphis can expect.
Wurster, who witnessed a pair of Dylan dates in North Carolina earlier this month, noted that “there’s a lot of legacy artists out there on the road doing what are essentially crowd-pleasing, hit-packed victory laps,” he wrote. “This is what makes Dylan so enjoyable for so many of us: He knows exactly what people want, and it appears to mean absolutely nothing to him. We forget that Dylan has a handful of genuine hit songs in his quiver. And so does Dylan.”
Wurster added that, “these current concerts feature almost all of his most recent album, and a handful of album tracks and covers a casual listener wouldn’t recognize. It’s almost diabolical when you think about it. But that unique mix of free spirit survivor and flagrant contrarian is what’s so inspiring about Dylan. Most people his age are in the ground, yet he’s out there giving some of the best, weirdest performances of his career. It’s kind of the most punk thing anyone has ever done.”
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A Bluff City special?
Last year, during his tour, Dylan was customizing the covers in his set, playing tunes with a local flavor or connection unique to each market. So far this year, Dylan hasn’t been as consistent or thematic with his cover songs — which have ranged from the Jimmy Rogers blues classic “Walking By Myself” to Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.”
However, Memphis should provide ample inspiration for Dylan to dig deeper and maybe break out something special. He’s already been playing Johnny Cash’s “Big River” — which would certainly make sense at the Orpheum — or he could pull out a different surprise, perhaps an old Sun or Meteor classic, a Riley chestnut, or something else appropriate to the environs.
Good seats remain for Bob Dylan's Memphis shows
Somewhat surprisingly — given his record of sold-out shows in town — a fair amount of seats are still available for both of Dylan’s Orpheum concerts.
A few VIP “Gold Hot Seat” packages — which includes premium seating, a commemorative ticket and exclusive merch package — are still available, but they will cost you, as those run just over $600 each.
General seating, meanwhile, offers a few more reasonably priced options for both shows. Tickets in the middle of the orchestra sections can be had for $92 per seat. Just a handful of mezzanine seats remain, which also run $92 a pop. More plentiful options in the various balcony sections and upper gallery areas are also available, starting at $71.
To purchase or for more information go to Ticketmaster.com.
Bob Dylan in Memphis
8 p.m. March 29 and 30 at the Orpheum, 203 S. Main St.
Tickets: $71 to $628. Go to Ticketmaster.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Bob Dylan coming to Memphis for 2 shows on Rough & Rowdy Ways Tour
