Hear Bob Dylan Debut Songs From Blues Greats In Chicago

Bob Dylan launched a three-night run at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace on Friday. The weekend saw the legendary singer-songwriter continuing to honor greats associated with the cities he’s rolled through on the 2023 fall leg of his Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour with premieres of songs from blues legends Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf along with a debut cover of Nick Gravenites’ “Born In Chicago.”

Dylan kicked off night one with the live premiere of “Born in Chicago.” While blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Nick Gravenites played with a number of influential 1960s groups including Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Electric Flag, he was closely associated with Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Gravenites met Butterfield and guitarist Mike Bloomfield while attending the University of Chicago. Literally “Born In Chicago,” Gravenites frequented a number of the clubs where the aforementioned blues legends Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf performed.

Bob Dylan and Paul Butterfield Blues Band shared a manager in the mid-60s, Albert Grossman. Mike Bloomfield played on Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking 1965 single “Like A Rolling Stone” and also at the infamous “Dylan Goes Electric” 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance, which Gravenites was present for. He recalled the time in a 2005 interview:

“I was still a street guy at that time, hanging with Butter, my old friend, and I’d had a band with Bloomfield just before he went with Butter. I knew all the guys in that band, I used to sit in with them. I also knew their manager, Albert Grossman, so I was part of the entourage (going to Newport). I drove out from Chicago with them. Butter wanted friends and fans with him (when they played Newport), he wanted some support.

“I had no idea that Dylan was this hot bed of all this, you know, going electric. I mean, all the bands I knew had been electric for years. Albert said to me, ‘you drive him (Dylan), you’re the driver.’ Bob didn’t say a single word to me. He obviously had a lot on his mind. He (Dylan) was always a mysterious, poetic character, I liked him for that. Bloomfield had introduced me to him at folk clubs in New York before that. He was just a normal, nice, Midwestern, Jewish guy, with manners.”

Bob nodded to Gravenites with “Born In Chicago” — which Paul Butterfield Blues Band incldued on their 1965 self-titled debut album — to open his Windy City run, the song replacing his usual Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour opener “Watching The River Flow.” Dylan stuck close to his setlist for the rest of the concert but closed with a debut of Muddy Waters’ “40 Days & 40 Nights.” While Muddy was born in Mississippi he moved to Chicago in the 1940s. Waters along with Howlin’ Wolf helped transform Chicago into the modern, electrified blues mecca it became. Hear Dylan premiere “Born In Chicago and “40 Days & 40 Nights” below:

Bob opened night two with “Born In Chicago,” but this his time capped the concert with Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.” Like Waters, Howlin’ Wolf was born in Mississippi. But he moved to Chicago a bit after Muddy in the 1950s. The two artists were signed to famed Chicago blues label Chess Records and had a legendary rivalry as they both recorded songs by another blues great Willie Dixon. “Killing Floor,” however, was all Wolf. Hear Dylan debut “Killing Floor” and also cover the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” in Chicago after Saturday’s “Born In Chicago” opener below:

Dylan returned to his Rough and Rowdy Ways setlist for night three including classics like “Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine,” “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Gotta Serve Somebody” along with nearly every track off Rough And Rowdy Ways (except for “A Murder Most Foul”) including “I Contain Multitudes,” “False Prophet” and more.

Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour continues on Wednesday in Milwaukee. Check out the legendary singer-songwriter’s itinerary below: