A few weeks Earlier, Barack Obama unveiled his annual Songs of the Summer list, which combined new hits like Shaboozie's “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Beyoncé's “Texas Hold 'Em” and Charli XCX's “365” with old favorites like the Miracles' “You've Really Got a Hold On Me,” The Supremes' “Where Did Our Love Go” and The Rolling Stones' “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.”
However, Obama's most surprising choice was Bob Dylan's “Silvio,” the 1988 song co-written by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, which appeared on down in the groovea strong candidate for the worst album of Dylan's 62-year musical career. To be fair, “Silvio” has the dubious distinction of being the best song on the terrible album, and was a regular part of his live show from 1988 to 2004.
He hadn’t played it once in 20 years until it returned Friday night as the opening song to his set at the Outlaw Tour stop in Somerset, Wisconsin, with a new arrangement. The Outlaw Tour has been off the road for the past month, meaning this was Dylan’s first concert since Obama released his setlist. Did one cause the other? The odds seem pretty good, but Dylan isn’t in the habit of sharing his motivations for things. We can only speculate.
Dylan rarely praises politicians of any party, but he made a rare exception on November 4, 2008, minutes after Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. “Me, I was born in 1941,” he told the crowd at the University of Minnesota, his alma mater. “That’s the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I’ve been in a world of darkness ever since. But it looks like things are going to change now.”
Two years later, Dylan came to the Obama White House to perform “The Times They Are a-Changin'” at a special concert commemorating the civil rights movement. Unlike all the other performers at the concert, Dylan did not attend the rehearsals, did not pose for a photo with Obama, and did not spend any time with him before or after the concert.
“[Dylan] “He finishes the song, comes off the stage — I'm sitting in the front row — comes over, shakes my hand, nods his head, smiles at me a little bit, and then leaves,” Obama said. Rolling Stone In 2010. “And that was it — and then he left. That was our only interaction with him. And I thought, ‘This is what you want Bob Dylan to be, right? You don’t want him to be all smiley and fawning over you. You want him to be a little bit skeptical about the whole project.’ So that was a real treat.” (They supposedly spent more time together in 2012, when Obama awarded Dylan the Presidential Medal of Freedom at another White House ceremony.)
The return of “Silvio” to the group is reminiscent of Dylan's decision to bring back “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” after a seven-year hiatus last month, just 11 days after it appeared in the trailer for his upcoming biopic. Totally unknownIt's the only song Timothée Chalamet sings in the trailer. Was it just a coincidence? Again, we can't know for sure.
There were no other surprises during Dylan's Wisconsin show, though “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” returned. The tour resumes tonight in Tinley Park, Illinois, and ends Sept. 17 in Buffalo, New York. He heads to Europe in early October for a long run of shows that culminates with three nights at London's Royal Albert Hall.
