Bob Dylan Plays "Sugar Baby" in Bologna for the First Time Since 2012
Bob Dylan played "Sugar Baby" in Bologna, Italy, for the first time since 2012, Rolling Stone reported on Monday, 9 November. The song is from Dylan's album Love and Theft, and it had been absent from his concerts for 14 years.
The Bologna show was part of the Lights of Autumn tour, which opened on 17 October in Oslo, Norway. A setlist, the running order of songs a band plays on a given night, for the Italian show included "Watching the River Flow," "Love Sick," "It Ain't Me, Babe," "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," "High Water (For Charley Patton)" and "I Can Tell," according to JamBase.
The lineup has also changed. At the start of the tour, Dylan's band included guitarist Mike Seal, guitarist Joel Paterson, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer Anton Fig. Seal left the tour after eight shows. Julian Lage took his place, marking his fifth stint with the group since June.
Guitar chairs have been busy. Six guitarists have shared the stage with Dylan in recent months: Bob Britt, Doug Lancio, Julian Lage, Joel Paterson, Mike Seal and Jad Tariq. For a band that plays many nights in a row, a change in one player can mean a new arrangement for songs the audience already knows, and a few days of rehearsal before the next city.
The tour is scheduled to finish on 8 December at London's Royal Festival Hall. Until then, the band keeps moving between cities, and the setlist can still change from one night to the next. Fans who want to know what will be played can check each show's setlist after the concert, since the running order is not fixed in advance.
For anyone who follows the tour from home, the Bologna show is a reminder that a song can sit unplayed for more than a decade and then return with no announcement. Shows like this one are often documented by fans and set-list sites within hours, which is how many people learned what was played.
