Bob Dylan in the 2020s: Rough and Rowdy Ways, Shadow Kingdom, and all that Philosophy

On June 19, 2020, Bob Dylan's album Rough and Rowdy Ways was released, the first with songs newly written by the master in eight years! It was preceded by three songs on the Internet that caused a stir, especially the first, the seventeen-minute masterpiece "Murder Most Foul."

The critical reception was excellent, and the public welcomed this album.

But what motivated Bob Dylan to make one more album, he who had already made thirty-eight in his sixty-year career, not counting the multiple compilations? And what could it bring? Why did Bob Dylan find it necessary to release an album of unpublished compositions in the year 2020? Did he want to say something in particular, or was it just to amuse himself and make fun of people who claimed he could not compose anything more after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature?

The author does not claim to provide all the answers to the questions that listeners may ask about these ten songs and what followed, but to offer avenues for understanding their production and their meaning.

This album was followed in 2021 by a live streaming show, Shadow Kingdom, and a tour in the United States and in Europe, with a setlist including almost all the songs from Rough and Rowdy Ways. After touring, Dylan published a new book, The Philosophy of Modern Song.

About the author: Bilingual French and English speaking François Guillez discovered Bob Dylan at the age of fifteen and continues to be interested in him today. In 2000, he founded, with friend Laurent, a web site for the translation into French of Bob Dylan's songs, texts and interviews, and has since then been the webmaster of the only active French Bob Dylan site: www.bobdylan-fr.com

François wrote a biography of Bob Dylan, from 1941 up to 2021, published by Camion Blanc, the first and foremost French publisher in rock and pop music.