Studio Album · No. 35
Rough and Rowdy Ways Songwriting Credits by Bob Dylan
Holds writing credit on 10 of 10 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 10 / 10 documented
Scored across the 10 tracks with documented writers, by whether Bob Dylan carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 10 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
All ten tracks on Rough and Rowdy Ways were written by Bob Dylan, his first album of original songs since 2012's Tempest. The seventeen-minute closer Murder Most Foul became Dylan's first song to reach number one on any Billboard chart, topping the Hot Rock Songs list. The album earned wide acclaim, with reviewers ranking it among his strongest late-career work.
Released June 19, 2020, Rough and Rowdy Ways was Dylan's first collection of original songs since Tempest (2012), arriving after three consecutive albums of standards covers. Recorded January through March 2020 at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles with engineer Chris Shaw, returning from their Modern Times and Love and Theft collaborations, the album features Dylan's Never Ending Tour band alongside guests including Fiona Apple, Blake Mills, and Benmont Tench. All ten tracks were written by Dylan, who described composing them in a trance state. The nearly 17-minute closing track "Murder Most Foul" became the first Dylan song to top any US Billboard chart and carries the highest word count of any Dylan composition. The album earned a Metacritic score of 95, the second highest-rated album of 2020, debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, and reached number 1 in the UK and more than ten other countries.