Bob Dylan has dusted off one of his fiercest protest anthems, performing “Masters of War” live for the first time in nearly a decade.
The 1963 track — first unleashed on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan — opened his set at the Outlaw Music Festival’s Buffalo stop, and again the following night in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Dylan last played it at Desert Trip in 2016.
Written in the shadow of America’s push toward the Vietnam War, “Masters of War” seethes with condemnation for the men in power who send others to die. “I’ve never really written anything like that before,” Dylan admitted in the album notes. “I don’t sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn’t help it with this one… a reaction to the last straw.”
Over the years, Dylan has clarified its intent. In a 2001 interview, he described it not as an anti-war song, but a rebuke of what President Eisenhower famously called the “military industrial complex.” Still, his choice to revive it in 2025 has sparked speculation it’s a quiet commentary on today’s conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Dylan will continue touring with the Outlaw Music Festival until September 19 before heading to Europe for The Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour, which runs through November 25 in Dublin.
You can check out a short clip here.
