Famous Musicians Inspired by The Florida Keys

Bob Dylan loves Key West. In fact, the legendary singer-songwriter immortalizes it as “the enchanted land” and “land of light” in a ballad he released in 2020.

Dylan’s 9:35-minute ode, titled “Key West (Philosopher Pirate),” is featured on “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” the artist’s 39th studio album and his first to be released with original songs in eight years.

The ballad begins with McKinley, who decides to travel down the Florida Keys Overseas Highway to Key West — the continental United States’ southernmost city.

“Stay on the road, follow the highway sign/ Key West is fine and fair/ If you lost your mind, you will find it there/ Key West is on the horizon line,” Dylan sings. “Key West is the place to be/ If you’re looking for immortality.”

With an insider’s knowledge, the 79-year-old Dylan lyricizes Key West landmarks Mallory Square and Bayview Park as well as the island city’s Amelia Street and fabled history: “Truman had his White House there.”

The song is lauded by Rolling Stone Magazine as “a poignant 9-minute accordion noir about an old desperado heading off to Florida to make his last stand, brooding over the end times, with only his radio as a reminder of the life he left behind.”

Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, also wrote a track titled “Florida Key” that was released in 2014 on the album “The New Basement Tapes.” However, he is far from the first high-profile musician to be attracted by the lure of the Keys and Key West.