25 Years Later: Revisiting Bob Dylan’s Career Rewakener ‘Time Out of Mind’

Bob Dylan suffered a serious health scare some four months prior to the release of Time Out Of Mind (released 9/30/97), one so serious that, in its aftermath, he’d be prompted to say “I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.” Not surprisingly, coincidental upon the release of the aforementioned record, much was made of its looming shadow of mortality. Yet Dylan wrote the songs the prior year in anticipation of recording with Daniel Lanois.

Consisting of eleven tracks with an approximately seventy-two-minute running time, Time Out Of Mind nonetheless constitutes one individual’s journey through the proverbial ‘dark night of the soul.’ Much of it, however, is as deceptively telling as its very first cut, where Bob Dylan turns the song title “Love Sick” on its head, his slow, deliberate movement akin to that motion of one lost in thought. 

It may be no great revelation that the Nobel Laureate is so reflective, but it is nevertheless no small accomplishment that he recounts his reflections with unremitting clarity in a production setting, largely overseen by Daniel Lanois, that belies that lucid state of mind. The contrast is profoundly striking even now, two and a half decades later.

 Superficially conversational as the various sets of words may sound, “‘Til I Fell In Love With You” and “Make You Feel My Love,” among others, become a series of ruminations replete with brutally honest self-awareness. ‘Strolling through the graveyard of [his] mind,’ Dylan phrases his expression(s) in a guarded but ultimately candid manner. As a result, the music accompanying him ultimately serves as cushion for the psychic impact of the inevitable epiphanies that come with such introspection. The dark foreboding likes of “Not Dark Yet” is only the most obvious instance of these revelations.  

Still, the comparatively upbeat “Cold Irons Bound” suggests in no uncertain terms that this is a man who holds out hope by nature. Likewise, in the gentle blues of “Standing In The Doorway,” Bob quite clearly states ‘my heart just won’t give in…’  Such resolute struggle reflects the effort required to proceed through the density of sound around him: no wonder at one point he offers a veritable sign of relief with “Can’t Wait.”

The sonic quality and the arrangements Lanois fashioned are nothing if not murky (not much less blurry than the shots of Dylan outside and inside the CD jewel case).  Of course, the antique sound suits a jump tune like “Dirt Road Blues:” it’s the aural equivalent of a sepia-tone photo from the twenties and is, in fact, the very audio properties Bob was looking for. 

That said, the roster of accompanists and their versatile,well-honed talent– the specialized slide guitar of Cindy Cashdollar to name just one– mirror the range of imagery in compositions like “Million Miles.” 

It’s to the great credit of these musicians who, notably take few solos of any great length, that they maintain the momentum of their playing as the man they’re supporting talks/sings in his weathered voice above them. 

Members of Bob’s road band of the time, such as guitarist Bob Britt and drummer Winston Watson, interact with the disparate personages of jazz drummer Brian Blade and the late musical icon of Memphis Jim Dickinson. And then there’s the wild card of Augie Meyers, whose Farfisa organ is prominent on more than one selection (as is also the case on the next long-player); this one-time Sir Doug Sahm sideman doesn’t overplay any more than his comrade instrumentalists. 

Given Bob Dylan’s predilection for spontaneity in studio recordings–not to mention the subsequent back and forth between him and the Canadian who had also collaborated with U2 prior to this–there’s little question they must have been feeling their way to some extent. Nevertheless, given how sharp their innate instincts were, they had a right to trust them as fully as the frontman did his own. 

With twenty-five years of hindsight, Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind may be seen as the launch of a creative renaissance that has continued to the present day. Granted, the previous Lanois production, 1989’s Oh Mercy, signaled a similar return to form, but, unlike this one, it was not immediately followed by a comparably extended uninterrupted string of superlative works in the New Millenium.

The critical and commercial accolades accorded the 1997 album were accompanied by additional acclaim in the form of three Grammy Awards (at the ceremony for which Dylan even offered an earnest performance). The confluence of positive all-around acceptance ushered in a new era of an enhanced public profile for Bob, to the extent that subsequent albums of quality greater (Tempest in 2012) and lesser (Modern Times in 2006) begat additional positive reception.

To that end, the artist would seem to have taken to heart all the praise, practical and otherwise. Beginning with ‘Love And Theft,’ the arguably superior 2001 followup to this record, and continuing into the post-lockdown release of Rough And Rowdy Ways, Dylan has produced his records by himself under the nom de plume ‘Jack Frost’ (duly noted in the credits on this album). 

Ultimately, in the final eleven minutes plus conclusion to this, his thirtieth studio LP, Bob confesses ‘my heart’s in the highlands…I can only get there one step at a time.’ He makes that statement with no little optimism, albeit with a certain weariness of sorts: The Bard From Minnesota is not resigned to, but (fully?) accepting of his role as ‘…a prisoner in a world of mystery…’ 

A quarter century later, that sounds like an inviting prospect for the rest of us, even if we only experience it vicariously through hearing the inner dialogue that is Time Out Of Mind

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3 Responses

    1. His fans thought this was the end for him but Dylan just had a mild inflammation off the outer layer of the heart which made him sleep a lot but I saw him in concert in Cleveland and was indeed a new Dylan one who interacted with his fans for the first time in years and he was really enjoying himself so this was a rebirth for Dylan not only musically but spiritually and he has been an extrovert ever since

  1. His fans thought this was the end for him but Dylan just had a mild inflammation off the outer layer of the heart which made him sleep a lot but I saw him in concert in Cleveland and was indeed a new Dylan one who interacted with his fans for the first time in years and he was really enjoying himself so this was a rebirth for Dylan not only musically but spiritually and he has been an extrovert ever since

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