Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mind

Really just wanted a thread to post quotes from those great Uncut articles surrounding the release of Tell Tale Signs.

Here's one about a demo I'd like to extract from the Lanois vault

But then, finally, the next day, he comes in and he plays this song on the piano called “Can’t Wait”.

And this is a *gospel* version of the song. Tony, he hears it, and he just went over to the drumkit and he started playing this groove with him, this kind of hip-hop beat, a real sexy groove, and Bob is hammering out this gospel kind of piano and really singing, and, again, the hair on my arms went up, it was stunning. Luckily, I was recording, and I caught it. He played one verse, and a chorus, and that was it.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/bob-dylan-tell-tale-signs-special-mark-howard-37964

and why not revisit this classic live-in-the-studio performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hO-83CIVKM

voted Highlands, gotta turn up the sound

that John Lee Hooker groove

an I don’t know
how much longer
I CAN WAIT

I remember the first time I heard this record. A friend of mine was reviewing it for a high-profile mag, so he had a way-early advance. I was doing some work for him when he mentioned he had the new Dylan. I think I scrunched up my face and asked "is it any good?" And he said "yeah, it's actually really good." So I put it on while I worked and was indeed impressed.

I can't remember if it was this one or "Oh Mercy" where Lanois had Dylan and his band set up in the studio, but all the effects and stuff set up in a different room, so Dylan and band would just hear their live sound but Lanois was sneakily fiddling with the sonics, Eno-style, out of sight. There was a great interview in a recent TapeOp that contained a perfect Dylan story:

What were some pivotal sessions for you there?

I got to do a Bob Dylan session at Sear. I was told it would be five to ten musicians, Bob doesn't want to wear headphones, and don't talk to him. That was the only information I had. I set up a bunch of microphones in the live room. As the band started showing up, I'd put a microphone in front of them. It was a touring band at the time, and Al Kooper playing organ. It was a song for a TV movie soundtrack. Then Dylan shows up, walks right into the live room, and grabbed a microphone I had up as a room mic. I think it was an RCA 77, and he started running through the song. Then he said, "Let's record one." I got on the talkback and said, "I recorded that, if you want to hear it." He was totally nice to me after that. He's like, "That's great!" It was a nice, painless session. A really good experience.

Plus, you did the right thing. You recorded early.

I recorded early. Then he said, "Is that the rankest mic you've got for the vocals?" I said, "I think so!" He's like, "Okay, good." That was the vocal mic that he used.

(Interview was with Tom Schick, not Lanois, fwiw)

I generally dislike Lanois, with the exception of Le Noise and maybe one or two others. His approach here really tests my patience at times, sounding like a digital preset labeled "FAUX-SWAMPY."

Went with "Highlands." Almost voted "Cold Irons Bound," but as great as it is, I much prefer the live versions.

“Not Dark Yet” is my favorite song on the album, songwriting-wise, but probably going with “Highlands.”

Not Dark yet.

sounding like a digital preset labeled "FAUX-SWAMPY."
haha, i like lanois generally, but i know what you mean.
definitely recommend anyone who likes TOOM to read the Ballad of Bob Dylan, which has a long section about the sessions for the record. Some interesting/weird approaches ... apparently they started out playing along to loops of old blues recordings (i think maybe dirt road blues is the only one that made it to the record)

Weirdly Lanois is a surprisingly analog guy, and while he does use effects he's often just using overdriven amps and built in reverbs and tremolos and stuff. And the room sound.

This is Highlands by a lot for me.

solid album, thanks for reminding me. i'll have a listen tonight.

for some reason I have never listened to this record

Funny how Dylan explains how Lanois had to coax songs out of him during the recording of Oh Mercy yet this is a duller bag of wind/atmospheres.

hence the seismic shock of Love and Theft

Seismic shock?

Cobwebs cleared, songs funny, Dylan on point, band distinct.

I'll give you the first and last.

definitely some funny moments lurking beneath the murk.
outtakes from this record on Tell Tale Signs are fantastic.

I've a soft spot for Tryin To Get To Heaven. Will relisten

Keepers:

Tryin' to Get to Heaven
Not Dark Yet
Highlands
Cold Iron Bounds

I can't STAND "To Make You Feel My Love." Every album from this period had a Bob-at-the-piano ballad whose virtue was anonymity. Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, Bryan Ferry are among the artists who have covered a plaint so generic that Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, and Bryan Ferry sing it exactly the same.

it is completely crazy that "to make you feel my love" is (via covers) among his most well-known songs. i bet bob can't even believe it. he probably likes all the $$$ though.

Probably due to this album or Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball", every "serious" country album nowadays has a Lanois song bathed in atmospherics.

I can't STAND "To Make You Feel My Love."

I've never been able to figure out if it's a piss-take, a sincere attempt at writing something in that vein, a possible bid for a hit single, or none (or all) of the above.

xpost I think it's actually the pervasiveness of (80s) U2 styled arena rock affectation.

Tryin' to Get to Heaven is so good.

Some trains don't pull no gamblers
No midnight ramblers like they did before
I been to sugar town, I shook the sugar down
Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door

TMYFML brought in some sweet Adele bucks too.

I understand its popularity among singers: it's one of the few times they can sing one of his melodies without parodying him.

My heart’s in the highlands

i love the groove of till i fell in love with you

"i was all right till i fell in love with you", isn't that a kind of super succinct cv which says all?

"it's not dark yet but it's getting there". when i heard him sing that line i thought he is just about to say good-bye and pack it in. this was 22 years ago, i think he exaggerated there a wee bit, as usual...

Just think: twenty-two years before TOOM he was about to release Desire and had finished a leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue.

xp: and?

I can't STAND "To Make You Feel My Love."
i don't care whatever it is or is supposed to be. it is far away from his usual stuff, beyond his horizon. more emotional, hitting something - for my lack of fitting adjectives - deep. it sticks out of this album like a thumb up. normally i hate ballads but this one somehow gets me. you can't deny that the melody is so beautiful that it almost hurts.

I sure can deny it, and I'll deny it three times until the cock crows for me.

ok, so your taste is different from mine, that is absolutely fine. though i do not understand what you have against the melody.

This album rules

Not to pile on, but for me the melody of TMYFML is pure doggerel. I can’t believe it made the album - but if it didn’t, no doubt it would have come out on Tell Tale Signs and we’d all be hailing it as another “Blind Willie McTell”.

and just to be clear I otherwise ADORE this record and wish I had 5 or 6 votes

tmyfml reminds me of another song, i think, but i have no clue which one. it sounds better when he doesn't sing and you only hear the keyboards and the organ. usually his songs are carried by his voice but here it is different. the last twenty instrumental seconds are like a door to heaven. sorry for being so pathetic. i voted for another song.

Not to pile on, but for me the melody of TMYFML is pure doggerel. I can’t believe it made the album - but if it didn’t, no doubt it would have come out on Tell Tale Signs and we’d all be hailing it as another “Blind Willie McTell”.

yeah no

One of his better Anonymous Piano Ballads: "I'll Remember You." "Born in Time" is almost memorable.

also: Tell Tale Signs has forgettable crap on it too

a few good alternate live renditions of TOOM songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w9fUZZfA78

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hO-83CIVKM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ilOOisEHnw

but for me the melody of TMYFML is pure doggerel

One of his better Anonymous Piano Ballads: "I'll Remember You

I'm in Boston town, in some restaurant
I got no idea what I want

No way does it belong in his top tier, but a C is better than a D-.

xpost

Also, the gospel vocals and guitar licks on "I'll Remember You" help, notably in the tug they give the middle eight ("Didn't I sleep, didn't I weep beside you/With the rain blowing in your haaaaiiirrrr?").

If you think gospel is "schmaltz," then our dictionaries are different.

Yeah I thought twice about using “doggerel” but I’m pretty tired and it was the word which conveyed a sense of rote cliché at the time. And Alfred I was being a touch sarcastic there.

gospel is blues with a religious base, i can't hear that in that song. though i must admit that most of the time i prefer the idea of gospel to its' execution. weirdly enough on sunday mornings i love gospel though. additionaly i am not a fan of dylan's christian phase at all.

gospel is blues

hm no

I mean sometimes it is but not always

probably should be an ILM dylan thread drinking game to see how long it takes for alfred to bring up empire burlesque (and for me to start posting bootlegs)

would also have accepted Street Legal

gospel is blues with a religious base

With respect, this isn't the least bit true.

it may be a simplification but there is a link between those two. both of them have a strong effect on the listener. blues does not preach, it only tells the facts whereas gospel does preach in a kind of worshipping way.

I think even if you were restricting yr definition of gospel to African Americans that still wouldn't really hold true, if we're considering the actual musicological aspects of blues (melodic patterns, blues scale, specific chord progressions) there's lots of gospel that doesn't include those elements.

both styles are very broad and overlap, but one is not a subset of the other

did someone say......STREET LEGAL?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6i6Pbpc0z4

I like Robyn Hitchcock's "Not Dark Yet" cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPXlZ_sKb-Y

Solid album. Quite dark.

that live version of cold irons bound upthread is crazy good.

my favs are that one, not dark yet, and standing in the doorway. agree with the chatter about make you feel my love, was requested to play that during a wedding ceremony and nearly fell asleep at the piano.

Oh and pardon self-xposting but another good "Not Dark Yet" in a different way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ixkCXSI7M

I miss Dylan playing guitar.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

oh, i was the only voter for the song i voted for, interesting.

Picking up from the Spector thread, coincidentally Marc Maron just did a podcast with Daniel Lanois, and they spend a little time talking about the Dylan records:

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1193-daniel-lanois

The most amusing and impressive bit involves the loops Lanois made for Time Out of Mind. I know he's talked about making loops for the album elsewhere, and it's been reported many times that Dylan gave Lanois a whole bunch of old blues records (e.g. Charley Patton) prior to recording just to show him what he had in mind. But apparently, the loops were an insurance policy. It was understood that Dylan wanted an old blues sound, but Lanois was afraid that they would end up sounding like a bar band. So he gathered the key players that were hired for the album and had them play along with the exact same records Dylan given him. Then he wiped those vintage records from the multi-track so that all that was left was their own playing, and those were turned into loops. That way if things didn't go so well at the recording sessions, he could dig those up and use them as is or as a backing track to play along with. Kind of a brilliant cheat.

Mark Howard recorded another interview about working on this album:

https://dylanfmc.castos.com/podcasts/44253/episodes/s0103-mark-howard-engineer-time-out-of-mind

Actually not as redundant as I would think, he does give more details on why it was such a difficult project to work on. For example, it's already known that changing locations made things difficult, but he goes into further detail on why. For example, Criteria may have been a famous studio, but the physical room where they recorded their most famous stuff in the '70s had been converted into their tape vault, and the place they were stuck with sounded like shit with plaster all over the walls, etc. (Apparently it was the room used for their music video productions.)

Also good stuff that's worth repeating, like how they ended up mixing Dylan's voice through the harmonica amp, and how Dylan was a big fan of Beck and wanted to "sound like him" (i.e. incorporate some hip-hop inspired tricks that Beck used on his records).

Like Erica Jong?

I’m walking through
The summer nights
Jukebox playing low