Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan
Columbia,
1997
Reviewed by
Jeff Rose
Bob Dylan has aged beautifully from a cynical young man into a bitter old
man.
Time Out Of Mind, the 1997 Grammy award-winning album for best contemporary folk
album, best male rock vocals, and album of the year, succeeds with songs steeped in
desolation, solitude and the blues. The album is a culmination of Dylan's previous work.
He is aware of his place in rock and roll history and what he is best at doing creatively
at this point in his career.
Daniel Lanois, producer of U2's The Joshua Tree, makes good on his second Dylan
effort. The first, 1989's Oh Mercy, showed uneven promise. The sound was fuller and
more focused than the rest of Dylan's '80s work, but the album was a collection of
one-riff songs. Dylan meandered lyrically and the best cuts were not released.
Lanois gives Time Out Of Mind better treatment. There is no lead instrument on
these tracks. The stripped sound forces Dylan's voice to carry songs, like it had on his
other great albums. Instead of hiding behind guitarists like Mark Knopfler and Slash,
bands such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Grateful Dead and novelties such as
backup singers, saxophonists, and sampled noises, Dylan is forced to lead the songs
himself.
Dylan's raspy cigarette-ravaged voice works the blues songs with the world-weary wisdom of
a man that has seen it all and spent as much time thinking about it. "Can't
Wait," "'Til I Fell In Love with You" and "Million Miles" are the
12-bar blues songs Dylan has had the ability to sing for years. They echo his unreleased
classic from the 1983 Infidels sessions, "Blind Willie McTell," about a
man wondering how anyone could hope to see the sin and corruption in today's world and be
as great as the legendary guitarist.
Between the 12-bar blues standards, Dylan also croons successfully on songs such as
"Standing In The Doorway" and "Not Dark Yet." These songs resonate
with the lyrical simplicity of 1974's tragic Blood On The Tracks. The songs on Time
Out Of Mind, written before Dylan's near-death encounter with a heart infection, give
the listener goose bumps, as the artist reaches into the depths of human suffering and
mortality and returns with depressing insight.
In "Not Dark Yet," Dylan sings, "I'll live here and I'll die here against
my will / I feel like I'm moving but I'm standing still
/ Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb / I can't even remember what it was I came
here to get away from." It is a simple thought stated simply. In a world where the
hustle and bustle of technology and transportation sends us running in circles, these
thoughts aren't offered often.
The 17-minute finale "Highlands" is an immediate classic, recalling the talking
blues featured on 1963's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and the epic closer of 1966's Blonde
On Blonde, the 14-minute "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands." The song is a
typical story about being lost in today's world, old and lonely. His heart is in the
highlands but he isn't there yet. As poet Allen Ginsberg wrote in the liner notes of
Dylan's 1975 album Desire, "bard signs the awful movie where everybody loses
& what can you say? My father age 80 also bowed his head & said, 'What can you
do?' under his breath."
They were words for an album released 22 years before Time Out Of Mind, but they
may be better suited for this one. Dylan is carefully singing about life and giving anyone
that cares to listen a personal, yet universal, message.
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"A fantastic
reflection of a man in full swing and back in the saddle as the world's greatest singer/
songwriter."
The Crypt Keeper
- Bob Dylan Fan Site
Related Links
Bob Dylan Homepage
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