Let's not also forget that the 1989 Lanois produced Oh Mercy was the great comeback album for Dylan after a rather lengthy barren period. With tons and tons of atmosphere, bandwidth and reverb on it, Time Out of Mind was a huge Grammy winning album for Dylan, I loved it. It wasn’t dark just yet.Thought the original CD sounded better than most. He’s world weary, beaten but not defeated-and that’s what makes it so crushing. Maybe Dylan’s acceptance of that helped him write Time Out of Mind, because this is not the confident, Divine Young Dylan of yore. He was 56 years old, gazing wistfully back on a long, successful career, chock with creative epiphanies and great loves, and wondering if That Dylan Magic™ was gone. Time Out of Mind is an anomaly in Dylan’s deep catalog.
The morose lyrics would prove a harbinger in the summer of ’97, just a month or so before the album’s release, he would suffer from the heart condition pericarditis brought about by histoplasmosis, a fungal infection that can prove fatal. He would spend weeks in the hospital, canceling numerous tour dates. “I was born here and I’ll die here, against my will / I know it looks like I’m movin’ but I’m standin’ still / It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.” “I feel like my soul turned into steel / I still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal,” he confesses. The organ and guitar wash over like the rising tide, as Dylan sings like in a prayer.
“Not Dark Yet,” the LP’s first single, is its dark heart. On “Standing in the Doorway,” Dylan wonders how he’d react in a run-in with his former lover, over a tangle of twinkling slide guitars: “I don’t know if I saw you, if I’d kiss you or kill you.” He’s vulnerable: “When you think that you lost everything / You find out you can always lose a little more / I’m just going down the road feeling bad / Trying to get to heaven before they close the door.” “Some things last longer than you think they will / Some kind of things you can never kill.” He surrenders to his enduring flame on “Make You Feel My Love”: “When evening shatters and the stars appear / And there’s no one there to dry your tears / I could hold you for a million years.” But on the LP’s epic 16-minute closer, he’s sentimental to a bygone time: “Feel like a prisoner in a world of mystery / I wish someone’d come and push back the clock for me.” He’s wondering if his great loves are all gone. I’m love sick.” Guitars recoil like a Slinky as he croaks, “My feet are so tired, my brain is so wired…” On slo-mo country rocker “Million Miles,” he croons, “I try to get closer but I’m still a million miles from you…” He’s still thinking of her on the groovin’ “Cold Irons Bound”: “Now I’m all used up and I feel so turned-around… my love for her is taking such a long time to die,” he spits. The album opens with pulsing Farfisa organ on “Love Sick,” Dylan groaning, “I’m sick of love. Bob Dylan Discusses Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Iggy Pop, Amy Winehouse & New 'Triplicate' Album In Rare…
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