No wonder USA Today ranked it so highly in its list of all 359 Dylan tunes: number 15, ahead of “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” (16), “Blowin’ In The Wind” (22) and “Positively 4th Street” (31). Don’t just listen to it, listen to it: It’s a masterpiece, and a hell of an album opener. Spare, smoky, bleak and haunting, it distills the loneliness of Frank Sinatra’s moodiest torch songs, blends it with the back-alley noir of Tom Waits and filters it all through Dylan’s own raspy voice and weary world-view. Take for example the opening cut, “Love Sick,” released as the album’s second single. Eleven made the final cut, and revisiting the tracks so many years later only underscores their excellence and why peers like Elvis Costello have said of Time Out of Mind that “it might be the best record he’s made.” Rather than hastening his fade into the musical and cultural background, his second outing with Lanois as producer kicked off a string of strong albums (minus the Sinatra stuff) – Love and Theft, Modern Times, Together Through Life, Tempest and Rough and Rowdy Ways – that have been embraced by critics and fans alike as one of the greatest third acts in rock history.Ī total of 15 songs were recorded for the album. It’s easy to see Time Out of Mind as the record where Dylan rediscovered his muse and reclaimed his legacy. Greatest Hits Volume 3 and MTV Unplugged came along in 19 respectively, but fans wondered: What would be next? More catalog rehash? More covers? Was Oh Mercy a late-career anomaly? Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind, Columbia Records 1997įrom the vantage point of a quarter-century later, the answer is clearly: Oh Mercy was no anomaly, it was a hint of what was to come. That was followed by two collections of traditional folk songs (Good as I Been to You in 1992 and World Gone Wrong in 1993) that did nothing for fans wanting to hear Dylan do new originals, not covers.ĭylan was clearly struggling. Produced by Daniel Lanois, who famously produced U2’s The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree (as well as albums by Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson and Brian Eno, among others), the record was hailed by many as a comeback – a comeback quickly deflated, though, by 1990’s dreadful Under the Red Sky. Just how bad was the ‘80s for Dylan? When Discogs published a ranking of 47 of his albums from best to worst, six of his seven ‘80s studio albums are ranked at 35 or worse.īut then came 1989’s Oh Mercy. ![]() But Knocked Out Loaded in 1986 and Down in the Groove in 1988 seemed to argue strongly in favor of allowing him to fade. The five-LP Biograph, also released in ’85, was a comprehensive blend of hits and rarities that seemed to want to emphasize Dylan’s place as an artist who should not be allowed to fade into the background. Infidels followed in 1983 and Empire Burlesque in 1985, both uneven outings that caused fans and critics alike to wonder how much gas Dylan had left in his tank, and whether he could be relevant beyond his ‘60s icon status and landmark ‘70s albums like Blood on the Tracks and Desire. ![]() Even Rolling Stone, which often seems to bend over backwards to give Dylan the benefit of the doubt, could only muster two stars for Shot of Love. Saved and Shot of Love, released in 19 respectively, rounded out Bob Dylan’s “Christian trilogy,” but neither was as successful or as accessible (thanks in large part to Mark Knopfler’s guitar) as 1979’s Slow Train Coming. The 1980s wasn’t a particularly great decade for the voice of the 1960s. Time Out of Mind promo poster (Image: eBay)
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