The recordings were spread over two weeks in January 1997. Throughout the sessions, the songs took shape and met Dylan’s aspirations. The sound is stripped down and clearly less under the control of the songwriter than that of Oh Mercy. Dickinson: “Dylan was standing singing four feet from the microphone, with no earphones on. He was listening to the sound in the room. Which is the sound that did not go on the record. I truly never saw anything like it. He was in unspoken control of twenty-three people.”151
During January, fifteen songs were recorded, most of them in one take. Four titles were discarded: “Mississippi” (released on Love and Theft [2001]), “Dreamin’ of You,” “Marching to the City,” and, most important, “Red River Shore,” considered by many as the best song of the album (it was released on The Bootleg Series Volume 8). The completion of the record was not painless. The somewhat strange atmosphere in the studio became more intense as a result of conflict between Dylan and Lanois. The songwriter questioned the final result. According to Dylan, the album was too close to “Lanois’s sound,” and he refused at the last moment to release it. Fortunately, the president of Sony, Don Ienner, convinced him to reconsider his decision. Production credit went to Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions), referring to Dylan’s pseudonym.
Technical Details
The materials used by Mark Howard to tape Dylan’s vocals were a Sony C37A microphone, also used to record the album Oh Mercy, a UREI LA-2A amplifier with a delay of 180 milliseconds, and an AMS harmonizer, which produced the famous “Elvis echo.” Lanois explained that for the overdubs of Dylan’s voice he sent the playback on the loudspeakers back into the studio to create leakage on Dylan’s microphone so as to simulate the presence of an orchestra playing along with the songwriter.
The Instruments
Dylan played, in addition to his usual guitar, a 1930 Martin, to which a Lawrence mic was attached and connected to a Fender Tweed Deluxe amp of the 1950s. He used only one harmonica in the key of A-flat, the sound of which was saturated in the mix.
Love Sick
Bob Dylan / 5:21
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Daniel Lanois: guitar
Augie Meyers: organ
Jim Dickinson: keyboards
Tony Garnier: bass
Brian Blade and Jim Keltner: drums
Recording Studio
Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997
Technical Team
Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions)
Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
“Love Sick” was the first new composition by Bob Dylan in seven years. The songwriter’s comeback was worth the wait. He starts the album with a song sounding like a conclusion, similar to “The End” by the Doors. The first verse sets the stage with simple but powerfully evocative lyrics: “I’m walking through streets that are dead /… And the clouds are weeping.” The lyrics are filled with feeling and pain: “[Y]ou destroyed me with a smile / While I was sleeping.”
The narrator uses the first person to express his feelings—“I’m sick of love”—clearly a hopeless love. He laments, “I wish I’d never met you,” and time goes by without bringing him any hope: “I hear the clock tick… I’m trying to forget you.”
Because of his hospitalization for an infectious lung disease in May 1997, some interpret this song as a reference to death creeping up as the years go by.
Production
The gloomy atmosphere of the production is in perfect harmony with the lyrics. According to Daniel Lanois, “We treated the voice almost like a harmonica when you overdrive it through a small guitar amplifier.”153 The vocals are actually very dark, sepulchral, almost evoking the classic horror films. This “spinning” effect is produced by an Eventide H3500 stereo flanger. It is also one of the first times Dylan permitted the distortion of his voice by studio effects. Since the 1960s, he had refused to follow the sonic experiments of many artists of the time. The result is mesmerizing. The orchestration releases a dark feeling, in particular Augie Meyers on organ and Jim Dickinson on the Wurlitzer. In the introduction, a rhythmic loop is buried in the sound mass. The presence of two drummers does not affect the clarity of the mix. None of them takes over the song. On the contrary, their parts remain airy. The production is again remarkable; Daniel Lanois created an absolutely unique world.
Since a concert in Bournemouth, England, on October 1, 1997, Dylan has regularly performed “Love Sick” onstage. The song peaked at number 64 in the United Kingdom in July 1998. It was also subject of a music video.
COVERS
Many artists have covered “Love Sick,” including the White Stripes, who recorded a live version as an extra B-side for the single “Fell in Love with a Girl” (2002).
Dirt Road Blues
Bob Dylan / 3:36
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Daniel Lanois: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Jim Dickinson: keyboards; Tony Garnier: upright bass; Winston Watson: drums / Recording Studio: Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997 / Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions) / Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Production
“Dirt Road Blues” is the logical continuation of “Love Sick.” The first track of the album ended with the narrator’s desire to return to the woman he loves. On the second track he begins his journey to find her. It’s a trip on a dirt road, treacherous, full of traps that ends with cruel disillusionment. The blues are the music of lament and despair, and the songwriter uses them to begin his journey on a road leading him “right beside the sun.”
Dylan had demoed “Dirt Road Blues” between September 1992 and August 1996 with Winston Watson, his house drummer at the time. Interviewed by the Irish Times, Daniel Lanois explained that for “Dirt Road Blues,” “[Dylan] made me pull out the original cassette, sample sixteen bars, and we all played over that.”154 This sample was looped and used as the basic rhythmic track for all takes. The sound is raw, very Memphis blues with rockabilly accents. Lanois plays a fine guitar solo, certainly on his 1956 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top. In a nod to Sam Phillips’s recordings for Sun Records, Tony Garnier, the bassist, plays an upright bass, and, especially for this piece, an “Elvis echo” is applied to Dylan’s vocals.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Bob Dylan borrowed the title of this song from Charley Patton (“Down the Dirt Road Blues”) and Arthur Crudup (“Dirt Road Blues”).
Standing In The Doorway
Bob Dylan / 7:43
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Daniel Lanois: guitar; Robert Britt: guitar; “Bucky” Baxter: pedal steel guitar; Cindy Cashdollar: slide guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: bass; Brian Blade and Jim Keltner: drums; Tony Mangurian: percussion / Recording Studio: Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997 Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions) / Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Production
Like a knight of the round table in search of the Holy Grail, Dylan is still looking for his beloved. And, again, he starts this journey with a curious sensation of time passing. In the first verse, he sings, “Yesterday everything was going too fast / Today, it’s moving too slow.” His feelings are diffuse: “Don’t know if I saw you, if I would kiss you or kill you,” and “The ghost of our old love has not gone away,” reflecting a nebula of feelings found throughout Dylan’s poetry.
“Standing in the Doorway” is possibly one of the demos from El Teatro Studios in Oxnard, California. The melody seems to have evolved as Dylan wrote the lyrics. The result is very subtle and evocative of the narrator’s melancholy mood. The atmosphere is quite close to that of “Not Dark Yet.” The first two bars seem to be duplicated and added (for the rhythm part) to extend the introduction. The editing (at 0:08) is out of tempo. There were a dozen musicians, including two drummers, which is amazing for this languorous and ethereal song. But
this big band does not overload the interpretation. Dylan’s vocal stands out effortlessly, a surprising result. The only downside: the fade-out comes too suddenly.
The songwriter played “Standing in the Doorway” for the first time at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon, on June 15, 2000.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Did Dylan borrow the title of this song from Soul Asylum? One of their tracks on their album Hang Time (1988) has the same title. Perhaps, as the alternative rock band, originally from Minneapolis, opened Dylan’s concert in Minneapolis in September 1992.
Million Miles
Bob Dylan / 5:53
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Daniel Lanois: guitar; Duke Robillard: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Jim Dickinson: keyboards; Tony Garnier: bass; Brian Blade and Jim Keltner: drums; Tony Mangurian: percussion / Recording Studio: Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997 / Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions) / Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Production
In what could be a dream sequence, the narrator of this song does everything he can to be closer to the woman he loves, but is still a “million miles” from her. The loved one is seen as a mirage. Nothing is true. Everything is an illusion, except perhaps loneliness. The songwriter has fun sprinkling his text with references to blues and rock ’n’ roll: “That’s all right, mama” takes us back to Elvis Presley (1954), “I need your love so bad” to Little Willie John (1955), and “Rock me, pretty baby” to B. B. King (1958).
Dylan and Lanois reconnect here with a “wet music” vibe, evoking the bluesy sound of New Orleans. From the first bars, a rhythmic loop that Lanois brought from New York is heard on the left stereo channel. “Million Miles” has a blues atmosphere—dense, dark, mainly guided by a cymbal ride and Augie Meyers’s Hammond B-3. In this nightlife atmosphere, almost jazzy, Dylan sings in a hoarse voice, once again with a short delay. His vocal cords seem to have been soaked for hours in Jack Daniels. No instrument dominates, each adding its own color to this massive palette of sound designed by Lanois. The songwriter was looking for a different atmosphere. He did not have to ask twice. The Canadian understood right away.
COVERS
The blueswoman Bonnie Raitt recorded a remarkable version of “Million Miles” for her album Slipstream (2012).
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
Bob Dylan / 5:22
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Daniel Lanois: guitar; Duke Robillard: guitar; Cindy Cashdollar: slide guitar; “Bucky” Baxter: pedal steel guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Jim Dickinson: keyboards; Tony Garnier: bass; Jim Keltner: drums / Recording Studio: Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997 Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions) / Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Production
The protagonist of Time Out of Mind walks along the muddy waters of the Mississippi River down to New Orleans. Again, he is on a quest. Or rather a pursuit, because the Louisiana city seems to be his goal, where he is “Trying to get to heaven before they close the door.” For the first time, in addition to the woman who broke his heart, other characters appear in the narrator’s world: Miss Mary-Jane from Baltimore, but also poker players and midnight ramblers.
“Trying to Get to Heaven” is a rock ballad whose spirit echoes that of Phil Spector or Bruce Springsteen. Dylan performed his song from a certain distance, giving the impression that he is commenting on a film. The result is hypnotic, and the little “plus” comes from his simplistic harmonica part (in A-flat) that requires several hearings to appreciate. Of the mix, Dylan asked Howard, “Hey, Mark, d’ya think you can make my harmonica sound electric on this one?” Howard recalls, “So I said, yeah, sure, and I took the harmonica off the tape and ran it through this little distortion box, and I played it, and he said, ‘Wow, that’s great.’”139
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The line “When I was in Missouri / They would not let me be” in “Trying to Get to Heaven” was borrowed from a blues song by Furry Lewis, titled “I Will Turn Your Money Green.”
‘Til I Fell In Love With You
Bob Dylan / 5:18
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Daniel Lanois: guitar
Robert Britt: guitar
Augie Meyers: organ
Jim Dickinson: keyboards
Tony Garnier: bass
Brian Blade and Jim Keltner: drums
Recording Studio
Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997
Technical Team
Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions)
Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
The narrator says of himself, “I feel like I’m coming to the end of my way.” He confesses that all was going well until he fell in love and “nothing can heal [him] now, but your touch.” He continues to love this woman until his last breath. The worst is to be aware that all “attempts to please you were all in vain.”
Production
If he is the protagonist of Time Out of Mind, Dylan here picks a Delta blues song to bare his soul. Again there is a heavy atmosphere, with a strong Wurlitzer presence, a guitar buried in the reverb, another guitar with a pronounced vibrato, shuffle rhythm, and Dylan’s hoarse voice with the “Elvis echo,” now ever present on the album. His performance is excellent; his malaise is contagious, and the musicians are there to support him.
On the production side, Lanois does not favor any particular technique. Compare the beginning and end of the song: the tempo fluctuates. This time there is no loop or click track to guide the musicians. They play without restriction, just expressing their feeling at their own pace. There may be two drummers, but it is the groove that counts.
Between October 24, 1997, the date of Dylan’s first performance of this song onstage at the Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Mississippi, and June 22, 2011, at Alcatraz in Milan, Italy, he performed it 192 times.
Not Dark Yet
Bob Dylan / 6:29
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Daniel Lanois: guitar
Robert Britt: guitar
Cindy Cashdollar: slide guitar
“Bucky” Baxter: pedal steel guitar
Augie Meyers: organ
Jim Dickinson: keyboards
Tony Garnier: bass
Brian Blade and Jim Keltner: drums
Tony Mangurian: percussion (?)
Recording Studio
Criteria Recording Studios, Miami: January 1997
Technical Team
Producer: Daniel Lanois (in association with Jack Frost Productions)
Sound Engineer: Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
“Not Dark Yet” marks the aesthetic and poetic pinnacle of Time Out of Mind; it is among Bob Dylan’s most poignant songs. From the first line, it’s obvious where the songwriter wants to lead us: “Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day.” The chorus focuses on the end of life: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”
“Not Dark Yet” deals with our inevitable aging and death. The atmosphere is oppressive. Is there life after death? Or nothing at all? The singer does not know, but he does know you should never rely on others. “I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal,” he sings; they are the reminders of disillusionment. He goes on, “Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain /… I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies.” Then he adds a moral as realistic as it is implacable: “I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes.”
Professor Christopher Ricks, in his study titled Dylan’s Visions of Sin, analyzes Dylan’s lyrics. He draws a parallel between “Not Dark Yet” and John Keats’s poem “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819). Ricks finds “similar turns of phrase, figures of speech, [and] felicities of rhyming”155 between the two works. He even argues that Dylan had in mind, “unconsciously or del
iberately,” the poem about death by Keats when he wrote “Not Dark Yet.” Andy Gill, guitarist of Gang of Four, has noted, “[T]he lyrics to ‘Not Dark Yet’ are really simple. It’s exactly what he is: an old man and he’s tired. It’s Dylan speaking authentically from where he is now, in this time of life, looking at what he’s been and seeing where he is at, and expressing it in terms which resonate with many people.”156
The Gospel according to John (9:4) reads, “While daylight lasts I must carry on the work of him who sent me; night comes, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Dylan picks up this idea in his book Chronicles: “Things grow at night. My imagination is available to me at night. All my preoccupations of things go away. Sometimes you could be looking for heaven in the wrong places. Sometimes it could be under your feet. Or in your bed.”1 “Not Dark Yet” is Dylan’s magisterial, nocturnal confession.
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 83