Maps of Music

Time Out of Mind (1997)

Where the lyrics of Time Out of Mind take you, and where it was really made.

Recorded in Miami with producer Daniel Lanois, the album that began Dylan's renaissance is one whose sound Dylan himself was dissatisfied with.

Key places

Recorded at Criteria Studio in Miami (1997)

Recording site Criteria Studios — Criteria Studio in Miami, Florida was booked for recording the songs Dylan had begun writing in the winter of 1996 at his Minnesota farm. The studio is the recording location linked to this album, and the sessions with producer Daniel Lanois are associated with Miami. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Time Out of Mind: the thirtieth studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released in September 1997 through Columbia Records
• Issued as a single CD and as a double studio album on vinyl
• The vinyl double album was Dylan's first since The Basement Tapes in 1975
• Atmospheric sound shaped by producer Daniel Lanois, a past Dylan collaborator
• Dylan later detailed Lanois's microphone placement and mixing approach in Chronicles: Volume One
• Dylan spoke positively of Lanois's production style but expressed dissatisfaction with this album's sound
• Dylan has self-produced his subsequent albums

Background

• For many fans and critics, the album marked Dylan's artistic comeback after 1980s struggles with his musical identity
• Under the Red Sky (1990), his previous album of original material, was a critical and commercial disappointment
• Two folk-cover albums, Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong, followed, along with MTV Unplugged
• No sign of fresh compositions appeared until 1996
• Dylan began writing a new string of songs in the winter of 1996 at his farm in Minnesota
• Criteria Studio in Miami, Florida was booked for recording
• In a televised interview with Charlie Rose, Lanois recalled Dylan spending many late nights working on lyrics

Recording

• Dylan demoed some songs in the studio, something he rarely did, with members of his touring band involved
• Lyric rewriting continued until January 1997, when the official album sessions began
• It was the second Dylan and Lanois collaboration, after Oh Mercy (1989)
• Dylan wanted early blues musicians such as Charley Patton, Little Walter, and Little Willie John to influence the sound
• New players included Cindy Cashdollar and Brian Blade, both hired by Lanois, plus Jim Keltner, Bob Britt, Duke Robillard, Augie Meyers, and Jim Dickinson
• A Sony C37A microphone was used, the same model used on Oh Mercy
• The sessions were far from disciplined, with two sets of players and two producers holding conflicting views

Cover

• The cover art is a blurry photo of Dylan in the recording studio, taken by Lanois

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau in The Village Voice: the hooks are Dylan's spectral vocals, a new take on ancient material
• Christgau said the band's quietude evokes the sleepy postjunk funk of Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard without the nearness of sex
• AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine: the songs are bitter and resigned, and Lanois bathes them in hazy, ominous sounds that often oppose Dylan's performances
• Cook Young on the NY Rock website called the songs superb and described the album as two records mixed together
• Elvis Costello: Time Out of Mind is fantastic, and it might be the best record Dylan has made

Reappraisal

• Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin, in a 2018 retrospective, wrote that the album would transform Dylan from seemingly obsolete icon to wise, wizened visionary almost overnight
• Currin also criticized Lanois's production for warping Dylan's voice and burying it in effects
• Michael Gray wrote that some tracks bury Dylan in echo so that the detailing of his voice cannot be heard
• Alex Ross wrote that the best songs are inexplicably funny, with a wicked glee in the performance

Records

• Widely hailed as Dylan's comeback album
• U.S. sales soon passed platinum and the album stayed on best-selling charts for 29 weeks
• UK sales passed gold
• Highest chart position worldwide in Norway, at No. 2
• At the 1998 Grammy Awards it won Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Folk Album, and, for Cold Irons Bound, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
• Ranked number 410 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2012)
• Voted album of the year in both Pazz & Jop's critics poll and Uncut magazine
• Included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
• Voted number 652 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (third edition, 2000)
• A 2021 Irish Times ranking of all 39 studio albums placed it first

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Shortly after completing the album, Dylan became seriously ill with near-fatal histoplasmosis, and his forthcoming tour was canceled
• Dylan blamed the illness on inhaling material that had been out on a river near where he lives
• After Dylan's May 1997 health scare, columnists including A. J. Weberman speculated the songs reflected his mortality, though all of them were completed before he was hospitalized
• At the 1998 Grammy ceremony Dylan mentioned Columbia Records chairman Don Ienner, who convinced him to release the album although Ienner's favorite songs were not on it
• The closing track Highlands runs 16 minutes and was at the time the longest composition ever released by Dylan
• Public Enemy referenced the album's title in their 2007 Dylan tribute song Long and Whining Road

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact