Time out of Mind
Encyclopedia
Time Out of Mind is the 30th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records
. It is his first double
studio album (on vinyl
) since 1970's Self Portrait
. It was also released as a single CD.
For fans and critics, the album marked Dylan's artistic comeback after he struggled with his musical identity throughout the 1980s; he hadn't released any original material for seven years, since Under the Red Sky
in 1990. Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Dylan's best albums, and it went on to win three Grammy Award
s, including Album of the Year
in 1998. Also, the album is ranked number 408 on Rolling Stone
s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
in 2003.
The album features a particularly atmospheric sound, the work of producer (and past Dylan collaborator) Daniel Lanois
, whose innovative work with carefully placed microphones and strategic mixing was detailed by Dylan in the first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles: Volume One
. Although Dylan has spoken positively of Lanois' production style (especially for his 1989 album Oh Mercy
), he expressed dissatisfaction with the sound of Time Out of Mind. Dylan has self-produced his subsequent albums.
Dylan's last album of original material had been 1990's Under the Red Sky
, a critical and commercial disappointment. Since then, he released two albums Good As I Been To You
and World Gone Wrong
of folk covers and MTV Unplugged
, a live album of older compositions; there had been no signs of any fresh compositions until 1996.
Dylan began to write a fresh string of songs during the winter of 1996 at his farm in Minnesota
, which would later make up Time Out of Mind. Criteria Studio in Miami, Florida was booked for recording. In a televised interview with Charlie Rose
, Lanois recalled Dylan talking about spending a lot of late nights working on this chapter of work. Once the words were completed, according to Lanois, Dylan considered the record to be finished saying, "you know whatever we decide to do with it, that's that." Lanois replied: "what's important is that it's written."
some of the songs in the studio, something he rarely did. Elements of Dylan's touring band were involved in these sessions. Dylan also used these loose, informal sessions to experiment with new ideas and arrangements. Dylan continued rewriting lyrics until January 1997, when the official album sessions began. It would mark the second collaboration between Dylan and Lanois, who had previously produced Dylan's 1989 release Oh Mercy and was known for his work with U2
, Emmylou Harris
, etc.
By now, new personnel hired for the album included slide guitarist Cindy Cashdollar and drummer Brian Blade
, both hired by Lanois. Dylan brought in Jim Keltner
, who was Dylan's tour drummer from 1979–1981. Dylan also hired Nashville
guitarist Bob Britt, Duke Robillard, Tex-Mex organist Augie Meyers
, and Memphis pianist Jim Dickinson
to play at the sessions.
According to Lanois, Dylan likes old 1950s records since "they had a natural depth of field which was not the result of a mixing technique." He used a Sony
C37A microphone, which was also used to record Dylan's album Oh Mercy. Various other devices were used to produce the album's distinctive sound. Lanois also devised a method to accommodate new or revised lyrics later in an original take, since this was often the case with Dylan.
With two different sets of players competing in performance and two producers with conflicting views on how to approach each song, the sessions were far from disciplined. Years later, when asked about Time Out of Mind, Dickinson replied, "I haven't been able to tell what's actually happening. I know they were listening to playbacks, I don't know whether they were trying to mix it or not! Twelve musicians playing live – three sets of drums,... it was unbelievable – two pedal steels, I've never even heard two pedal steels played at the same time before! ... I don't know man, I thought that much was overdoing it, quite frankly. "
Lanois admitted some difficulty in producing Dylan. "Well, you just never know what you're going to get. He's an eccentric man..." In a later interview, Lanois said Dylan and he used to go the parking lot to discuss the recording in absence of the band. Lanois elaborated their discussion on the song "Standing On The Doorway". "I said 'listen, I love "Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
". Can we steal that feel for this song?' And he'd say 'you think that'd work?' Then we'd sit on the fender of a truck, in this parking lot in Miami, and I'd often think, if people see this they won't believe it!" With Time Out of Mind, Lanois "produced perhaps the most artificial-sounding album in [Dylan]'s canon," says author Clinton Heylin
, who described the album as sounding "like a Lanois CV."
Dylan also talked about his difficulty at the recording sessions in an interview with Guitar World magazine. "I lose my inspiration in the studio real easy, and it's very difficult for me to think that I'm going to eclipse anything I've ever done before. I get bored easily, and my mission, which starts out wide, becomes very dim after a few failed takes and this and that." In the same interview Dylan cited Buddy Holly
as an influence during the recording sessions.
In relation to past works like Highway 61 Revisited
, Blood on the Tracks
, and Infidels
, Dylan said:
The first track on this album is "Love Sick", which was later also released as a single. Daniel Lanois later said about the recording process of this song, "We treated the voice almost like a harmonica when you over-drive it through a small guitar amplifier."
"Dirt Road Blues"
"Dirt Road Blues" was improvised from a country-blues riff of indeterminate origin. Lanois recalls, "He made me pull out the original cassette, sample sixteen bars and we all played over that [for the released version],..." Some critics criticized the performance for being 'mediocre' and for destroying the mood that was set up by the opening track. Michael Gray
writes, "‘Dirt Road Blues’, which
might under normal production circumstances be a heartening, even dexterous little rockabilly number, puts Dylan so far away and so tiny you just despair."
"Tryin' to Get to Heaven"
One of the most praised songs of Time Out of Mind is "Tryin' to Get to Heaven", largely because of Dylan's strong and clear vocals. It is also Dylan's only harmonica performance on the entire album.
"Not Dark Yet"
"Not Dark Yet", the second of two singles from the album, is arguably the most celebrated song on Time Out of Mind. "Not Dark Yet" was recorded at the early recording sessions, with "Not Dark Yet" featuring "a radically different feel", according to Lanois. "[The demo of 'Not Dark Yet'] was quicker and more stripped-down and [later during the formal studio sessions], he changed it into a civil war ballad."
This song is perhaps the clearest example of John Keats
' influence on Dylan's writing. In his book Dylan's Visions of Sin, Christopher Ricks
, a Boston University
professor of humanities, draws parallels between "Not Dark Yet" and the Keats' poem Ode to a Nightingale
. Broken down line for line, "similar turns of phrase, figures of speech, [and] felicities of rhyming" can be found throughout "Not Dark Yet" and the Ode. Ricks also argues that "there is a strong affinity with Keats in the way that in the song night colours, darkens, the whole atmosphere while never being spoken of," just as Keats used winter to color and darken the atmosphere in another poem he wrote, To Autumn. "Dylan's refrain or burden is 'It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.' He bears it and bares it beautifully, with exquisite precision of voice, dry humour, and resilience, all these in the cause of fortitude at life's going to be brought to an end by death." A promotional video of this song was released. Since, original song was later attached to the footage there was no actual performance.
"Cold Irons Bound"
The next song, "Cold Irons Bound", won the 1998 Grammy for best male rock vocal performance
. Oliver Trager describes the track as "biting" with "ricocheting guitar licks, rockabilly
drums, distorted organ, and [a] voice floating in a blimp of its own echo," in which "one can still hear, to paraphrase 'Visions of Johanna
,' the ghost of electricity howling from the bones of Dylan's face..." Michael Gray also describes this song in detail:
"Make You Feel My Love"
The song "Make You Feel My Love" was recorded twice under the title "To Make You Feel My Love
" by other artists: Billy Joel
recorded the song for his Greatest Hits Volume III collection; Garth Brooks
recorded it first for the Hope Floats
soundtrack. It was recorded under the original title by Adele
in her CD 19. This song was criticized for its lyrical inferiority by Robert Christgau
and Greg Kot
of Rolling Stone. In his review, Kot described the track as "a spare ballad undermined by greetingcard lyrics [that] breaks the album's spell". Opposing his view, Dylan critic Paul Williams
said that it was "refreshing" to his ears. He said: "...the ultimate effect is to strengthen the spell the whole record casts – thus musical and verbal break is exactly in place"
"Can't Wait"
The penultimate track of the album is "Can't Wait". An alternate version of this song is included in the album Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs. Greg Kot wrote, "On Time Out of Mind, [Dylan] paints a self-portrait with words and sound that pivots around a single line from the album's penultimate song, 'Can't Wait': "That's how it is when things disintegrate.""
"Highlands"
The closing track, the longest composition ever recorded by Dylan, the 16-minute "Highlands", most probably took its central motif ("My heart's in the highlands") from a poem by Robert Burns called "My heart's in the highlands" (published in 1790). In Jim Dickinson's account, "I remember, when we finished “Highlands” – there are two other versions of that, the one that made the record is the rundown, literally, you can hear the beat turn over, which I think Dylan liked. But, anyway, after we finished it, one of the managers came out, and he said, “Well, Bob, have you got a short version of that song?” And Dylan looked at him and said: “That was the short version.”"
The song describes a story of the narrator and his interactions with a waitress of a restaurant in Boston Town. Dylan mentions Neil Young
and Erica Jong
in this song. Though some critics such as Michael Gray and Paul Williams raved the composition, George Starostin pointed out its long length as the only flaw of Time Out of Mind. He said, "'Highlands' is just your ordinary decent blues stuff, and extending it in such a painful way could only be compensated with great lyrics, but the lyrics are in no way great.". Keith Phillips of The A. V. Club wrote: "The material here is generally slow and meditative, lending the work a consistent tone appropriately capped by the 16-minute "Highlands," a "Desolation Row
"-style experiment with an extended song form; it's further proof that the singer/songwriter is far from coasting."
The first song that did not was "Mississippi
", which was re-recorded for "Love and Theft". According to Dylan, "If you had heard the original recording of ['Mississippi'], you'd see in a second" why it was omitted and recut for Love and Theft. "The song was pretty much laid out intact melodically, lyrically and structurally, but Lanois didn't see it. Thought it was pedestrian. Took it down the Afro-polyrhythm route – multirhythm drumming, that sort of thing. Polyrhythm has its place, but it doesn't work for knife-like lyrics trying to convey majesty and heroism."
Dylan offered the song to Sheryl Crow
, who recorded it for The Globe Sessions
, released in 1998, before Dylan revisited it for "Love and Theft". Three outtakes (two versions on two general discs and one on the bonus disc) of this song from Time Out Of Mind sessions were included in the eighth installment of Dylan's legendary "official" bootleg
album The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs.
The second song, "Dreamin' of You
"', since released on Tell Tale Signs, was unveiled for the first time. "Dreamin' of you", released first as a free download on Dylan's website, had lyrics there were largely adapted into "Standing in the Doorway", though the melody and music are completely different. The music video which starred Harry Dean Stanton
premiered on Amazon.com
.
Two more songs, "Red River Shore" (which according to Jim Dickinson "the best song there was from the session"), and "Marching to the City", were left off the final cut. They were both included on Tell Tale Signs.
On past albums, some fans have criticized Dylan for some of the creative decisions made with his albums, particularly with song selection. Time Out of Mind was no different except this time the criticism came from colleagues who were disappointed to see their personal favorites left on the shelf. When Dylan accepted the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, he mentioned Columbia Records
chairman Don Ienner
, who "convinced me to put [the album] out, although his favorite songs aren't on it."
said "The hooks are Dylan's spectral vocals—just his latest ventriloquist's trick, a new take on ancient, yet so real, so ordained—and a band whose quietude evokes the sleepy postjunk funk of Clapton's
461 Ocean Boulevard
without the nearness of sex." On the NY Rock
website, critic Cook Young called the album's songs "superb". He described Time Out of Mind as "a curious album. It’s sort of two records mixed together. Half the songs compare to the introspective plaintive compositions that we witnessed on Blood on the Tracks. The other half are 12-bar blues ditties that often sound as if Bob is making ’em up as he goes."
Some critics criticized Lanois' production on Time Out of Mind. Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine
wrote, "...Time Out of Mind has a grittier foundation – by and large, the songs are bitter and resigned, and Dylan gives them appropriately anguished performances. Lanois bathes them in hazy, ominous sounds, which may suit the spirit of the lyrics, but are often in opposition to Dylan's performances." Michael Gray writes, "The sound is elsewhere unhelpful too on Time Out of Mind. Some tracks have Dylan so buried in echo that there is no hope of hearing the detailing in his voice that was once so central and diamondlike a part of his genius." George Starostin analyzed Dylan's vocal style on Time Out of Mind: "Bob has gone through yet another change of voice ... here's a strangely confident tone. Not that it's more energetic: indeed, he sounds even older than before, but this time it's a profound, rich, sad, and slightly sly bluesy kind of voice."
. His forthcoming tour was canceled, and Dylan spent most of June 1997 in excruciating pain. A potentially serious condition (caused by the fungal infection histoplasma capsulatum), it makes breathing very difficult. "It was something called histoplasmosis that came from just accidentally inhaling a bunch of stuff that was out on one of the rivers by where I live," said Dylan. "Maybe one month, or two to three days out of the year, the banks around the river get all mucky, and then the wind blows and a bunch of swirling mess is in the air. I happened to inhale a bunch of that. That's what made me sick. It went into my heart area, but it wasn't anything really attacking my heart." Dylan told Guitar World magazine.
Following Dylan's May 1997 health scare, a number of columnists, including Dylanologist A.J. Weberman, speculated that the songs on Time Out of Mind were inspired by an increased awareness of his own mortality. This, of course, was despite the fact that all of the songs were completed, recorded, and even mixed before he was hospitalized. In interviews following its release, Dylan, also, downplayed these speculations with much reserve.
Beside being ranked as number 408 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
, in both Pazz & Jop
's critics poll and Uncut magazine
, Time Out of Mind was voted as album of the year.
, Best Contemporary Folk Album
and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
for "Cold Irons Bound". At the awards ceremony Dylan performed the song "Love Sick". During the performance, Michael Portnoy
, an American multimedia artist and choreographer, ripped off his shirt, ran up next to Dylan, and started dancing and contorting spastically with the words "Soy Bomb" painted in black across his chest. Dylan glanced alarmingly at Portnoy, but carried on playing. Portnoy continued to dance for about 40 seconds, until security escorted him off stage.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. It is his first double
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
studio album (on vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
) since 1970's Self Portrait
Self Portrait (Bob Dylan album)
Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions...
. It was also released as a single CD.
For fans and critics, the album marked Dylan's artistic comeback after he struggled with his musical identity throughout the 1980s; he hadn't released any original material for seven years, since Under the Red Sky
Under the Red Sky
Under the Red Sky is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 27th studio album, released by Columbia Records in September 1990.The album was largely greeted as a strange and disappointing follow-up to 1989's critically acclaimed Oh Mercy...
in 1990. Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Dylan's best albums, and it went on to win three Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, including Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
in 1998. Also, the album is ranked number 408 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
in 2003.
The album features a particularly atmospheric sound, the work of producer (and past Dylan collaborator) Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
, whose innovative work with carefully placed microphones and strategic mixing was detailed by Dylan in the first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles: Volume One
Chronicles: Volume One
Chronicles, Volume One is the first part of Bob Dylan's planned 3-volume memoir. Published on October 5, 2004, by Simon & Schuster, the 304-page volume covers selected points from Dylan's long career. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list for hardcover nonfiction books...
. Although Dylan has spoken positively of Lanois' production style (especially for his 1989 album Oh Mercy
Oh Mercy
Oh Mercy is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 26th studio album, released by Columbia Records in September 1989.Produced by Daniel Lanois, it was hailed by critics as a triumph for Dylan, after a string of weaker-reviewed albums...
), he expressed dissatisfaction with the sound of Time Out of Mind. Dylan has self-produced his subsequent albums.
Background and writing
In April 1991, Dylan told interviewer Paul Zollo that "there was a time when the songs would come three or four at the same time, but those days are long gone...Once in a while, the odd song will come to me like a bulldog at the garden gate and demand to be written. But most of them are rejected out of my mind right away. You get caught up in wondering if anyone really needs to hear it. Maybe a person gets to the point where they have written enough songs. Let someone else write them."Dylan's last album of original material had been 1990's Under the Red Sky
Under the Red Sky
Under the Red Sky is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 27th studio album, released by Columbia Records in September 1990.The album was largely greeted as a strange and disappointing follow-up to 1989's critically acclaimed Oh Mercy...
, a critical and commercial disappointment. Since then, he released two albums Good As I Been To You
Good as I Been to You
Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...
and World Gone Wrong
World Gone Wrong
World Gone Wrong is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 29th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1993.It was Dylan's second consecutive collection of only traditional folk songs, performed acoustically with guitar and harmonica...
of folk covers and MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged (Bob Dylan album)
MTV Unplugged is a live album by Bob Dylan, released in 1995 by Columbia Records . It documents Dylan's appearance on the then-highly popular MTV Unplugged television series, recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York on November 17, 1994 and November 18, 1994...
, a live album of older compositions; there had been no signs of any fresh compositions until 1996.
Dylan began to write a fresh string of songs during the winter of 1996 at his farm in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, which would later make up Time Out of Mind. Criteria Studio in Miami, Florida was booked for recording. In a televised interview with Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
, Lanois recalled Dylan talking about spending a lot of late nights working on this chapter of work. Once the words were completed, according to Lanois, Dylan considered the record to be finished saying, "you know whatever we decide to do with it, that's that." Lanois replied: "what's important is that it's written."
Recording sessions
Dylan demoedDemo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
some of the songs in the studio, something he rarely did. Elements of Dylan's touring band were involved in these sessions. Dylan also used these loose, informal sessions to experiment with new ideas and arrangements. Dylan continued rewriting lyrics until January 1997, when the official album sessions began. It would mark the second collaboration between Dylan and Lanois, who had previously produced Dylan's 1989 release Oh Mercy and was known for his work with U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, etc.
By now, new personnel hired for the album included slide guitarist Cindy Cashdollar and drummer Brian Blade
Brian Blade
Brian Blade in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.-Early years:...
, both hired by Lanois. Dylan brought in Jim Keltner
Jim Keltner
James Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
, who was Dylan's tour drummer from 1979–1981. Dylan also hired Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
guitarist Bob Britt, Duke Robillard, Tex-Mex organist Augie Meyers
Augie Meyers
August "Augie" Meyers is an American musician. He is best known as keyboard-player with the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados.-History:...
, and Memphis pianist Jim Dickinson
Jim Dickinson
James Luther "Jim" Dickinson was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the Memphis based band, Mudboy & The Neutrons.- Biography :...
to play at the sessions.
According to Lanois, Dylan likes old 1950s records since "they had a natural depth of field which was not the result of a mixing technique." He used a Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
C37A microphone, which was also used to record Dylan's album Oh Mercy. Various other devices were used to produce the album's distinctive sound. Lanois also devised a method to accommodate new or revised lyrics later in an original take, since this was often the case with Dylan.
With two different sets of players competing in performance and two producers with conflicting views on how to approach each song, the sessions were far from disciplined. Years later, when asked about Time Out of Mind, Dickinson replied, "I haven't been able to tell what's actually happening. I know they were listening to playbacks, I don't know whether they were trying to mix it or not! Twelve musicians playing live – three sets of drums,... it was unbelievable – two pedal steels, I've never even heard two pedal steels played at the same time before! ... I don't know man, I thought that much was overdoing it, quite frankly. "
Lanois admitted some difficulty in producing Dylan. "Well, you just never know what you're going to get. He's an eccentric man..." In a later interview, Lanois said Dylan and he used to go the parking lot to discuss the recording in absence of the band. Lanois elaborated their discussion on the song "Standing On The Doorway". "I said 'listen, I love "Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
"Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is the closing song on the Bob Dylan album Blonde on Blonde, which was released in 1966.-History of the song:...
". Can we steal that feel for this song?' And he'd say 'you think that'd work?' Then we'd sit on the fender of a truck, in this parking lot in Miami, and I'd often think, if people see this they won't believe it!" With Time Out of Mind, Lanois "produced perhaps the most artificial-sounding album in [Dylan]'s canon," says author Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan.- Education :...
, who described the album as sounding "like a Lanois CV."
Dylan also talked about his difficulty at the recording sessions in an interview with Guitar World magazine. "I lose my inspiration in the studio real easy, and it's very difficult for me to think that I'm going to eclipse anything I've ever done before. I get bored easily, and my mission, which starts out wide, becomes very dim after a few failed takes and this and that." In the same interview Dylan cited Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
as an influence during the recording sessions.
In relation to past works like Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
, Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks is Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records....
, and Infidels
Infidels
Infidels is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 22nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1983.Produced by Mark Knopfler and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity and three evangelical, gospel records...
, Dylan said:
Songs
"Love Sick"The first track on this album is "Love Sick", which was later also released as a single. Daniel Lanois later said about the recording process of this song, "We treated the voice almost like a harmonica when you over-drive it through a small guitar amplifier."
"Dirt Road Blues"
"Dirt Road Blues" was improvised from a country-blues riff of indeterminate origin. Lanois recalls, "He made me pull out the original cassette, sample sixteen bars and we all played over that [for the released version],..." Some critics criticized the performance for being 'mediocre' and for destroying the mood that was set up by the opening track. Michael Gray
Michael Gray (author)
Michael Gray is a British author who has written extensively about popular music.Gray grew up on Merseyside, attended Birkenhead School, and read History and English Literature at the University of York. Gray subsequently lived and worked in North Devon, Birmingham, West Malvern, London and North...
writes, "‘Dirt Road Blues’, which
might under normal production circumstances be a heartening, even dexterous little rockabilly number, puts Dylan so far away and so tiny you just despair."
"Tryin' to Get to Heaven"
One of the most praised songs of Time Out of Mind is "Tryin' to Get to Heaven", largely because of Dylan's strong and clear vocals. It is also Dylan's only harmonica performance on the entire album.
"Not Dark Yet"
"Not Dark Yet", the second of two singles from the album, is arguably the most celebrated song on Time Out of Mind. "Not Dark Yet" was recorded at the early recording sessions, with "Not Dark Yet" featuring "a radically different feel", according to Lanois. "[The demo of 'Not Dark Yet'] was quicker and more stripped-down and [later during the formal studio sessions], he changed it into a civil war ballad."
This song is perhaps the clearest example of John Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
' influence on Dylan's writing. In his book Dylan's Visions of Sin, Christopher Ricks
Christopher Ricks
Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks, FBA is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University and Co-Director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University, and was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford from 2004...
, a Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
professor of humanities, draws parallels between "Not Dark Yet" and the Keats' poem Ode to a Nightingale
Ode to a Nightingale
"Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written in May 1819 in either the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, or, as according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum tree in the garden of Keats House, Hampstead, London. According to Brown, a nightingale had built its nest...
. Broken down line for line, "similar turns of phrase, figures of speech, [and] felicities of rhyming" can be found throughout "Not Dark Yet" and the Ode. Ricks also argues that "there is a strong affinity with Keats in the way that in the song night colours, darkens, the whole atmosphere while never being spoken of," just as Keats used winter to color and darken the atmosphere in another poem he wrote, To Autumn. "Dylan's refrain or burden is 'It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.' He bears it and bares it beautifully, with exquisite precision of voice, dry humour, and resilience, all these in the cause of fortitude at life's going to be brought to an end by death." A promotional video of this song was released. Since, original song was later attached to the footage there was no actual performance.
"Cold Irons Bound"
The next song, "Cold Irons Bound", won the 1998 Grammy for best male rock vocal performance
Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to male recording artists for works containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre...
. Oliver Trager describes the track as "biting" with "ricocheting guitar licks, rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
drums, distorted organ, and [a] voice floating in a blimp of its own echo," in which "one can still hear, to paraphrase 'Visions of Johanna
Visions of Johanna
"Visions of Johanna" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. Dylan first recorded the song in New York City in November 1965, under the working title of "Freeze Out", but was dissatisfied with the results...
,' the ghost of electricity howling from the bones of Dylan's face..." Michael Gray also describes this song in detail:
"Make You Feel My Love"
The song "Make You Feel My Love" was recorded twice under the title "To Make You Feel My Love
To Make You Feel My Love
"Make You Feel My Love", also known as "To Make You Feel My Love" or "Just to Make You Feel My Love", is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. It appeared on his 1997 album Time Out of Mind...
" by other artists: Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
recorded the song for his Greatest Hits Volume III collection; Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
recorded it first for the Hope Floats
Hope Floats
Hope Floats is a 1998 American romantic drama film directed by Forest Whitaker, and starring Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr. and Gena Rowlands....
soundtrack. It was recorded under the original title by Adele
Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...
in her CD 19. This song was criticized for its lyrical inferiority by Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
and Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
of Rolling Stone. In his review, Kot described the track as "a spare ballad undermined by greetingcard lyrics [that] breaks the album's spell". Opposing his view, Dylan critic Paul Williams
Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)
Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...
said that it was "refreshing" to his ears. He said: "...the ultimate effect is to strengthen the spell the whole record casts – thus musical and verbal break is exactly in place"
"Can't Wait"
The penultimate track of the album is "Can't Wait". An alternate version of this song is included in the album Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs. Greg Kot wrote, "On Time Out of Mind, [Dylan] paints a self-portrait with words and sound that pivots around a single line from the album's penultimate song, 'Can't Wait': "That's how it is when things disintegrate.""
"Highlands"
The closing track, the longest composition ever recorded by Dylan, the 16-minute "Highlands", most probably took its central motif ("My heart's in the highlands") from a poem by Robert Burns called "My heart's in the highlands" (published in 1790). In Jim Dickinson's account, "I remember, when we finished “Highlands” – there are two other versions of that, the one that made the record is the rundown, literally, you can hear the beat turn over, which I think Dylan liked. But, anyway, after we finished it, one of the managers came out, and he said, “Well, Bob, have you got a short version of that song?” And Dylan looked at him and said: “That was the short version.”"
The song describes a story of the narrator and his interactions with a waitress of a restaurant in Boston Town. Dylan mentions Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and Erica Jong
Erica Jong
Erica Jong is an American author and teacher best known for her fiction and poetry.-Career:A 1963 graduate of Barnard College, and with an M.A...
in this song. Though some critics such as Michael Gray and Paul Williams raved the composition, George Starostin pointed out its long length as the only flaw of Time Out of Mind. He said, "'Highlands' is just your ordinary decent blues stuff, and extending it in such a painful way could only be compensated with great lyrics, but the lyrics are in no way great.". Keith Phillips of The A. V. Club wrote: "The material here is generally slow and meditative, lending the work a consistent tone appropriately capped by the 16-minute "Highlands," a "Desolation Row
Desolation Row
"Desolation Row" is a 1965 song written and sung by Bob Dylan. It was recorded on August 4, 1965, and was released as the closing track of Dylan's sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited...
"-style experiment with an extended song form; it's further proof that the singer/songwriter is far from coasting."
Outtakes
Unlike past sessions, none of the outtakes of Time Out of Mind sessions have circulated among collectors, something unprecedented for a Bob Dylan album. Fifteen different songs were recorded for Time Out of Mind, of which eleven would make the final cut.The first song that did not was "Mississippi
Mississippi (Bob Dylan song)
"Mississippi" is the second song on Bob Dylan's 2001 album "Love and Theft". The song was originally recorded during the Time Out of Mind sessions, but was ultimately left off the album; Dylan rerecorded the song for "Love and Theft" in May 2001...
", which was re-recorded for "Love and Theft". According to Dylan, "If you had heard the original recording of ['Mississippi'], you'd see in a second" why it was omitted and recut for Love and Theft. "The song was pretty much laid out intact melodically, lyrically and structurally, but Lanois didn't see it. Thought it was pedestrian. Took it down the Afro-polyrhythm route – multirhythm drumming, that sort of thing. Polyrhythm has its place, but it doesn't work for knife-like lyrics trying to convey majesty and heroism."
Dylan offered the song to Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, who recorded it for The Globe Sessions
The Globe Sessions
The Globe Sessions is the third studio album by American singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, released in 1998 . It was nominated for Album of the Year, Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Non-Classical Album at the 1999 Grammys, winning the latter two awards...
, released in 1998, before Dylan revisited it for "Love and Theft". Three outtakes (two versions on two general discs and one on the bonus disc) of this song from Time Out Of Mind sessions were included in the eighth installment of Dylan's legendary "official" bootleg
The Bootleg Series
The Bootleg Series is a collection of albums by Bob Dylan, all featuring rare and unreleased material. To date, nine volumes have been released: the first three volumes as a contiguous set; Vol. 4 Live 1966; Vol. 5 Live 1975; Vol. 6 Live 1964; Vol. 7 No Direction Home; Vol. 8 Tell Tale Signs, and...
album The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs.
The second song, "Dreamin' of You
Dreamin' of you (Bob Dylan song)
"Dreamin' of You" is a song by Bob Dylan recorded during the sessions for Time Out Of Mind but not released until 2008. The song was featured on Dylan's Tell Tale Signs album, the eighth installment of Dylan's legendary bootleg series. Prior to its official release members of the Bob Dylan...
"', since released on Tell Tale Signs, was unveiled for the first time. "Dreamin' of you", released first as a free download on Dylan's website, had lyrics there were largely adapted into "Standing in the Doorway", though the melody and music are completely different. The music video which starred Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton is an American actor, musician, and singer. Stanton's career has spanned over fifty years, which has seen him star in such films as Paris, Texas, Kelly's Heroes, Dillinger, Alien, Repo Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Green Mile and The Pledge...
premiered on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
Two more songs, "Red River Shore" (which according to Jim Dickinson "the best song there was from the session"), and "Marching to the City", were left off the final cut. They were both included on Tell Tale Signs.
On past albums, some fans have criticized Dylan for some of the creative decisions made with his albums, particularly with song selection. Time Out of Mind was no different except this time the criticism came from colleagues who were disappointed to see their personal favorites left on the shelf. When Dylan accepted the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, he mentioned Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
chairman Don Ienner
Don Ienner
Don Ienner was the Chairman of the Sony Music Label Group during first half of the decade of the 2000s. He worked closely with his predecessor Tommy Mottola and was partially responsible for the breakthrough of Mariah Carey....
, who "convinced me to put [the album] out, although his favorite songs aren't on it."
Commercial reception
Time Out of Mind was a commercial success for Dylan. It was widely hailed as Dylan's comeback album and U.S. sale soon passed platinum and stayed on best-selling charts for 29 weeks. In UK the sales passed gold. The album, in other countries also, managed to secure positions on best-selling charts and remained there for several weeks.Critical reception
Time Out of Mind got mixed to positive reviews from critics. Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
said "The hooks are Dylan's spectral vocals—just his latest ventriloquist's trick, a new take on ancient, yet so real, so ordained—and a band whose quietude evokes the sleepy postjunk funk of Clapton's
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
461 Ocean Boulevard
461 Ocean Boulevard
461 Ocean Boulevard is the second studio album by blues-rock musician Eric Clapton, released in July 1974 on the RSO label after the success of "I Shot the Sheriff"....
without the nearness of sex." On the NY Rock
NY Rock
NY Rock is a music website that covers the New York City music scene. Founded in 1996, it contains music and movie news, interviews, concert reviews, a gig guide, feature articles and blogs....
website, critic Cook Young called the album's songs "superb". He described Time Out of Mind as "a curious album. It’s sort of two records mixed together. Half the songs compare to the introspective plaintive compositions that we witnessed on Blood on the Tracks. The other half are 12-bar blues ditties that often sound as if Bob is making ’em up as he goes."
Some critics criticized Lanois' production on Time Out of Mind. Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
wrote, "...Time Out of Mind has a grittier foundation – by and large, the songs are bitter and resigned, and Dylan gives them appropriately anguished performances. Lanois bathes them in hazy, ominous sounds, which may suit the spirit of the lyrics, but are often in opposition to Dylan's performances." Michael Gray writes, "The sound is elsewhere unhelpful too on Time Out of Mind. Some tracks have Dylan so buried in echo that there is no hope of hearing the detailing in his voice that was once so central and diamondlike a part of his genius." George Starostin analyzed Dylan's vocal style on Time Out of Mind: "Bob has gone through yet another change of voice ... here's a strangely confident tone. Not that it's more energetic: indeed, he sounds even older than before, but this time it's a profound, rich, sad, and slightly sly bluesy kind of voice."
Aftermath
Shortly after completing the album, Dylan became seriously ill with near-fatal histoplasmosisHistoplasmosis
Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. Symptoms of this infection vary greatly, but the disease primarily affects the lungs...
. His forthcoming tour was canceled, and Dylan spent most of June 1997 in excruciating pain. A potentially serious condition (caused by the fungal infection histoplasma capsulatum), it makes breathing very difficult. "It was something called histoplasmosis that came from just accidentally inhaling a bunch of stuff that was out on one of the rivers by where I live," said Dylan. "Maybe one month, or two to three days out of the year, the banks around the river get all mucky, and then the wind blows and a bunch of swirling mess is in the air. I happened to inhale a bunch of that. That's what made me sick. It went into my heart area, but it wasn't anything really attacking my heart." Dylan told Guitar World magazine.
Following Dylan's May 1997 health scare, a number of columnists, including Dylanologist A.J. Weberman, speculated that the songs on Time Out of Mind were inspired by an increased awareness of his own mortality. This, of course, was despite the fact that all of the songs were completed, recorded, and even mixed before he was hospitalized. In interviews following its release, Dylan, also, downplayed these speculations with much reserve.
Beside being ranked as number 408 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
, in both Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
's critics poll and Uncut magazine
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
, Time Out of Mind was voted as album of the year.
40th Grammy Awards
Time Out of Mind won Grammies at 1998 Grammy Awards in the categories of Album of the YearGrammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, Best Contemporary Folk Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1993 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. In 2007, this category was renamed Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album...
and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to male recording artists for works containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre...
for "Cold Irons Bound". At the awards ceremony Dylan performed the song "Love Sick". During the performance, Michael Portnoy
Michael Portnoy
Michael Portnoy is an American multimedia artist, choreographer, musician and actor. He calls himself a "Director of Behavior".-Performance artist:...
, an American multimedia artist and choreographer, ripped off his shirt, ran up next to Dylan, and started dancing and contorting spastically with the words "Soy Bomb" painted in black across his chest. Dylan glanced alarmingly at Portnoy, but carried on playing. Portnoy continued to dance for about 40 seconds, until security escorted him off stage.
Track listing
Musicians
- Bucky BaxterBucky BaxterWilliam "Bucky" Baxter is an American multi-instrumentalist from New Jersey. He was born in Melbourne, Florida. He has appeared on various albums by artists such as Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, R.E.M., and Joe Henry....
– acoustic guitar, pedal steel (3,5,7,8) - Brian BladeBrian BladeBrian Blade in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.-Early years:...
– drums (1,3,4,6,7,10) - Robert Britt – Martin acoustic, Fender Stratocaster (3,6,7,8)
- Cindy Cashdollar – slide guitar (3,5,7)
- Jim DickinsonJim DickinsonJames Luther "Jim" Dickinson was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the Memphis based band, Mudboy & The Neutrons.- Biography :...
– keyboards, Wurlitzer electric piano, pump organ (1,2,4,5,6,7,10,11) - Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
– guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals - Tony GarnierTony Garnier (musician)Tony Garnier is an American bassist , best known as an accompanist to Bob Dylan, with whom he has played since 1989...
– electric bass, acoustic upright bass - Jim KeltnerJim KeltnerJames Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
– drums (1,3,4,5,6,7,10) - David KemperDavid KemperDavid Kemper is a drummer. He was a long-time member of both the Jerry Garcia Band and Bob Dylan's band . He was with the Jerry Garcia Band for the last eleven years of Garcia's life...
– drums on "Cold Irons Bound" - Daniel LanoisDaniel LanoisDaniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
– guitar, mando-guitar, Firebird, Martin 0018, Gretsch gold top, rhythm, lead - Tony Mangurian – percussion (3,4,10,11)
- Augie MeyersAugie MeyersAugust "Augie" Meyers is an American musician. He is best known as keyboard-player with the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados.-History:...
– Vox organ combo, Hammond B3 organ, accordion - Duke RobillardDuke RobillardMichael John "Duke" Robillard is an American blues musician.After playing in various bands and working for the Guild Guitar Company, he co-founded the band Roomful of Blues with pianist Al Copley in 1967. He has also been a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds which included Kim Wilson, replacing...
– guitar, electric l5 Gibson (4,5,10) - Winston Watson – drums on "Dirt Road Blues"
Sound System
- Chris Carrol – assistant engineer
- Joe Gastwirt – mastering engineer
- Mark HowardMark Howard (producer)Mark Howard is a Canadian record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with many artistsincluding Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Marianne Faithful, Emmylou Harris, U2, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M...
– engineer
Others
- Geoff Gans – art direction
- Daniel Lanois – photography
- Susie Q. – photography
- Mark Seliger – photography
- James Wright – Wardrobe
Charts
| Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
24 |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
12 |
| Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
11 |
| Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... |
28 |
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
15 |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
6 |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
28 |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
11 |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
2 |
| Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
36 |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
5 |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
20 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
10 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
10 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
Gold |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Platinum |