Time Out of Mind was a then-late-career triumph, hailed as an instant masterpiece and the 56-year-old Dylan's best album since 1975's Blood on the Tracks. Its reputation was further bolstered when follow-ups "Love and Theft" (2001) and Modern Times (2006) turned out to be just as good. Dylan hadn't experienced this sort of creative run since the '60s. (UCR)
UCR took a look back at the album a quarter century later, and one of the first things noticed is that the trajectory from 1993's World Gone Wrong to Time Out of Mind is more steady and linear than initially noted. The stripped-down blues and folk covers on World Gone Wrong weren't too far removed from the new originals, mined from a similar territory, on Dylan's 30th album; they were just formed from a more introspective perspective with a full band and better production.
Before the LP's release, but after the early 1997 sessions wrapped, Dylan was diagnosed with a serious heart infection. He was, it seemed, knockin' on heaven's door. Despite the timeline, a sense of his mortality still found its way into the sessions, which is even more evident in the five-disc, 60-track Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17, a summation of the era pieced together from early versions, outtakes, live songs and a new remix of the original 1997 album.
Ahead of the release of Bob Dylan’s Fragments — the 17th installment of The Bootleg Series, focusing on his Time Out of Mind sessions — the singer has unearthed “Version One” of that album’s “Not Dark Yet.”
Unlike its released counterpart, the first run-through of the track — recorded Jan. 11, 1997 at Miami’s Criteria Studios — has a looser, quicker and more upbeat feel than what would become a Time Out of Mind slow-burner.
Among the other unreleased tracks featured on Fragments are four songs — the traditional “The Water Is Wide,” “Dreamin’ of You,” “Red River Shore,” and “Til I Fell in Love With You” — that Dylan and his band at the time laid down at Teatro studio in Oxnard, California in 1996 before recording shifted to Miami’s Criteria Studios the following year.
As promised, the next installment of Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his 1997 masterpiece Time Out of Mind. (Rolling Stone- Bob Dylan.Com)
The complete Bob Dylan – Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol.17 will be available as a deluxe box set in 5CD and 10LP 12″ vinyl editions. Also available, a two-disc/4LP standard edition of Fragments which includes the Time Out of Mind 2022 remix disc and a disc of twelve select Outtakes and Alternates highlights. Digital versions of the complete (five disc) and highlights (two disc) editions of Bob Dylan – Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol.17 will be available on all Streaming Services on Friday, January 27.
Ahead of Fragments’ Jan. 27 release, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings have shared the unreleased “Love Sick (Version 2),” complete with a visual featuring Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for the Soy Bomb’d classic:
Bob Dylan – Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol.17
Disc One – Time Out of Mind (2022 Remix)
1. Love Sick
2. Dirt Road Blues
3. Standing in the Doorway
4. Million Miles
5. Tryin’ to Get to Heaven
6. ‘Til I Fell in Love with You
7. Not Dark Yet
8. Cold Irons Bound
9. Make You Feel My Love
10. Can’t Wait
11. Highlands
Disc Two – Outtakes and Alternates
1. The Water is Wide (8/19/96, Teatro)
2. Dreamin’ of You (10/1/96, Teatro)
3. Red River Shore – version 1 (9/26/96, Teatro)
4. Love Sick – version 1 (1/14/97, Criteria Studios)
5. ‘Til I Fell in Love with You – version 1 (10/3/96, Teatro)
6. Not Dark Yet – version 1 (1/11/97, Criteria Studios)
7. Can’t Wait – version 1 (1/21/97, Criteria Studios)
8. Dirt Road Blues – version 1 (1/12/97, Criteria Studios)
9. Mississippi – version 1 (1/11/97, Criteria Studios)
10. ‘Til I Fell in Love with You – version 2 (1/16/97, Criteria Studios)
11. Standing in the Doorway – version 1 (1/13/97, Criteria Studios)
12. Tryin’ to Get to Heaven – version 1 (1/18/97, Criteria Studios)
13. Cold Irons Bound (1/9/97, Criteria Studios)
Disc Three – Outtakes and Alternates
1. Love Sick – version 2 (1/14/97, Criteria Studios)
2. Dirt Road Blues – version 2 (1/20/97, Criteria Studios)
3. Can’t Wait – version 2 (1/14/97, Criteria Studios)
4. Red River Shore – version 2 (1/19/97, Criteria Studios)
5. Marchin’ to the City (1/5/97, Criteria Studios)
6. Make You Feel My Love – take 1 (1/5/97, Criteria Studios)
7. Mississippi – version 2 (1/11/97, Criteria Studios)
8. Standing in the Doorway – version 2 (1/13/97, Criteria Studios)
9. ‘Til I Fell in Love with You – version 3 (1/16/97, Criteria Studios)
10. Not Dark Yet – version 2 (1/18/97, Criteria Studios)
11. Tryin’ to Get to Heaven – version 2 (1/12/97, Criteria Studios)
12. Highlands (1/16/97, Criteria Studios)
Disc Four – Live (1998-2001)
1. Love Sick (6/24/98, Birmingham, England)
2. Can’t Wait (2/6/99, Nashville, Tennessee)
3. Standing In The Doorway (10/6/00, London, England)
4. Million Miles (1/31/98, Atlantic City, New Jersey)
5. Tryin’ to Get to Heaven (9/20/00, Birmingham, England)
6. ‘Til I Fell in Love with You (4/5/98, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
7. Not Dark Yet (9/22/00, Sheffield, England)
8. Cold Irons Bound (5/19/00, Oslo, Norway)
9. Make You Feel My Love (5/21/98, Los Angeles, California)
Previously released on the “Things Have Changed” maxi-single
10. Can’t Wait (5/19/00, Oslo, Norway)
11. Mississippi (11/15/01, Washington, D.C.)
12. Highlands (3/24/01, Newcastle, Australia)
Disc Five – Bonus Disc (Previously Released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006)
1. Dreamin’ of You – Tell Tale Signs (10/1/96, Teatro)
2. Red River Shore – Tell Tale Signs, version 1 (1/19/97, Criteria Studios)
3. Red River Shore – Tell Tale Signs, version 2 (1/8/97, Criteria Studios)
4. Mississippi – Tell Tale Signs, version 1 (9/96, Teatro)
5. Mississippi – Tell Tale Signs, version 3 (1/17/97, Criteria Studios)
6. Mississippi – Tell Tale Signs, version 2 (1/17/97, Criteria Studios)
7. Marchin’ to the City – Tell Tale Signs, version 1 (1/5/97, Criteria Studios)
8. Marchin’ to the City – Tell Tale Signs, version 2 (1/6/97, Criteria Studios)
9. Can’t Wait – Tell Tale Signs, version 1 (10/1/96, Teatro)
10. Can’t Wait – Tell Tale Signs, version 2 (1/5/97, Criteria Studios)
11. Cold Irons Bound – Tell Tale Signs, live (6/11/04, Bonnaroo Music Festival)
12. Tryin’ to Get to Heaven – Tell Tale Signs, live (10/5/00, London, England)
