THE BEAT
Another side of Bob Dylan's ``Time Out of Mind"
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Oct. 2, 1997) - Last week, this column focused on the subject matter of Bob Dylan's new album, "Time Out of Mind," destined to be considered a landmark album in a landmark career in rock music. This week, with the arrival of the CD version of "Time Out of Mind" (Columbia), we take a look at the music and performance as captured on the recording.
Dylan's albums have always boasted their own, individualistic sound, ranging from the Woody Guthrie-like drawl of the early recordings to the plugged-in, "thin wild mercury" sound of mid-'60s Dylan to the country stylings of "Nashville Skyline" to the gospel choruses of "Saved." Perhaps no artist has had as many DIFFERENT sounds as Bob Dylan, all of which have worked with varying degrees of success to support his compositions.
Perhaps no sound has been as successful at capturing the mood of the songs as that of "Time Out of Mind." From the opening line of "Love Sick," when Dylan sings, "I'm walking through streets that are dead," his singing, the music and the production all conspire to underline and highlight the meaning of Dylan's songs.
Some people have never cozied to Dylan's vocals, and nothing on "Time Out of Mind" will change their minds. In fact, Dylan's voice has never sounded "worse" -- and I use the term loosely, in its commonly used and ultimately misleading sense -- than it does here.
Dylan's voice is gritty, broken and so shattered it seems able to go in two directions at once. Its rough, ugly texture spits out shards of glass, venom and heartbreak with equal aplomb. In its ability to conjure up meaning via pure sound -- meaning to match his blistering tales of degradation and depression -- and with Dylan's uncanny knack for unexpected phrasing -- always his strongest point as a vocalist, making for optimum tension-building -- his voice is, in a word, a masterful thing of unparalleled beauty.
In its sheer power of expression and emotion, "Time Out of Mind" probably contains Dylan's greatest work as a vocalist since the hyperkinetic whines of his mid-'60s rock 'n' roll epics. Here he is a fully- present narrator, in the moment, singing in front of the mix directly to the listener, telling stories about what he sees and testifying to how he feels.
He does so, as he always has, in resonant couplets that stick in the mind -- "Don't know if I saw you/If I would kiss you or kill you;" "You told yourself a lie/That's all right mama, I told myself one, too;" "When you think that you've lost everything, you find out you can always lose a little more." Listen to the way his voice breaks on this last phrase in the song "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," and how he stretches out the word "lose." The medium is indeed the message. Michael Bolton this ain't.
The production on the album, by Daniel Lanois, matches the spirit of Dylan's vocals and songs. It is raw, bluesy and organic, but without sacrificing beauty and accuracy of phrasing. This is not one of Lanois' efforts wherein the artist takes a back seat to the sonic landscape, as happened to varying degrees on Lanois' productions of Emmylou Harris, the Neville Brothers and Dylan himself, on "Oh Mercy."
Rather, Lanois has surrounded Dylan with a rootsy, musical cast of characters that harken back to the best of the mid-'60s session players that helped create masterworks like "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde." The album boasts an organ-drenched sound punctuated by crunchy guitar chords and sinuous leads. The players include Duke Robillard, guitarist for Roomful of Blues and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Cindy Cashdollar, slide guitarist for Asleep at the Wheel, organist Augie Myers of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornadoes, and veteran Memphis keyboardist Jim Dickinson. Drumming duty is shared by Traveling Wilburys veteran Jim Keltner and Joshua Redman sideman Brian Blade, who is undoubtedly responsible for the swinging, jazzy lilt that underpins some of the bluesier compositions. Lanois and Dylan also handle guitar duty on all songs, and members of Dylan's road band, including Tony Garnier, who handles bass on all songs, are scattered throughout the 11 tracks on the album.
All together, the sum result is that of a skilled roadhouse band. The album was recorded live in the studio, and you can hear each number take shape -- virtually every track begins with the instrumentalists finding a spontaneous groove and running with it, heightening the existential presence of the performance.
The players are equally adept at providing the stately, elegant background to "Not Dark Yet" -- the one tune on the album destined to be considered a Dylan classic -- and the dark, dirty follow-up, "Cold Irons Bound," one of Dylan's grittiest, scariest, hardest-rocking songs ever.
In the end, a great Dylan album transcends mere rock 'n' roll. And "Time Out of Mind" is a sad reminder of how the gauntlet laid down by Dylan with his mid-'60s work -- the possibility that rock music could stand on an equal footing with the best of our nation's literary output -- has gone sadly unchallenged.
With a few exceptions -- an occasional album by Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed -- no one has created a work of artistic, literary and musical scope to match Dylan at his best. It happens to be our good fortune that all these years later, Dylan is still finding new and innovative ways to meet that original challenge, and stretch its limits. What a great gift for the New Year.
Concert watch
Speaking of time out of mind, you are forgiven if you are feeling a bit woozy about what time it is. Is it 1997 or 1977? You can't tell from this fall's big-name tour lineup, which in addition to the Jurassic Rolling Stones (Foxboro Stadium, 10/21-22), includes Fleetwood Mac (Pepsi Arena, 11/26), Elton John (Mullins Center, 11/5), Yes (Palace Theatre, Albany, 10/21), Steve Winwood (Paramount, Springfield, 10/15) and Grand Funk Railroad (Palace, 10/26). Does anybody REALLY know what time it is? (Chicago/Beach Boys, Pepsi Arena, 10/31)....Husband-and-wife folk-rock duo The Kennedys are at Pauly's Hotel in Albany tomorrow night (Friday, Oct. 3), while Jim's Big Ego is at the Fire and Water in Northampton....
Northampton singer-songwriter Erica Wheeler plays for free at CC's Cafe in the campus center at the so-called Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams on Saturday (Oct. 4) at 9....
Attention jazz fans: Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter join forces Friday night (Oct. 3) at the Troy (N.Y.) Savings Bank Music Hall, followed on Saturday night by the acoustic-fusion trio of Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Mike Marshall....
Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter performs at the Academy of Music in Northampton on Sunday, Oct. 12....
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Oct. 2, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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