In anticipation of Bootlegs Volume 17

"Time Out of Mind" was a life altering event for me. The day after my 19^th birthday (April 28, 1996) I saw my first Dylan concert at a relatively small venue in Toronto, The Masonic Temple, where he played tribute to the recently deceased Jerry Garcia. I was just getting into folky and acoustic based music, and was deep into the first three Dylan albums. The first time I heard "Lovesick", blasting on the stereo in the back seat of my brother's car, it blew my mind. I quickly recognised the entire album as a masterpiece. Every song on the album was excellent, with the possible exception of "Make You Feel My Love", which was perhaps a bit too saccharin and also had the dubious distinction of having already been a hit for supremely uncool New Country star Garth Brooks. Dylan's cool factor, on the other hand, went through the roof for me. He was eminently and majestically relevant again. His lyrics, darker than ever and highly potent, resonated with my own experiences of rejection and frustration in relationships. Seeing Dylan touring for "Time Out Of Mind", at the top of his game, was one of the peak concert experiences of my lifetime. His delivery was so dry and understated, his voice better than ever, never phrasing the way it is on the album, and therefore providing an authentic and unique experience. All of this steeped in the context of the rich swampy and earthy sound of his band. Peak Bob. Seeing him still playing guitar on every track, and watching his hands closely to be sure that it was in fact him playing those sick licks and fills, and not one of his bandmates. I saw him several times in Toronto over the period from 1998 to 2001. In my memory he played the songs off "Time Out Of Mind", but when I looked back at the setlists he didn’t play all that many, during the Toronto shows at least. By 2001 he played many songs off “Love and Theft” and nothing off “Time Out of Mind” at his Toronto show. But what he did do was to make all of his other songs sound as wicked and awesome as his new songs. It was a game to try and figure out what song he was playing from the intro, and sometimes it would take a few verses to figure it out, or you’d find out later it was some obscure cover. Here is one highlight from this era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRy1UOjcz8E

While previously, listening to Dylan’s early output felt like looking at the light from a supernova, that had been traveling through time and space, with the event itself having occurred in the remote past. With this new turning point in Dylan history I was actually living through it in real time, seeing it live and being on the scene. It felt momentous when Dylan and Lanois won the Grammy for best album (well deserved) that year, and seeing the infamous “Soybomb” protest live on TV.

 

The release of Bootlegs volume 17 is well timed to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of the original release. What follows is a quick rundown of what we can expect based on the tracklist. Disc 5 is just a compilation of the outtake material that was previously released on “Tell Tale Signs”. Disc 2 and 3 are weird because they appear to contain some songs that are also on disc 5, such as two takes of “Can’t wait”, two takes of “Mississippi”, two takes of “Red River Shore”, “Marchin’ to the City” and “Dreamin’ of you”. Why include all these songs twice, especially considering we’ve heard these versions before?

 New alternate takes (and only one outtake L) include “The Water is Wide”, two alternate takes of “Love Sick”, two alternate takes of “Till I fell In Love With You”, two alternate takes of “Not Dark Yet”, two alternate takes of “Dirt Road Blues”, two alternate takes of “Standing in The Doorway”, two alternate takes of “Trying to Get To Heaven”, one alternate take of “Make You Feel My Love”, one alternate take of “Cold Irons Bound” and one alternate take of “Highlands”. This means there are alternate takes of every song on the album except for “Million Miles”. I’m guessing they nailed that one on the first take.

             While the alternate takes are interesting, because they can tell you something about process and the birth of these songs, I’m more excited for disc 1 and 4. Disc 4 includes live versions of every song on the album, plus “Mississippi”. All of these versions were recorded at various international venues between 1998 and 2001. Dylan does not release enough of his live material, and is sitting on a mother load of recordings that could easily provide material for another 17 Bootleg box sets. This disc is a good start.

             Disc one is by far the most exciting. Instead of putting out a boring remaster, the album has been re-mixed and stripped down to be more similar to what the original recording sounded like before Daniel Lanois added all his swampy effects. The difference between remix and remaster is everything. While mastering is important and can make a big difference to the overall sound, in my experience it is often difficult to hear the difference of a “remastered” album compared to the original, especially if it was mastered well the first time. Maybe these kind of subtle differences can be noticeable on a really high end stereo. A new mix of an album is a different story. Although the recorded tracks are all the same, all the ways that each individual track gets processed digitally including compression, reverb, delay, panning and levels are now in play and therefore should lead to a unique re-interpretation of the album. 

I will leave you with this video explaining that time in some sense does not actually exist, although it is unlikely that you can get it out of your mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdL8CudJTcs