Time Out Of Mind is Bob Dylan at a specific point in time; it’s a collection of songs that could not have come from the 60s,70s, or 80s. He’s older than that now, and we can hear it.
It’s also an album that marks yet another turning point in a career full of them. For the 15-20 years before Time Out Of Mind, Dylan produced what was (for him) inconsistent, often unsuccessful, and increasingly culturally irrelevant work (within which of course there were glorious highs). After Time Out Of Mind, Dylan delivered an unprecedented ‘third act’ of excellence and acclaim.
So how did Bob Dylan get from Under The Red Sky to Time Out Of Mind?
In Whirly Gig, John Lewis shares new insights into the final steps of this reinvention; how just the right cocktail of instinct, intentionality, people, creativity, and coincidence delivered an album with so much impact and resonance.
Heading For Another Joint
We know how this particular reinvention began: Bob set out on the Never Ending Tour in ’88, and he went …