I’ve always been intrigued by the sequencing of Time Out of Mind. The “money” tracks alternate with the more standard blues fare right down the line.
You start out with ‘Love Sick,’ a slow burner that eases you into the album and invites you to tour the soundscape Dylan and Lanois have served up. Next up is ‘Dirt Road Blues,’ a basic blues track that could have fit on any number of Dylan albums (though the lyrics speak to this record’s themes of loneliness and loss: “I’m gonna have to put up a barrier to keep myself away from everyone.”)
‘Standing in the Doorway’ is a yearning epic and one of the best songs on the album. Check out these opening lines:
Jukebox playing low
Yesterday everything was going too fast
Today, it’s moving too slow
I got no place left to turn
I got nothing left to burn
Don’t know if I saw you, if I would kiss you or kill you
It probably wouldn’t matter to you anyhow
You left me standing in the doorway, crying
I got nothing to go back to now
Then you’re right back into blues territory with ‘Million Miles,’ a cousin to ‘Dirt Road Blues,’ before you hit the strolling honky-tonk ache of ‘Tryin’ to Get to Heaven.’ ”Til I Fell In Love With You’ is up next, jauntier than the rest (the piano nods back to Highway 61 Revisited) but still in the traditional blues vein.
And so on. I don’t want to give the impression that those blues tracks are lesser accomplishments than their more expansive counterparts. They are an essential part of the album. ‘Cold Irons Bound,’ in fact, might be my favorite track on the whole CD.
Before I get to today’s SOTD, I have to mention the album’s closing track, ‘Highlands.’ This 17-minute epic is the longest song Dylan has ever recorded and, despite that off-putting length, one of his most entertaining. It’s a long narrative that find Dylan sitting in a diner at one point having a difficult time with a waitress.
She hounds him to draw a sketch of her and after several refusals, he reluctantly agrees, only to have her throw it back to him and say “That don’t look a thing like me!”
She says, “You must be jokin’.” I say, “I wish I was!”
Things just get stranger and funnier from there. But the closing lines turn more introspective, prompting some critics to suggest that Time Out of Mind would be the perfect career capper for a legend like Dylan.
But it’s not like the sun that used to be
The party’s over and there’s less and less to say
I got new eyes
Everything looks far away
Well, my heart’s in the Highlands at the break of day
Over the hills and far away
There’s a way to get there and I’ll figure it out somehow
But I’m already there in my mind
And that’s good enough for now
But as Dylan said at the time, this album wasn’t an ending. It was a beginning.
Today’s SOTD, ‘Not Dark Yet,’ is the album’s most celebrated track. It’s one of Dylan’s most depressing songs but musically it’s just gorgeous.
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don’t see why I should even care
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
Well, I’ve been to London and I’ve been to gay Paree
I’ve followed the river and I got to the sea
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
I was born here and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
Meet Me In Montauk 
If I have any criticism of the modern Dylan era, which began with this album, it is that there is a certain sameness in sound to many of the songs. Perhaps this is due to the increasing limitations of Dylan’s vocal range or perhaps it is a consequence of the contemporary production–the same type of production that breathed life into the fading careers of people like Clapton.
Now, I am ready to be challenged on the above statement, and I will concede that I have not heard every single track on every album Dylan has made in the past 13 years. Based on your summary of Time Out of Mind, you seem to be suggesting variations of which I am not aware. However, both yesterday’s and today’s SOTD, and other songs I have heard, seem to reinforce my feeling.
This doesn’t mean, by the way, that I don’t like these Dylan songs–I actually like them quite a lot. But, in many instances, I find the songs to be good background music, rather than stand up and take notice music.
While the general length (read: long!) of his recent material and the prevalence of old blues structures makes it a task to actively experience it (as opposed to treat it as background music), I actually think it’s more “stand up and take notice” than anything he’s recorded since the 60s.
more than Blood on the Tracks?
I’m talking more in terms of consistent output rather than a single album. I rank Blood On the Tracks above everything else he’s ever done on an individual basis.