New Time Out of Mind mixes coming (Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Vol. 17)

barnstorm

Awaiting this with curiosity. Expecting to like it, because they're great songs however you present them, but TOoM is so much the Lanois show that it's hard to imagine it with all the pixie dust blown off the recordings.

https://www.bobdylan.com/news/fragments-time-out-of-mind-sessions-1996-1997-to-be-released-on-january-27/ 

'In his liner notes for the set, Steven Hyden writes, “The album itself has been remixed to sound more like how the songs came across when the musicians originally played them in the room, without the effects and processing that Lanois applied later. It’s not meant to replace the Time Out of Mind that won all of those Grammys a quarter-century ago; it’s a reimagining, an alternate view of a great work of art. If the original album remains mythic and enigmatic, this Time Out of Mind puts you in close proximity to the players."'

Caffeine_Vampire

There were some pretty sensational players on that record.

Vintage65

I may end up preferring the new version.

I was listening to this earlier, and I like the unpolished Dylan.

idiotwind

An early version of Love Sick is out as a preview

Caffeine_Vampire

Now that sounds like a direct link to the man that recorded the magnificent World Gone Wrong 4 years earlier. Looking forward to this.

barnstorm

Hope they give us a taste of the remixes before release day as well. Two months seems a long time to wait now I know it’s coming! 

drofluf

Vintage65 said:

I may end up preferring the new version.

I was listening to this earlier, and I like the unpolished Dylan.

 That was certainly the case for me with “More Blood, More Tracks”, Volume 14 I think. Like you I preferred the less produced versions of those songs. And the original is one of my favourite albums ever. 

Caffeine_Vampire

I have to respectfully disagree re: BotT, the original is practically flawless and I'm usually a sucker for the rawer takes.

steven70

Vintage65 said:

I may end up preferring the new version.

I was listening to this earlier, and I like the unpolished Dylan.

Agreed - that is superb. Energy...

Looking forward to the idiotwind said:

An early version of Love Sick is out as a preview

That also sounds really nice - something to look forward to.

barnstorm

A/B comparison of (a very brief snippet of) Dirt Road Blues.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CljMnTEJsis/

idiotwind

New preview track out - an early version of Not Dark Yet.  Big lyrical changes and a completely different vibe to the album version

barnstorm

That's why I'm much more interested in the new mixes than the alternates! Will be interesting to see the chronology of the takes for Not Dark Yet.

Should say that I'm sat here quite happily with that alternate version on repeat, but like so much of the material included on the more recent Bootleg installments it feels like an experiment that was obviously never going to work when compared with the album version. 

For all the possibilities for reinvention he seems to find in his songs, I'm struggling to think of an instance where I think the wrong cut made the record.

JodyJames

barnstorm said:

That's why I'm much more interested in the new mixes than the alternates! Will be interesting to see the chronology of the takes for Not Dark Yet.

Should say that I'm sat here quite happily with that alternate version on repeat, but like so much of the material included on the more recent Bootleg installments it feels like an experiment that was obviously never going to work when compared with the album version. 

For all the possibilities for reinvention he seems to find in his songs, I'm struggling to think of an instance where I think the wrong cut made the record.

I would certainly agree in general… The Cutting Edge in particular is an incredible document of how those records came together, and of how the actual versions used were judged perfectly from the takes. The only one that ever gets me is ‘Born in Time’ - the album version from Under the Red Sky is completely forgettable, whereas the Tell Tale Signs version (admittedly from the Oh Mercy sessions) is incredible. I cannot believe it was left off Oh Mercy, decent album though that is. 

idiotwind

JodyJames said:

barnstorm said:

That's why I'm much more interested in the new mixes than the alternates! Will be interesting to see the chronology of the takes for Not Dark Yet.

Should say that I'm sat here quite happily with that alternate version on repeat, but like so much of the material included on the more recent Bootleg installments it feels like an experiment that was obviously never going to work when compared with the album version. 

For all the possibilities for reinvention he seems to find in his songs, I'm struggling to think of an instance where I think the wrong cut made the record.

I would certainly agree in general… The Cutting Edge in particular is an incredible document of how those records came together, and of how the actual versions used were judged perfectly from the takes. The only one that ever gets me is ‘Born in Time’ - the album version from Under the Red Sky is completely forgettable, whereas the Tell Tale Signs version (admittedly from the Oh Mercy sessions) is incredible. I cannot believe it was left off Oh Mercy, decent album though that is. 

This got me thinking.  Entire songs being overlooked is easy eg Blind Willie McTell, but alternative takes of album tracks...

Many would point to Blood on the Tracks NY versions, but I generally prefer the album versions. You're a Big Girl Now would be the closest to getting swapped for me.  The version on Biograph with the pedal steel.

Some of the mid-sixties stuff has early versions that would have been perfectly good, but the album take just has that bit extra. I'm thinking things like She Belongs To Me, Baby Blue or even Visions of Johanna.  My first ever bootleg was The Lonesome Sparrow Sings so I'm quite fond of a lot of that material.

As for actual replacements, I think I've got two. Someday Baby is better on Tell Tale Signs, but is a fairly dull song any way you slice it.  The other is The Times They Are A-Changin'.  There is an earlier version that came out on a deluxe version of Love and Theft which I prefer.  Less strident than the album version.  I'm sure some would say less anthemic, but it one of my least favourite "greatest hits".  I couldn't find it anywhere on YouTube so I uploaded it myself, but it got blocked.  So I stuck it on Vimeo

barnstorm

Well it's here! Ripped open the envelope first thing. Have managed to give it a quick listen before I head out, and will have to live with it for a while yet… but money well spent for me.

Not a night and day difference overall, and the swampy feel has broadly been left intact on tracks where it always seemed like an inevitable response to the writing – e.g. Not Dark Yet is cleaned up but not transformed.

The one that sticks out to me so far is 'Til I Fell in Love with You. Really enjoying the punchiness of the new mix – suits the fab venom in the lyrics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVn0YajCsOI

barnstorm

I bought the 2CD version (can't be doing with £120 box sets), so I may be missing some gem or other, but this is my pick of the outtakes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiIy34wL198 

Vintage65

Just got mine. I will go through the 5 CD's on the weekend! This is my 3rd and probably last Dylan boxset, so I'm looking forward to it.