Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17 (Deluxe Edition)

I have absolutely loved Bob Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind” for 25 years now. This was the album that began the Dillon renaissance, which is yielded what is turned out to be and amazingly rich quarter of a century after an already brilliant career. Every song is strong, and with the new remix an album that was already the most powerful listen of 1997, has become even better! The new mix removes much of the murk and many of the studio effects added to the original to strip the album down to Dylan and his band playing live in a room. The outtakes and alternate versions are absolutely amazing. In some cases one here’s a totally different version of a song on the album and has to question whether it might’ve been better to include the earlier version. It is also fun to just listen to the progression of both lyrics and arrangements as the songs move toward their album version. The fourth disc alone is worth the price of admission! The saddest oversight of the bootleg collection so far has been the dearth of late. Live recordings. As a huge fan of Dylan and his last several touring bands I have long awaited recordings of them playing is newer material alongside their reworked versions of his older songs. 2008’s Tell Tale Signs entry contains some tantalizing live tracks but the dozen available for the first time ever here are fantastic. I do want to point out that there is one small error in the iTunes review of this album: the review essentially says that the album is the result of a near-death illness which obviously inspired Dylan to take on the issue of mortality. The truth is that the album was already written and recorded and basically in the can when Bob Dylan went to the hospital with that near fatal illness. For my money I would love to see the bootleg series continue to document these later albums and Wood really really treasure a multi disc set of live recordings of again both the newer and older songs as reworked by the various touring bands that Bob Dylan has put together since his 1997 rebirth.

Loved it

It's a classic! It's tempting to buy it all, but I already have 15 or more of these sides, and $35 is a bit much for all the repetition. Now that it's out, I'm just sitting back and truly relishing the versions -- some sound like whole different songs (and from Bob, that's a never a bad thing!)

Outstanding versions of each song. Interesting to see songs develop and change during the recording process. Bob’s best album gets even better!

I never liked this record or the era. I wish they would go back to “Planet Waves” and the 1974 Tour and “Desire” “ Street Legal”, “Springtime in New York” was good it had a lot of unreleased completed songs. I find the alternate takes and different takes, boring after a listen to. How many times will a person revisit all these tracks, my guess is very few.

I truly can’t wait for this release. I was 17 years old when TOOM was released and it was a very influential album; Easily in my top 5 Dylan albums. It’s unfortunate that some of this material has already been released, but I can understand why they would want to include it to present everything from TOOM in one convenient box set. However, I look forward to hearing the tracks I don’t already have from Dylan’s TellTale Signs bootleg series volume 8. There seems to be around a couple dozen unreleased tracks, not including the remixed album if I’m not mistaken. Regardless, this will be a great release!