The album Time Out of Mind was released September 30, 1997.
Because I was born in the early 60s, Bob Dylan has always existed in my life. I don’t know when I first heard him or when I heard certain songs for the first time. I just seemed to know about him forever. He has always been one of my favorites. When I was younger, he was more of a constant than a deep dive. I was pretty obsessed with the Beatles as a teen and there were deep dives into other artists-Willie Nelson, The Who, Prince, Neil Young, The Moody Blues, but Dylan just was. Occasionally I did genre deep dives- folk, country, southern rock, swing, blues. Dylan and his genre changes meant that whatever genre I was diving into, there was Dylan waiting. By my late twenties in the 80’s Dylan was my established favorite of all time, but necessary my favorite current artist. Then, in his fifties- in 1997- he released Time Out of Mind and I realized I had underestimated him, not listened deeply enough, not undertaken a deep enough dive and I have been diving, coming up for air, diving again ever since. 35 years after releasing his first album, being the most prolific songwriter of the sixties, writing historically significant songs and 22 years after arguably his best album, Blood on the Tracks, he released an album that shook me awake and said “you need to pay better attention” and I certainly have been trying ever since. This album changed me forever. 