In his 2001 book Bob Dylan: Behind The Shades Revisited, well known Dylan scholar and author Clinton Heylin had this to say about the sound of Time Out Of Mind:
"Lanois produced perhaps the most artificial-sounding album in Dylan’s canon." He described the album as sounding "like a Lanois CV."
Stephen Earl Thomaswine (how’s THAT for a name? ;-) writes:
"Lanois bathes them (Dylan’s vocals) in hazy, ominous sounds, which may suit the spirit of the lyrics, but are often in opposition to Dylan’s performances." Bingo!
Michael Gray writes:
"Some tracks have Dylan so buried in echo that there is no hope of hearing the detailing in his voice that was once so central and diamond like a part of his genius."
I don’t know what Lanois had in mind, but he clearly got carried away, taking it too far.
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@hartf36:
Yeah, I read about that recording of the harmonica too. But that was just a single, isolated incident. The TOOM recording sessions became very tension-filled, Dylan and Lanois butting heads throughout the making of the album. And Dylan has long let it be known he didn’t like the sound of the album.
You may note that Dylan didn’t want or ask for any of the previous Bootleg Series albums to be remixed. It was HE who instigated the remixes of the studio recordings in Volume 17, to create the sound he long wished the album had possessed (George Harrison did the same with his All Things Must Pass album, the sound of which he came to seriously dislike. I completely agree. Maybe it’s just the case of a musician’s view of recordings versus a fan/listener?). If Dylan liked the original, he would have left it as it was.
You should also note that since TOOM, Dylan has done all his own producing. "To Hell with ’em all. I’ll do it myself." ;-) I REALLY wish he’d have Buddy Miller produce him (Buddy has long served as Emmylou Harris' guitarist, harmony singer, and bandleader). For great production, listen to Buddy’s albums. And the album he produced for the duo with the unlikely name of War & Treaty. Absolutely fantastic!
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@clearthinker:
Some other well-recorded "Rock", and the record labels involved:
- Vertigo Records. Their early releases (on which the center paper label on the LP’s is filled with a drawing of 3 concentric circles. When the LP is spinning the circles create a.....you guessed it---vertigo effect. I hear collectors talking about many Vertigo’s which I don’t have, as the music they contain is not to my taste. The one I do have is the s/t album by Manfred Mann Chapter Three, which is the British Invasion group Manfred Mann with only Manfred and drummer Mike Hugg (by now switching to piano and vocals) remaining from the original line up. The music is Rock/Jazz Fusion, a genre I don’t normally like. This is the rare exception, and the sound quality is quite good.
- Amongst the very best sounding Popular music albums ever recorded is Tea For The Tillerman (Cat Stevens, of course). It’s on Island Records (in the UK, A & M in the U.S.), and the Island Records "pink label" pressing has long been known for it’s sound quality (brought to the attention of audiophiles by Harry Pearson). I had an Island "sunray" label (the second pressing of the album) copy, but the reissue by Analogue Productions is (imo, and that of others) even better than either (thanks to mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. For one thing, Bernie found there had been a very serious mistake made in the mastering of the Island original: it was done with a Dolby A noise reduction circuit engaged. Problem is, the recording was not made with Dolby A!).
- The only other pink label Island I own is the 2nd album by Traffic (their best, imo. Dave Mason was still in the group), and it too sounds mighty fine. Good music too.
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Dylan was VERY involved in the new TOOM mixes. I read an interview with the engineer involved, who said Dylan approved every mix, rejecting the engineer’s mixes that didn’t create the sound Dylan was looking for (he never liked the sound of the original TOOM).
One thing Lanois did in recording TOOM was tape Dylan’s voice in two manners: one track directly from Dylan singing into a microphone, a second with the mic’s signal sent to a guitar amplifier, the sound of Dylan’s voice coming out of that amp recorded on a separate track. Lanois then used both tracks when doing his mix back in ’97, blending the two to create a single sound.
As an aside: This information perfectly illustrates why Harry Pearson’s command that a hi-fi shall reproduce the sound of live music is absurd when it comes to studio recordings of Popular---i.e-non Classical music (excluding perhaps Jazz recorded in the 1950’s and 60’s). What do you high-end audiophiles think of a recording made in this fashion?
Spend as much as you want on your system; it will never sound any better than do the recordings you play through it. The majority of my favorite music doesn’t really justify having a high-end system. To reproduce what---a low-fi recording? My Hank Williams LP’s and CD’s sound like sh*t, yet the music still manages to thrill me. Luckily, some was well recorded, like The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and early RCA Records Elvis (his Sun Records recordings are not good, but the music of course is).
The new remiix engineer did something similar to what Lanois did, but somewhat different. He originally used only the direct mic track, and Dylan didn’t like the result (guess Bob is as critical of his voice as are his detractors ;-) . The engineer came up with the idea of sending the mic track to a cassette deck (the identity of the deck undisclosed ;-), playing the cassette recording on monitor speakers (again, undisclosed. Hopefully not the dreadful Yamaha NS-10 ;-) and recording the sound coming out of the speakers, then mixing that track with the direct-mic track. Dylan liked it! THAT is what you are hearing in the new mix.
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Oops; the Robbie Robertson album I above referred to was not a Spector production, but a Daniel Lanois. I REALLY dislike it. Though The Band greatly benefited from Robertson’s songwriting and guitar playing (but certainly not his "singing". In The Last Waltz he constantly pretends to be singing into his mic, but I dare you to find his notes. When Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel are all singing together, what you hear is 3-part harmony. So what is Robbie singing? He’s not, it’s a pose. Just another Rock ’n’ Roll wanker ;-) , he needed them far more than they needed him.
While Robertson tried his hand at acting (in the dreadful movie Carny), Levon did a far better job in his acting roles (Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Right Stuff, End Of The Line, Fire Down Below, Shooter, a few others.). No one ever hired Robertson as actor after Carny. And it was Levon who was awarded two Grammy’s; Robertson none. Though winning a Grammy is not necessarily a sign of anything, winning in the Traditional Folk and Americana genres IS.
End of Levon vs. Robbie rant ;-) .
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Oh, hey: Anyone who wants to hear the Spector Wall-Of-Sound applied really successfully to Rock ’n’ Roll, get a copy of Dave Edmunds’ 2nd album, Subtle As A Flying Mallet. For those unfamiliar with Dave, he is a Chuck Berry and Everly Brothers-influenced guitarist and singer (and record producer: The Every Brothers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Stray Cats, Carlene Carter, etc.), but on this album he went into Rockfield Studio in Wales and came out with an amazing assortment of recordings, some songs ("Da Doo Ron Ron", "Baby I Love You", "Maybe"---a fantastic song by The Chantels, "Let It Be Me"---The EV Brothers, Dylan did it on Self Portrait, "Born To Be With You"---a Dion song) complete with an incredible recreation of Spector’s sound.
Each side of the LP closes with a live recording, Dave backed by the UK band Brinsley Schwarz (whose bassist was Nick Lowe, later Dave’s partner in the super-group Rockpile), performing blistering versions of two Chuck Berry songs: "No Money Down" and "Let It Rock". 100% American Rock ’n’ Roll! Makes The Stones sound like the wankers they are ;-) .
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@stuartk: The Standells certainly liked dirty water ;-) .
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I love Spector’s early-mid 60’s productions, of Pop singers (all his girl groups, The Righteous Brothers, Ike & Tina Turner, etc.). But not his Beatles, George Harrison, Leonard Cohen, Ramones, or Robbie Robertson (that album just oozes pretentiousness, imo.).
Guitarist Denny Freeman has in interviews recounted how Lanois vetoed a lot of his guitar parts during the recording of TOOM (Dylan chose Freeman for a reason: his guitar playing. It might surprise you, but I suspect Dylan may have been intimidated by Lanois.). Lanois was endeavoring to create a "sonic painting", rather than record a singer-songwriter with a backing band. I prefer the latter. Of course, the consumer now has his or her choice: the album Lanois wanted to make, or the one Dylan did. Or both, for that matter.
Dylan was never happy with the sound of the original release. Lucinda Williams felt the same about her Sweet Old World album (but not just the sound, the performances as well), and in 2017 rerecorded the entire album, releasing it in a 2-LP set and titling it This Sweet Old World. I agree with Lucinda, preferring the rerecorded version. It had previously taken her three complete recordings of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road to get the album she was trying to make.
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@stuartk: My Copy arrives later this week! I can't wait to hear "Not Dark Yet", one of my favorite songs. It was Lanois' sound on this album (terrible) that inspired Dylan to start doing his own producing, an excellent decision.
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