Time Out of Mind - Aftermath

Aftermath

Shortly after completing the album, Dylan became seriously ill with near-fatal histoplasmosis. His forthcoming tour was canceled, and Dylan spent most of June 1997 in excruciating pain. A potentially serious condition (caused by the fungal infection histoplasma capsulatum), it makes breathing very difficult. "It was something called histoplasmosis that came from just accidentally inhaling a bunch of stuff that was out on one of the rivers by where I live," said Dylan. "Maybe one month, or two to three days out of the year, the banks around the river get all mucky, and then the wind blows and a bunch of swirling mess is in the air. I happened to inhale a bunch of that. That's what made me sick. It went into my heart area, but it wasn't anything really attacking my heart." Dylan told Guitar World magazine.

Following Dylan's May 1997 health scare, a number of columnists, including Dylanologist A.J. Weberman, speculated that the songs on Time Out of Mind were inspired by an increased awareness of his own mortality. This, of course, was despite the fact that all of the songs were completed, recorded, and even mixed before he was hospitalized. In interviews following its release, Dylan, also, downplayed these speculations with much reserve.

My recollection of that record is that it was a struggle. A struggle every inch of the way. Ask Daniel Lanois, who was trying to produce the songs. Ask anyone involved in it. They all would say the same....As a result, though it held together as a collection of songs, that album sounds to me a little off. There's a sense of some wheels going this way some wheels going that, but hey, we're just about getting there.

Beside being ranked as number 408 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, in both Pazz & Jop's critics poll and Uncut magazine, Time Out of Mind was voted as album of the year.