Outtakes
Fifteen different songs were recorded for Time Out of Mind, of which eleven would make the final cut.
The first song that did not was "Mississippi", which was re-recorded for "Love and Theft". According to Dylan, "If you had heard the original recording of, you'd see in a second" why it was omitted and recut for Love and Theft. "The song was pretty much laid out intact melodically, lyrically and structurally, but Lanois didn't see it. Thought it was pedestrian. Took it down the Afro-polyrhythm route—multirhythm drumming, that sort of thing. Polyrhythm has its place, but it doesn't work for knife-like lyrics trying to convey majesty and heroism."
Dylan offered the song to Sheryl Crow, who recorded it for The Globe Sessions, released in 1998, before Dylan revisited it for "Love and Theft". Three outtakes (two versions on two general discs and one on the bonus disc) of this song from the Time Out Of Mind sessions were included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006.
The second song, "Dreamin' of You"', since released on Tell Tale Signs, was unveiled for the first time. "Dreamin' of you", released first as a free download on Dylan's website, had lyrics there were largely adapted into "Standing in the Doorway", though the melody and music are completely different. The music video which starred Harry Dean Stanton premiered on Amazon.com.
Two more songs, "Red River Shore" (which according to Jim Dickinson "the best song there was from the session"), and "Marching to the City" (which evolved into "'Til I Fell in Love with You"), were left off the final cut. They were both included on Tell Tale Signs.
On past albums, some fans have criticized Dylan for some of the creative decisions made with his albums, particularly with song selection. Time Out of Mind was no different except this time the criticism came from colleagues who were disappointed to see their personal favorites left on the shelf. When Dylan accepted the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, he mentioned Columbia Records chairman Don Ienner, who "convinced me to put out, although his favorite songs aren't on it."
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