The lost Daniel Lanois cut Bob Dylan refused to release
By the mid-1990s, it’d been a while since Bob Dylan had released a record offering much to his wieldy songbook.
His last album to make a splash was 1989’s Oh Mercy, but several LPs were dropped since with little fanfare. Teaming up with longtime U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois, 1997’s Time Out of Mind was hailed as a real studio comeback, Dylan’s ruminative folk poetry floating in Lanois’ characteristic sonic ambience. His lyrical pen was back, offering the fan favourite cuts ‘Not Dark Yet’, ‘Love Sick’, and the album’s 16-minute closing epic and poetically dense ‘Highlands’.
The songs were solid considering his prior dry spell. The previous two albums were comprised entirely of folk and traditional standards covers, and Dylan spoke candidly about how his inspirations were arriving ever more infrequently with age.
“There was a time when the songs would come three or four at the same time, but those days are long gone,” Dylan confessed to SongTalk in 1991. “Once in a while, the odd song will come to me like a bulldog at the garden gate and demand to be written. But most of them are rejected out of my mind right away. You get caught up in wondering if anyone really needs to hear it. Maybe a person gets to the point where they have written enough songs. Let someone else write them”.
Yet, enough time had passed for Dylan to begin working out original material in the winter of 1996 at his Minnesota farm. One number was the country-based ‘Mississippi’. While cut during the Time Out of Mind sessions and mooted for inclusion on the record, Lanois’s insistence on a subtle multirhythmic arrangement left Dylan cold, ultimately shelving the outtake for further shaping.
“Polyrhythm has its place, but it doesn’t work for knifelike lyrics trying to convey majesty and heroism,” Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2001. “On the performance you’re hearing, the bass is playing a triplet beat, and that adds up to all the multirhythm you need, even in a slow-tempo song.” Dylan was clear in his admiration for the studio captain, however. “I think Lanois is an excellent producer, though.”
‘Mississippi’ would first see light as a gift to Sheryl Crow, cutting her own version for 1998’s The Globe Sessions. But, buoyed by the fact that no leak or unofficial bootleg was floating around online of the unreleased country tune, a last-minute decision was made to dust off ‘Mississippi’ and rerecord for 2001’s Love and Theft, this time handled by one ‘Jack Frost’, Dylan’s production moniker. A critical hit and fan favourite, ‘Mississippi’ would enjoy a lauded presence in the folk legend’s celebrated oeuvre.
Sometimes, songs just need to cook that bit longer. “Something like that would never have happened ten years ago,” Dylan stated to an Italian press conference in the run-up to Love and Theft’s release. “You’d have probably all heard the lousy version of it, and I’d have never re-recorded it. I’m glad for once to have had the opportunity to do so.”
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