Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan CD singles started appearing around the world in 1994 and 1995 for the revived Oh Mercy outtake, "Dignity," which became a well-played hit on radio stations across the globe. Columbia also released various CD singles for Dylan's MTV Unplugged album, and the singles usually included a handful of field recordings from various stages in Dylan's career. After Time Out of Mind was released to critical and commercial success in the fall of 1997, Sony-Columbia issued CD singles for "Not Dark Yet" and two different versions of "Love Sick." The cover art on these singles features contemporary pictures of Dylan, along with a retro Columbia design on the discs, making them pretty slick items. Not only visually pleasing, the CD singles are labeled as "viva-tonal" recordings and include recent concert performances of songs from the recently released Time Out of Mind. Also included are live renditions of some of the traditional acoustic material that Dylan was peppering his live sets with during this time. On the Love Sick, Pt. 1 CD single, we get the live Grammy version of "Love Sick," featuring a tremendous guitar solo by Dylan and a great sound quality overall. Following the title track are three other live performances. There is a December 1997 recording of "Cold Irons Bound" and the folk song "Cocaine Blues." The brief live exploration ends with an excellent August 1997 performance of "Born in Time" from Dylan's underrated 1990 Under the Red Sky album. All in all, the four-song single is a strange release for Sony, considering it features live performances from Dylan's very recent tour at the time. The record label may have been trying to compete with the huge Dylan bootleg market, as promotional and free CDs including similar material were distributed throughout the world after these initial releases for a few of the following years. This extended single CD provides an excellent glimpse of Dylan's renewed spirit in his late-'90s concert performances, and reveals one of Dylan's non-greatest hits modes. ~ Jeff Schwachter, All Music Guide