Reflecting on his debut album, which was recorded in the same space as Oh Mercy and released only two weeks later, Lanois wrote something that really struck me: “My first record, Acadie, was finished in the Soniat house with the ghost of Bob Dylan at the coffee machine. It motivated me to go back and spend a lot of time listening again to the first Dylan-Lanois collaboration on Oh Mercy, and I also re-read Lanois’s memoir Soul Mining. But that remix of the album made me feel very defensive-how could they do that to Lanois?-and spurred me into clinging protectively to the magnificent album as released. You know how much I adore Time Out of Mind, dear reader, so of course I was elated to have even more tracks from the TOOM sessions to luxuriate in and meditate upon.
In this piece, however, I’d like to offer a counternarrative.Įver since the release of Fragments, I’ve been renewing my love of Daniel Lanois. That’s one way of telling the story, the Dylan-centric version, focused on the travails and triumphs of the rejuvenated hero. He recovered his superpowers by renewing his commitment to live performance-launching the Never Ending Tour in 1988-and by making a real effort to produce high-quality work in the studio worthy of his talents-recording and releasing the comeback album Oh Mercy in 1989. However, in the second half of the eighties, through a series of serendipitous encounters and sudden epiphanies, culminating in his epic Battle of New Orleans with the dark knight Daniel Lanois, Dylan achieved regeneration.
His art and career, like his hand, were damaged almost beyond repair, atrophied from years of abuse. It’s the stuff of legends and fairy tales, as well as morality plays and gospel hymns: “I once was lost / But now I’m found / Was blind / But now I see.” In the longest chapter of Chronicles, “Oh Mercy,” Dylan begins with a description of his hand injury in 1987. He frames pivotal chapters of his life as a hero’s quest: overcoming obstacles, resisting temptations, cultivating wise mentors, fighting wily enemies, hearing his true calling, embracing his destiny, and choosing the right path forward at the crossroads. Bob Dylan is a myth-maker, and Chronicles is a wonderful work of auto-mythology.
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