The album version of "Most of the Time" was recorded on March 12, 1989, in a mobile studio at 1305 Soniat St., New Orleans, and released on Oh Mercy in September of that year.

The recordings for Oh Mercy were influenced by The Neville Brothers album Yellow Moon, which was produced by Lanois and included two covers of Dylan's songs.

[3][5] After the initial session, Lanois changed the musicians involved, inviting Yellow Moon contributors Tony Hall, Brian Stoltz and "Mean" Willie Green III.

For the sessions with Dylan, he rented a house at 1305 Soniat Street, New Orleans, and set up the studio on the ground floor with the musicians arranged in a semi-circle around the soundboard.

In his memoir Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan describes not having a melody for the song when he first went into the studio to record it and trying to find one while strumming an acoustic guitar in front of Lanois: "Dan thought he heard something.

[14] Ricks claims that the "nub" of the song is perhaps contained in lines of the third verse:[14] I don't build up illusion till it makes me sickI ain't afraid of confusion no matter how thickI can smile in the face of mankindDon't even remember what her lips felt like on mineMost of the timeRicks comments that the "at once overt and covert" rhyme between "illusion" and "confusion", is a device that only occurs here in the song; and that following the common phrase "in the face of" with the line about not remembering "how her lips felt" brings a "corporeality" to the lines.

[14] Margotin and Guesdon see the song's lyrics as bearing a similarity to Dylan's earlier "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" but ask, "Is the narrator telling the truth?

"[9] Tony Attwood agrees with this "unreliable narrator" interpretation and describes the music as purposefully contradicting the lyrics, "which assert throughout that the singer knows exactly what is going on and can handle it.

[12] The simplicity of the lyrics was seen as a positive by Robin Denselow,[24] whilst Randy Lewis felt that the repeated use of the phrase "most of the time" was like a "depth charge".

An article accompanying the list noted how the song demonstrates "how Dylan had recovered from an artistic slump: the lyrical drawing of the emotional fallout from a failed relationship is both sharp and sensitive, his delivery is perfectly judged".

In an article accompanying the list, critic Jacob Nierenberg calls it the best song on Oh Mercy, writing, "It can be heard as a long-delayed coda to Blood on the Tracks, Dylan's supposed 'breakup album'.

Dylan is introspective, retrospective, talking of thoughts and feelings and regrets in a very simple, very clear way, but it is so artfully done, each verse a triumph of memory and mood".

Dylan was accompanied by Under the Red Sky session players David Lindley on guitar, Randy Jackson on bass and Kenny Aronoff on drums for this performance, which was produced by Don Was.

[39][40] Jesse Dylan later said that as his father is not proficient at lip-synching, "we did a lot of fast cuts from him singing live to thematic material using the actual track.

[43] Two alternate takes of the song from the Oh Mercy sessions, one featuring Dylan solo on acoustic guitar and harmonica, were included on the album The Bootleg Series Vol.

[44] Dylan's first live performance of "Most of the Time" was on October 10, 1989, at the Beacon Theatre (New York City); and the last was on May 9, 1992, when he played it at the San Jose State Event Center.

[45] Clinton Heylin has commented that Dylan performed the song live in a variety of ways, initially at the Beacon theatre as a "yearning paean to possibilities" and finally as a "song of quiet desperation" at the San Jose show, whilst a performance at Hammersmith Odeon on February 7, 1990, saw it presented as a "genuine statement of affirmation".