Not Dark Yet

"Not Dark Yet" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded in January 1997 and released in September that year as the seventh track on his album Time Out of Mind.

[4] In their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon describe the album version, recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami in early 1997, as one where Lanois "uses multiple instruments to fuel a sonic vision that he alone has the talent and skill to create.

[7] In the "Fortitude" chapter of his book Dylan's Visions of Sin, literary scholar Christopher Ricks wrote a lengthy analysis in which he compared the song to the John Keats poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn", whose narrator is likewise "half in love with easeful Death".

He bears it and bares it beautifully, with exquisite precision of voice, dry humour, and resilience, all these in the cause of fortitude at life's going to be brought to an end by death".

In an article accompanying the list, critic Peter Tabakis wrote, "The song’s languid, fatalistic beauty no doubt makes it his most beguiling composition since 'Blind Willie McTell'.

Yet Tabakis, writing in 2020, also noted that, in spite of the song's despairing tone, it provides catharsis: “'Not Dark Yet' offers succor, something like homeopathic medicine.

[9] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Matthew Wilkening rated "Not Dark Yet" as the 3rd best song Dylan recorded between 1992 and 2011, praising it as "a stately, surprisingly clear-sung accounting of a painful life from a man who sees the end closing in on him".

Another music video was shot for the song "Love Sick" at the same location on the same day, featuring Dylan and model Rachel DiPaolo, but it has never been released.

[18] Dylan performed the song with Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 30 in 1999 at a benefit for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a concert that was later broadcast on television and released on home video.

Among the most notable covers: "Not Dark Yet" has been prominently featured on the soundtracks of many films and television shows, including Wonder Boys, The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired by The Passion of the Christ,[25] Why We Fight, the Dylan-starring Masked and Anonymous,[26] Life Itself, the Showtime series Californication (Season 3, Episode 3), Deadwood (Season 2 premiere "A Lie Agreed Upon, Part 1"), After Life (Season 3, Episode 2),[27] Henry Poole Is Here, Knockaround Guys, and Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying, where the song plays in its entirety over the closing credits.