FOR Time Out Of Mind, Bob and I got together in New York City. We didn’t even have any instruments or any songs to listen to. He just had a stack of lyrics. He read me the lyrics and said: “What do you think, Daniel, do we have a record?” I said yes. I could hear a record, even though I hadn’t heard a note. A lot of philosophical exchanges happened then, about what kind of sound Bob loved. It was clear he loved records that were made at the birth of a medium. There’s always something fantastic about the beginning of a medium, there’s a vibrant tone to early works. Bob wanted that vitality. I did a lot of preparation with Pretty Tony [Mangurian] in New York. We played along to the records Bob had recommended, then I built loops of what Tony and I did, and then abandoned the sources; a hip-hop technique. Then I brought those loops to Bob at the Teatro, and he loved that there was a good vibe on those.
Bob would roll down to the Teatro and out of that demo session came some lovely things, including that particular version of “Can’t Wait,” which has a lot of thunder in it. It’s very stripped down because it’s piano: Bob on my lovely turn-ofthe-century Steinway, which has a roaring bass in it; me on my goldtop 1956 Les Paul, through a Vox; Pretty Tonyondrums.Iwassadtoabandon that version, it has lot of rock’n’roll.