At the end of the month, Bob Dylan is releasing a five-disc bootleg series culled from the sessions for his 1997 album Time Out Of Mind. Today, he’s offered up the first version of “Not Dark Yet,” which producer Daniel Lanois once said had “a radically different feel” from what ended up on the album.

“There’s always going to be a sense of discovery with Bob because, at the last second, without warning and as the `record’ button is pressed, he’ll change the key and time signature,” Lanois said in a 1997 interview with The Irish Times. “Then musicians will just look at themselves and dribble in and often Bob will say `that’s it’. That happened in at least half the tracks on this album.”

“‘Not Dark Yet had a radically different feel in the demo we did, which I loved and still miss,” he continued. “It was quicker and more stripped down and then, in the studio, he changed it into a Civil War ballad.”

Check out that unearthed first version below.

Here’s the album version:

Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 is out 1/27 on Columbia/Legacy.