Some critics criticized the performance for being 'mediocre' and for destroying the mood that was set up by the opening track. Michael Gray writes, Dirt Road Blues', which might under normal production circumstances be a heartening, even dexterous little rockabilly number, puts Dylan so far away and so tiny you just despair". "Standing in the Doorway" "Million Miles" "Million Miles" has a 1950's blues and rock and roll atmosphere. Critics have noted that the song nods to Little Willie John, Elvis Presley, and B.B. King. "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" "'Til I Fell in Love with You" In "'Til I Fell in Love with You", Dylan scholar Jochen Markhurst points to echoes of Ma Rainey's "South Bound Blues', as well as the influence of Slim Harpo. The Time out of Mind outtake "Marchin' to the City" can be considered an earlier version of this song; in any case the songs share a few lyric lines. "Not Dark Yet" "Not Dark Yet", the first of two singles from the album, was described by Time magazine as 'the moody album's center' and was included in its Ten Best Bob Dylan Songs article of 2011. The song explores the singer's own existential crises. "Not Dark Yet" was recorded at the early recording sessions and featured "a radically different feel", according to Lanois. "[The demo of 'Not Dark Yet'] was quicker and more stripped-down and [later during the formal studio sessions], he changed it into a civil war ballad". The song has been subject to a literary analysis by Professor Christopher Ricks which he states demonstrates the clearest example of John Keats' influence on Dylan's writing. In his book Dylan's Visions of Sin, Ricks, a Boston University professor of humanities, draws parallels between "Not Dark Yet" and the Keats' poem Ode to a Nightingale. Broken down line for line, "similar turns of phrase, figures of speech, [and] felicities of rhyming" can be found throughout "Not Dark Yet" and the Ode. Ricks also argues that "there is a strong affinity with Keats in the way that in the song night colours, darkens, the whole atmosphere while never being spoken of", just as Keats used winter to color and darken the atmosphere in another poem he wrote, To Autumn. "Dylan's refrain or burden is 'It's not dark yet, but it's getting there'. He bears it and bares it beautifully, with exquisite precision of voice, dry humour,