Bob Dylan: Triplicate - 3 more discs of Standards

A three-disc studio album from Bob Dylan, Triplicate, will be released on March 31, featuring 30 brand-new recordings of classic American tunes and marking the first triple-length set of the artist’s illustrious career. With each disc individually titled and presented in a thematically-arranged 10-song sequence, Triplicate showcases Dylan’s unique and much-lauded talents as a vocalist, arranger and bandleader on 30 compositions by some of music’s most lauded and influential songwriters. The Jack Frost-produced album is the 38th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since Fallen Angels, which was released in early 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdKQ92-H_c

haha! he's really going for it ... i've enjoyed these past two standards LPs. This might be overkill, but I'm sure there'll be some great stuff.

yeah i dunno i'm kinda over this thing :/

though the sound of these records is so appealing, the pedal steel almost patsy cline type meets jazz band vibe

i really would like to hear some new originals, esp given that somehow he's singing better than he has in years

I like the willfulness of this project. The great bard turned great interpreter is such a perfect FU Bob move. And yeah, these records sound so good.

However, I'm also the guy who thinks the Christmas album is amazing, so...

yeah, the overall sound is wonderful, even if a bit of the novelty has worn off.
it's interesting -- coming up on five years since he's released any new original material, right? That's almost the span between under the red sky and time out of mind, i think. maybe not quite as long.

That was 7 years.

wonder if he's stockpiling or just not writing ... there were rumors a couple months ago about working w/ Lanois again, but nothing was confirmed.

Bob's camp seems a lot tighter than it used to be.

here's the full tracklist

Disc 1 – ‘Til The Sun Goes Down
Side 1:
I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans
September Of My Years
I Could Have Told You
Once Upon A Time
Stormy Weather

Side 2:
This Nearly Was Mine
That Old Feeling
It Gets Lonely Early
My One and Only Love
Trade Winds

Disc 2 – Devil Dolls
Side 1:
Braggin’
As Time Goes By
Imagination
How Deep Is The Ocean
P.S. I Love You

Side 2:
The Best Is Yet To Come
But Beautiful
Here’s That Rainy Day
Where Is The One
There’s A Flaw In My Flue

Disc 3 – Comin’ Home Late
Side 1:
Day In, Day Out
I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night
Sentimental Journey
Somewhere Along The Way
When The World Was Young

Side 2:
These Foolish Things
You Go To My Head
Stardust
It’s Funny To Everyone But Me
Why Was I Born

i really would like to hear some new originals, esp given that somehow he's singing better than he has in years

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, January 31, 2017 10:06 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He said he quit smoking in preparation for Stadows in the Night. I love his super-gravelly voice, but am digging this approach.

I'll check this out for sure, but wish that if he was going to release another covers album he'd look at something other than the great American songbook. Dylan sings Newman would be quite something or even something from contemporary writers.

he can't stop won't stop

Dylan Sings Donovan!

(OK, I'd rather have Dylan Sings Nilsson, but hey)

this "I Could Have Told You" does sound great

another thing that would be cool (in my ideal scenario) is that -- in addition to his increased range and stronger singing -- that bob took some inspiration from these songs in his songwriting, and wrote stuff that had a little more movement and chord structures, by tempest i was getting a bit tired of the one-riff blues vamps with bob growling stuff over it (not that i don't like that stuff but man he went to that well a lot), like "working man's blues 2" was a cool exception, was a little more "songwriterly" in comparison to a lot of stuff post-love&theft

The Christmas album - dynamic as you could wish, man.

I wish I had money to spend on this stuff. the sound of the Christmas album is incredible, I can totally see this working well

Haha I love that Christmas album

Bob seems to be enjoying himself (or maybe he feels this is an important project?) and since it sounds good and songbook songs are good I won't complain

ums otm that an album worth of songwriterly non-blues vamp material would be grrrreat

(OK, I'd rather have Dylan Sings Nilsson, but hey)

Dylan Schmylan

Fave titles:

It Gets Lonely Early
Braggin’
Imagination
There’s A Flaw In My Flue
It’s Funny To Everyone But Me

His voice really has improved! I didn't know he'd quit smoking, but tbh I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference at this late stage.

The Jack Frost-produced album is the 38th studio set from Bob Dylan

i love the commitment to this bit as well

Michael Keaton doesn't get enough praise as a producer.

Still lots of standards left ... the countdown to Quadruplicate starts now

He's gonna cover that Ron Wood album and call it I've Got Your Own Album To Do.

To those of you commenting on the 'sound' of these recent records: as a Dylan fan who hasn't been the slightest bit interested in anything he's released since the Christmas album (which I also didn't hear), what's the appeal? Are these albums well-produced as in sweeping strings and sweet horn parts that would seem, to me, to best suit the material (if in an orthodox manner not typical of our Zimmy), or more in the bluesy, vaguely-Tom Waits-y sound of some of, err, Frost's productions on latter-day Dylan albums?

I ask because the idea of Dylan singing standards doesn't really appeal to me too much, but I can definitely get down with him when he goes all Hidalgo / Ribot with the junky-sounding tremolo'd out guitars and whatnot

There's a song on the top of this thread that is representative of the standards records. The Christmas record is a singular thing, with horns and choruses and general non-Bobness.

man I saw the thread title and said "zzzzz" but the lead track sounds fucking amazing and yes that is shockingly good singing for our man at this stage

Have you heard the last two standards records? They're great.

I really admire the guy's work ethic. The man likes to work on making music.

The production of Shadows In The Night and Fallen Angelsis intimate but not a snuggy fuzzy blanket: his regular basic li'l road combo is the core, in a mesh, yknow night skies between the steel (incl. steel guitar and regular guitar)strings and just the right (incl. the right left) piano keys, brushed cymbals etc., with discreet bits from guest guitarist Dean Parks and more occasionally a couple horns (on Shadows In The Nightonly). Kinda prefer that one, not because of the horns but the voice is bluesier, rougher, kinda like Old Man Sinatra, not so much like Waits (closer to the latter on Love and Theft and the ones right after, although I think he does it better than Waits). Still, Fallen Angels works too.
If you like or would like to like these or the idea or the material, don't miss Willie Nelson's Stardust.

Old Man Sinatra as I heard him in concert at Wolf Trap, I think, on Showtime or HBO in the 80s or early 90s, making a virtue of old vocal capabilities.

the sound of these records is so appealing, the pedal steel almost patsy cline type meets jazz band vibe yep

Here's That Rainy Day LOL I can't wait to hear this record

weirdly, fallen angels seems to be the only dylan album not on spotify

It took nearly a year for Shadows in the Night to go up

http://i.imgur.com/wbLVHrf.jpg
^^is that gangsta or goth?

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18734-bob-dylan-i-could-have-told-you/

this is the only bit I've heard so far and holy shit he sure did stop smoking didn't he

Two overlapping with late-period Chet Baker: "My One and Only Love" (maybe my favorite song of any) and "imagination."

http://bobdylan.com/news/qa-with-bill-flanagan/

Cool interview

Yeah that's great. Hope that Flanagan is taping hours and hours of conversation with Dylan for a book or something.

Great interview, that goes a lot longer and deeper on a lot of things than I expected.

Maybe now Bob will start a feud with Don McLean, similar to the one he had with Tom T Hall.

Some crucial material in there for the "Minnesota/Minnesotans C or D" thread.

The Stereophonics???

that is an awesome interview. thanks for that. he's so smart.

that mona lisa analogy. he's a really cool thinker.

When you see footage of yourself performing 40 or 50 years ago, does it seem like a different person? What do you see?

I see Nat King Cole, Nature Boy – a very strange enchanted boy, a terribly sophisticated performer, got a cross section of music in him, already postmodern. That’s a different person than who I am now.

^^ wow.

When you’re on your bus, what shows do you watch on TV?

I Love Lucy, all the time, non-stop.

haha yeah that one's great

For The New Basement Tapes, T Bone Burnett put together a group with Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Jim James, Marcus Mumford and Taylor Goldsmith, to finish songs based on old lyrics of yours. Did you hear any of those songs and say, “I don’t remember writing that?”

Did you say Taylor Swift?

Taylor Goldsmith.

Yeah, OK.

Some of your opening acts and co-bills, even very big names, have expressed disappointment that you don’t hang out or socialize on the road. Why is that?

Beats me – why would they want to hang out with me anyway? I hang out with my band on the road.

but then you also get a description of rocknroll as "skeleton music, came out of the darkness and rode in on the atom bomb and the artists were star headed like mystical Gods."

still got it!

great interview and cosign on tyler's wish that the tape was running for even longer

haha, yeah, why would anyone want to hang out with bob dylan xp
i like "zoom and gloom"

this of all things killed me for some reason

I heard you and George Harrison were once supposed to do a recording session with Elvis, but he never showed up. What’s the real story?

He did show up, it was us that didn’t.

lol @ Pfork headline: "Bob Dylan Talks Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen, Much More in Rare, Extensive Interview"

I guess the initial "Bob Dylan Talks Charlie Poole, Jimmy Van Eaton, Stereophonics, Much More" headline got axed

if only he had talked a bit about what ok computer meant to him when it came out

hahaha

"they were great, it was like they were from another world, throwing robots off of cliffs, driving cars made of glue"

They should publish an oral history about how this interview came about.

Only 6 months until we get P4K's "Time Out of Mind" 20th Anniversary week

I look forward to the oral history behind the making of that celebration.

I want an oral history of the time Dylan wore that fake Rabbi beard.

I wonder what it was like to review this Dylan interview for the first time.

i sent a link to that interview to Greil M. and he was very appreciative. so, double thanks. he was very excited about it.

(like me, he probably doesn't read Pitchfork, so, we might have missed it....)

um when did he start actually singing again

came out of the stadows a while back

huh. I had no idea

his voice sounds *much* better after quitting smoking

(altho if I want grizzled gargling Bob I'll always have "Christmas in the Heart")

i still can't believe you can smoke for a million years and get your voice back like that! pretty incredible.

There's hope for Tom Waits yet...

21st century dylan voice was a bit much for me. would totally buy an album of originals if he sang like he does on the standards stuff.

yeah I couldn't get past it either (Xmas album excepted). I wouldn't say his voice is "back", I mean he's not 25 or even 45 anymore, but it def sounds better.

Tom Waits claims his voice got worse when he quit smoking years ago.

Is Dylan's voice better or worse singing standards than Sinatra at about the same age?

LOL

What does a drummer coming into your band need to know? What should he avoid?

No one comes into my band.

when did he start actually singing again

my fave question and answer from the interview:

Q&A with Bill Flanagan
MAR 22, 2017
Exclusive to bobdylan.com

This is your third album of standards in a row – Shadows in the Night was a big surprise and a really nice one. Fallen Angels was a sweet encore. Now you really upped the ante. Did you feel after the first two, you had unfinished business?

I did when I realized there was more to it than I thought, that both of those records together only were part of the picture, so we went ahead and did these.

Why did you decide to release three discs of music at once?

It’s better that they come out at the same time because thematically they are interconnected, one is the sequel to the other and each one resolves the previous one.

Each disc is 32 minutes long – you could have put it all on 2 CDs. Is there something about the 10 song, 32 minute length that appeals to you?

Sure, it’s the number of completion. It’s a lucky number, and it’s symbolic of light. As far as the 32 minutes, that’s about the limit to the number of minutes on a long playing record where the sound is most powerful, 15 minutes to a side. My records were always overloaded on both sides. Too many minutes to be recorded or mastered properly. My songs were too long and didn’t fit the audio format of an LP. The sound was thin and you would have to turn your record player up to nine or ten to hear it well. So these CDs to me represent the LPs that I should have been making.

What’s the challenge of singing with a live horn section?

No challenge, it’s better than overdubbing them.

You like to be spontaneous in the studio, but here you’re working with tight arrangements and charts. Did that require a new way of thinking for you?

It did at first but then I got used to it. There’s enough of my personality written into the lyrics so that I could just focus on the melodies within the arrangements. As a vocalist you’re restricted within definite harmonic patterns. But you have more control within those patterns than you would if there were no boundaries whatsoever, it actually takes less thought, hardly any thinking. So I guess you could call that a new way of thinking.

At any point in the recording did you say to the musicians, “Look, we have to change this on the fly – just follow me…?”

No, that never happened. If I did that the song would fall apart, nobody would be able to follow me. Improvising would disrupt the song. You can’t go off track.

Are you concerned about what Bob Dylan fans think about these standards?

These songs are meant for the man on the street, the common man, the everyday person. Maybe that is a Bob Dylan fan, maybe not, I don’t know.

Has performing these songs taught you anything you didn’t know from listening to them?

I had some idea of where they stood, but I hadn’t realized how much of the essence of life is in them – the human condition, how perfectly the lyrics and melodies are intertwined, how relevant to everyday life they are, how non-materialistic.

Up to the sixties, these songs were everywhere – now they have almost faded away. Do they mean more to you when you hear them now?

They do mean a lot more. These songs are some of the most heartbreaking stuff ever put on record and I wanted to do them justice. Now that I have lived them and lived through them I understand them better. They take you out of that mainstream grind where you’re trapped between differences which might seem different but are essentially the same. Modern music and songs are so institutionalized that you don’t realize it. These songs are cold and clear-sighted, there is a direct realism in them, faith in ordinary life just like in early rock and roll.

It’s hard not to think of World War II when we hear some of these. You were born during the war – do you remember anything about it?

Not much. I was born in Duluth – industrial town, ship yards, ore docks, grain elevators, mainline train yards, switching yards. It’s on the banks of Lake Superior, built on granite rock. Lot of fog horns, sailors, loggers, storms, blizzards. My mom says there were food shortages, food rationing, hardly any gas, electricity cutting off – everything metal in your house you gave to the war effort. It was a dark place, even in the light of day – curfews, gloomy, lonely, all that sort of stuff – we lived there till I was about five, till the end of the war.

Between the Depression and the war, people had to swallow so much pain that songs that might sound overly sentimental to us had tremendous resonance. A line like “as a man who has never paused at wishing wells” – it might sound corny to people who haven’t lived too much. Can you get inside these songs in your 70s in a way you might not have been able to in your 20s and 30s?

Sure, I can get way inside. In my 20s and 30s I hadn’t been anywhere. Since then I’ve been all over the world, I’ve seen oracles and wishing wells. When I was young there were a lot of signs along the way that I couldn’t interpret, they were there and I saw them, but they were mystifying. Now when I look back I can see them for what they were, what they meant. I didn’t understand that then, but I do now. There is no way I could have known it at the time.

When you see footage of yourself performing 40 or 50 years ago, does it seem like a different person? What do you see?

I see Nat King Cole, Nature Boy – a very strange enchanted boy, a terribly sophisticated performer, got a cross section of music in him, already postmodern. That’s a different person than who I am now.

It seems like 20 years after the war ended, all the entertainment was about it – movies, TV shows, novels, everything from South Pacific to Hogan’s Heroes. We assume everyone shares this common vocabulary, but in fact, it’s fading from popular memory. Did you feel an urgency to rescue these songs?

Not anymore than I would try to rescue Beethoven, Brahms, or Mozart. These songs are not hiding behind a wall or at the bottom of the sea, they’re right there out in the open, anyone can find them. They’re truthful. They’re liberating.

You do some great singing here – “When the World Was Young,” “These Foolish Things” – which begs the question, if you can sing like that, why don’t you always sing like that?

Depends what kind of song it is. “When the World Was Young,” “These Foolish Things,” are conversational songs. You don’t want to be spitting the words out in a crude way. That would be unthinkable. The emphasis is different and there is no reason to force the vernacular. “An airline ticket to romantic places” is a contrasting type of phraseology, than, say, “bury my body by the highway side.” The intonation is different, more circumspectual, more internal.

oy!!! did not mean to post all of that!

just the highlighted bit at the bottom!

I never realized before that Tom Wilson is the hidden link between Dylan and Sun Ra.

sampler of 10 songs up on spotify

his recovery of his ability to sing (within his limits) is pretty fucking incredible, switch between Triplicate and Tempest and it's pretty amazing

Been reading awestruck reviews of Triplicate; this is the best so far (awestruck duh, but not too much for observational interest). He apparently doesn't like the first two as much as I do (esp.Shadows in The Night, though I don't hear either as tentative)---still, will have to give it a listen after all apparently (but geez, that's a lot of standards from BD): http://www.villagevoice.com/music/bob-dylans-book-of-love-thirty-standards-that-map-a-world-sweeter-than-we-will-ever-know-9895560

record sounds great but I haven't heard the entire thing yet, it is pretty long and seems to drag a bit... have put it on on a couple of late night occasions but then skipped after 20 minutes or smth

what's that Dylan quote about patience... I think he's prompted to talk abt postmodern attention span being very short and says something like it's been that way since the 7" single!

I truly love this album.

I guess I should never be surprised by Dylan, but becoming an great standards singer 15 years after I thought his voice was shot is pretty impressive