Bob Dylan – Triplicate Review

Before the powerhouse Rough and Rowdy Ways came a triple bill of swinging standards. Bob Dylan marked Triplicate as another series of covers from American history books. His previous two albums had done much the same, and under the guise of Jack Frost (his production name), the Highway 61 singer continues his trend of covering interesting pieces from the past. Triplicate in particular feels to be a piece more for Dylan than anyone else. Three albums worth of material, mixed and recorded by Dylan himself is an exercise more in showing the man behind the music the ropes of the recording studio than anything else. Those results are fascinating.

His mixing is strong, and his voice is in that ever-constant transitional period of powerful folk voice to croaky crooner. Triplicate and the two cover albums that preceded it do well to flex those vocal chords. It feels as though Dylan is attempting a range of covers to warm the voice to something new, something original. Rough and Rowdy Ways was just three years on. Opening Triplicate with a cover of the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz-penned I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans goes to great lengths in showing the rises and falls of Dylan at this period. His production values were strong, his voice was starting to build back to that quality and standard heard earlier in the century, but there is a particular and integral disappointment at the core of Triplicate, regardless of its quality.

There is tremendous appeal to the covers of I Could Have Told You So, a piece that might as well have enlisted Richard Hawley on lap steel for how good it sounds. Dylan’s only disappointment here is one projected onto Triplicate from fans that were itching for some new sounds. Questioning how far a great artist can go by recalling tracks of the past misses the point entirely. There are few lulls in a piece that hopes to compartmentalise a quality, to firm up the voice before taking on new originals. That Old Feeling gives way not just to the qualities of Dylan’s new era but to that of Donny Herron and Charlie Sexton’s steel and regular guitar work respectively. As audacious as it is grand, Triplicate may be written off ever-so-slightly as “just a cover album”, but it is a fine cover album that recalls the days where sentimental workings of traditional tracks could form innovative pieces.

Lighter charms of Trade Winds give Dylan the chance to experiment with the mixing of firm collaborators Herron and Sexton, before moving into his own lyrical range. Much of Triplicate depends on the conventions that a listener would like to hear Dylan cover. There is enough range here to offer something to everyone, and for those few grand moments comes a real and delicate clarity. As Time Goes By is another delicate collection, a clear sign that Dylan has marked himself as a strong and notable producer. He gives airtime to Sexton and that formidable feel throughout, from the conviction of Imagination to the swinging style of The Best is Yet to Come. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Dylan croons. He was right. Rough and Rowdy Ways was just around the corner.