Continue on with the glories of Triplicate. Those covers Bob Dylan provided were an exercise in production qualities and formed the base of what would become an underrated touring presence. Instead of those heady hits, there comes an innovative twist to the high points of his career and the frequent covers he provides cobbled together on the unofficial bootleg release of Once Upon a Time: Volume 2. Those considerably muted claps toward the start of Blind Willie McTell should lend themselves to the sort of reverence Dylan is now held in. People head to his gigs for a slice of the legend; to say they have seen the man who brought the world Blonde on Blonde live and in person. It matters not whether he plays those hits because his voice and blues rock stylings are trying to move them far away from their first interpretations. More power to him, and it sounds like it’s working.
A lot of heavy lifting is done on the early tracks with the introduction of broad, Old West-styled piano work. It soon moves the likes of Beyond Here Lies Nothing into comfortable swings. Don’t Think Twice is given a neater acoustic treatment and the string sections which would elongate the emotive range featured on those other tracks Dylan would put out are essential listens. Gruff vocal work separates the early years of blinding positivity and this more nuanced and apprehensive tone. Dylan is not a shell of himself but certainly sounds weathered by experiences which made it tough to return to those rooted classics. He still gives the likes of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and Tangled Up in Blue a strong showing but the likes of Stormy Weather and Love Sick are the real highlights here.
Tones taken up by the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour are developed well here. It is easy to listen to Early Roman Kings and hear all the hallmarks of those dense and brooding tones taking their place in those reflective powerhouses. Tender opportunities are at hand for much of this compilation. Full Moon & Empty Arms, a rare performance of the Shadows in the Night track, makes for a wonderful inclusion – a sharp example of why Triplicate and all those cover albums, stretching back to the 1990s – are so important. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue is given an understandable vocal working. Words and performances which can be picked apart rather than the stern and hurried tone Dylan would take with so many of his tracks as he tries to rinse them of their faintly beating meaning once more. It must tire after decades of performing them and as timeless as the songs are, the interest in Dylan comes in innovative changes which sound like a struggle at times.
Much of this, like the first volume, is an exercise on where staggered vocal changes can take a song. Dylan spent a half-decade researching these stylings out in the open so he could feed off their reception. Once Upon a Time: Volume 2, is Dylan effectively closing the gap between his intended sound and that which he started with way back on Shadows in the Night. All of this to build toward the conventional sounds but pangs of original heartbreak of Rough and Rowdy Ways. Nobody quite does it like Dylan – a remark so often thrown out there it has lost all its meaning. But it is true. Not many can hold a candle to his dedication to exploring new sounds, which he did within the confinements of a legendary status frequently because he knew in these latter periods, he could do what he wanted, when he wanted, and everyone would lap it up. Rightly so. Pieces within this, particularly Make You Feel My Love, are masterclasses.
