"Triplicate" - Bob Dylan album March 31, 2017*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MRamble, Jan 31, 2017.

  1. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    OK, I stand corrected, assuming those are sales registered upon initial release rather than retrospective after his second LP boosted his popularity greatly. In any case, they aren't exactly world-conquering sales figures. Maybe everyone into the Greenwich Village music scene at the time bought a copy.
     
  2. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    Of course it was the second album that took off, mostly because the word had spread and because it had Dylan's own songs. The first album was always a smaller deal, and back in the vinyl heyday (pre-1980, before cassettes took over a big market share), most stores did not stock it, though they likely had all of his other LPs
     
  3. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    I saw his first album everywhere in the Bay Area. Everyone stocked it here.
     
  4. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    You mean the Greenwich Village of the west coast? But of course. I'm describing most of the rest of the country. If every store stocked even one copy, its total sales would have gone up more than ten-fold. Every town had a record store or many stores in the 1960's and 1970's
     
    chacha likes this.
  5. Radio

    Radio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    It’s been nearly a year since Triplicate was released. Still listening? Any changes of opinion?

    Playing it now and I still think it’s great.
     
  6. JudasPriest

    JudasPriest Forum Resident

    Shadows by far the best of the 3 for me and remains a Mod Bob gem. Triplicate a very mixed bag but does have some nice stuff. Disc one the strongest to my ears.
     
    dee and MRamble like this.
  7. Jack

    Jack Senior Member

    It surprised me how much I enjoyed it, as the previous two bore me to tears, especially Shadows. I think Triplicate shows Bob really enjoying himself, and the band is alive.
     
    Tor33rpm likes this.
  8. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere

    Location:
    New York
    Still liking this especially the vinyl set. Great production.
     
    Tor33rpm likes this.
  9. arthurprecarious

    arthurprecarious Forum Resident

    Location:
    North East England
    Don't care for any of the Sinatra stuff. There's a thread running about when you stopped following certain artist. I could add Dylan to my list especially after "Shadows" . Bootleg Series does keep my interest up. Not new stuff though.
     
  10. culabula

    culabula Unread author.

    Location:
    Belfast, Ireland

    The EU vinyl pressing is so much better. Glad I picked it up for a pittance from Amazon UK after Christmas. Lovely to look at, but I can’t see myself playing it too often.
     
  11. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident

    I listened to each album three times. Then I stopped listening. After the first listen I had to force myself to give Dylan the time he's due.
    I recognize the quality of the work, appreciate the devotion, but there's no reward in Dylan's cover versions for me.
    I've had Sinatra on the brain for about twenty years now. He defines these songs for me. To me, Sinatra's originals are still a voyage of discovery.
    Hearing Dylan -- whose songs mean more to me than anyone else's -- do "Sinatra songs" is just too strange.

    I'd like to hear an album of the mod-rock, as some people call it, that's he's been playing live, but no more of these songs.

    What makes the EU edition better?
     
    Jerryb likes this.
  12. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    Means to the end of next batch of originals inspired by this extended immersion in 'Great American Songbook' (including interspersing selections therefrom in last year's live setlists).
     
  13. Radio

    Radio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    This has been my experience; had a hard time getting into the first two but clicked immediately with Triplicate.
     
    eschorama and live evil like this.
  14. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    It's a bit like listening to the moody Sinatra originals. You really need the fireplace and a bottle of brandy to dig just two sides.

    6 sides, following 4 sides on the previous releases is a bit much. It's a bit relentless for the listener. I don't dislike it, but jeez louise the hangover...
     
    Carserguev likes this.
  15. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    That's like a five LP album, really. I couldn't take that in one sitting from anyone. One disc per day, maybe, even if I were binge-listening an artist.Because frankly, I think Bob recorded all of it together, and just released the discs separately. So they all have the same basic recording/production approach, sound, and mood.
     
  16. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I am still listening from time to time. I really wish the mastering was as good as the mastering for Shadows In The Night.
     
  17. Thomas Casagranda

    Thomas Casagranda Forum Resident

    It's been 6 years since Tempest: maybe, just maybe, there'll be a new album of fresh stuff, composed by Bob ??
     
  18. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident

    I could be wrong, but I don't believe there will be an album of new songs.
    Dylan's decided that he's done enough and has nothing left to prove.
    His priorities changed when "Things Have Changed" became a hit and an award winner in '99.
    He's more interested in painting and sculpting and doing the things a senior citizen in his late 70s does.
    The constant touring is just impulse and reflex, which is not to say he's isn't good at it, but as a creative songwriter don't expect anything new.
     
  19. Brian Doherty

    Brian Doherty Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA
    I too have that FEELING about Bob---that it's all over for him as a writer and that him falling into a hole of "you know all ya'all thought I changed the world by evolving popular songwriting to new and better heights but you know what? Popular songwriting before I came along was JUST FINE" has some bizarre Dylanesque Big Point to make. But I also know that he's a surprising dude, and I thought pre-TOOM that the two folk lps might mean he was done as well. We'll see....
     
    Richard--W likes this.
  20. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident

    No, I think it ended with "Things Have Changed." Every thing that's come after that song has been professionalism. Creating product. Earning a living. Enjoying himself.
     
  21. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Whether you think so or not, that wasn't the general consensus on either Love & Theft or Tempest.
     
  22. Brian Doherty

    Brian Doherty Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA
    As much as I don't listen to TEMPEST for pleasure, I recognize he was surprisingly stretching an doing new things or at least the sort of thing he hadn't done in forever on it---songs like "Tin Angel" and "Scarlet Town" and title track don't come from a bored coaster. And "Pay in Blood" was one of the only examples of "seems like a hookily constructed pop tune and not just 'generic blues rocker' or 'generic old timey slow romantic ballad'" tune he'd done in awhile. It was not visibly the work of someone giving up or going along to get along.
     
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  23. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident

    It wasn't the consensus, no. Nevertheless, Love & Theft (2001), Modern Times (2006) and Tempest (2012) are merely professionalism. His world view is so dour, his opinion of his audience so low, his contempt for ideals and causes so resolute, and his resentment of audience expectations so great, that no creativity comes through. He's just connecting dots and filling in blanks. It's easier to retreat into nostalgia -- the tin-pan alley songbook -- than to be creative.

    If Dylan does another album, it might be cover versions of Hank Williams songs, or something like that. But I don't think there'll be another album.
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2018
  24. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    I don't agree with this negativity about Dylan's later work at all (essentially, shredding everything post-2000). I think you are missing a lot. Do you also severely criticize the material from 1989-1999?
     
    Carserguev and highway like this.
  25. Richard--W

    Richard--W Forum Resident

    I'm not shredding everything post-2000. Nor am I severely criticizing. I'm observing objectively and without emotion what he's been doing. I'm pointing out that "Things Have Changed" signaled a shift in Dylan. The lyrics are self-explanatory. "I used to care, but things have changed." I suppose there is a listening value in the product he's created since then, but his descent into ambivalence and contempt is so clinical I'd rather not share in it.

    I continue to love the body of work before "Things Have Changed" more than ever before.
    No one else could get me started collecting vinyl again after all these years.
     

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