Finally, I reach the end of my year-long Dylan blogging project! One thing I noticed while writing about Dylan's later albums, especially from "Love and Theft" onwards, is how much he came to rely creatively on old, pre-rock & roll songs to feed his muse. His Theme Time Radio Hour shows also delve deeply into this early American pop music. Knowing this makes it more understandable that Dylan would later want to record his own versions of Great American Songbook standards.
Below, I've decided to sum up my thoughts on all 3 of Dylan's 2015-17 "covers" records, partly because I don't have a great deal to say about them, but also since they can be viewed as an entire project. First off, with Shadows In The Night, Dylan re-interpreted songs made famous by Frank Sinatra in his late 50s / early 60s heyday, and with Fallen Angels the intent was the same, while on Triplicate he widened his palette beyond Sinatra to encompass a wider range of voices and songs.
Album: Shadows In The Night
Recorded: 2014
Released: February 2015
Below, I've decided to sum up my thoughts on all 3 of Dylan's 2015-17 "covers" records, partly because I don't have a great deal to say about them, but also since they can be viewed as an entire project. First off, with Shadows In The Night, Dylan re-interpreted songs made famous by Frank Sinatra in his late 50s / early 60s heyday, and with Fallen Angels the intent was the same, while on Triplicate he widened his palette beyond Sinatra to encompass a wider range of voices and songs.
Album: Shadows In The Night
Recorded: 2014
Released: February 2015
Songs / length: 10 / 35:17
Dylan rejected the term "cover" for his approach to these songs, preferring the idea he was "uncovering" them – I think this refers to his approach of stripping the songs of their original, big band arrangements and going for a more intimate approach. He apparently spent a lot of time before the recording sessions listening to the way Sinatra sang them originally, and this no doubt had an influence on his expressive phrasing. I'm not a huge fan of the album generally, but three tracks that I like are Autumn Leaves, Some Enchanted Evening and The Night We Called It A Day.
Album rating: C-
Album: Triplicate
Dylan rejected the term "cover" for his approach to these songs, preferring the idea he was "uncovering" them – I think this refers to his approach of stripping the songs of their original, big band arrangements and going for a more intimate approach. He apparently spent a lot of time before the recording sessions listening to the way Sinatra sang them originally, and this no doubt had an influence on his expressive phrasing. I'm not a huge fan of the album generally, but three tracks that I like are Autumn Leaves, Some Enchanted Evening and The Night We Called It A Day.
Album rating: C-
Album: Fallen Angels
Recorded: February 2015-March 2016
Released: May 2016
Songs / length: 12 / 37:50
Though I don't feel equipped to offer much analysis of this record, I do marginally prefer it to Shadows In The Night, mainly because I think it's a better collection of Sinatra songs, including standards like It Had To Be You and Young At Heart. There's also a lightness of tone to the album that's quite uncharacteristic of Dylan, which is another factor in me preferring it to the darker and moodier Shadows In The Night. Four of my favourites are Melancholy Mood, All Or Nothing At All, All The Way and That Old Black Magic.
Album rating: C
Album: Triplicate
Recorded: 2016
Released: March 2017
Songs / length: 30 / 95:42
According to recording engineer Al Schmitt, Triplicate was recorded over a 5-week period in 2016, with the same sort of recording equipment that Sinatra would have used in the 50s and 60s, avoiding any use of editing, tuning or EQ. To mark the release, Dylan published a Q&A on his website, in which he talked about how these old standards have "much of the essence of life in them – the human condition", and "how perfectly the lyrics and melodies are intertwined, how relevant to everyday life they are, how non-materialistic". Its a wide-ranging interview, but there are a few answers that are revealing about this album, such as:
[Triplicate's] themes were decided beforehand in a theatrical sense – grand themes, each of them incidental to survivors and lovers or better yet, wisdom and vengeance, or maybe even exile – one disc foreshadowing the next and I didn’t want to give any one song preeminence over any other. No old wives’ tales and memoirs, but just hard plain earthly life, the hidden realities of it.
I've only once listened to Triplicate all the way through; for me it's overly long as a single piece, and without the added dimension of Dylan's songwriting it soon gets tiresome. In that sense, I think it fails as a cohesive album. That said, all 3 discs do work as self-contained albums, and my favourites are the first and the last. On the first disc, there's the frailty of Dylan's voice on September Of My Years, plus the enjoyable arrangement of Stormy Weather and the evocative moods of That Old Feeling and I Could Have Told You. Perhaps my favourite is the third disc, which includes a great version of Sentimental Journey, as well as These Foolish Things and Stardust (the latter reminiscent of Willie Nelson, who was among the first to release these imaginative reinterpretations of standards).
Album rating: C-
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