Bob Dylan Streams Selections From New Album ‘Triplicate’ & Posts Extensive Q&A

Next week renowned singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will issue the triple album aptly titled Triplicate on Columbia Records. A number of selections from the Nobel Laureate’s latest collection of standards from the American songbook has been shared via NPR Music’s First Listen series in advance of its March 31 release.

Dylan spoke at length about Triplicate in a wide-ranging Q&A with Bill Flanagan published on the veteran musician’s official website. Dylan shared the following exchange regarding the decision to make his third standards album, following 2015’s Shadows In The Night and 2016’s set of covers, Fallen Angels:

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 two 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.

Dylan self-produced (as “Jack Frost”) and recorded Triplicate at the legendary Capitol studios in Los Angeles while backed by his touring band. As mentioned above, the three discs that make up Triplicate are “individually titled and presented in a thematically-arranged 10-song sequence.”

The full Q&A can be accessed via this link in which Dylan also discusses Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, his favorite drummers, recollections from the start of his career and more. Stream 10 selections from Triplicate via NPR Music below:

Triplicate Vinyl Tracklist

Disc 1 – ‘Til The Sun Goes Down

1. I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans
2. September Of My Years
3. I Could Have Told You
4. Once Upon A Time
5. Stormy Weather
6. This Nearly Was Mine
7. That Old Feeling
8. It Gets Lonely Early
9. My One and Only Love
10. Trade Winds

Disc 2 – Devil Dolls

1. Braggin’
2. As Time Goes By
3. Imagination
4. How Deep Is The Ocean
5. P.S. I Love You
6. The Best Is Yet To Come
7. But Beautiful
8. Here’s That Rainy Day
9. Where Is The One
10. There’s A Flaw In My Flue

Disc 3 – Comin’ Home Late

1. Day In, Day Out
2. I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night
3. Sentimental Journey
4. Somewhere Along The Way
5. When The World Was Young
6. These Foolish Things
7. You Go To My Head
8. Stardust
9. It’s Funny To Everyone But Me
10. Why Was I Born