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I think people explaining the pose on the cover as a deliberate nod to crucifixion etc. are reading way, way too much into it. Either way, it's a terrible photo and the cover is a mess. Is it apt that it looks like an amateur bootleg cover? Maybe they should downgrade the sound too, for extra authenticity?
And never mind 'Triplicate', what about the abomination they gave us for 'Tempest'?
Well, i don't know about you, maybe the thought just didn't occur to you,
but when i see a man posing with his arms out by his sides, on the cover
of a Gospel album, it didn't take any deep thought to arrive at the notion
that the clever folk at Sony might well have noted the very same thing i did,
and i noted it upon sight of seeing the cover, no deep thought required there.
Regarding quality, its a live album, so a photo of Dylan on stage from the era
of the recordings seems apt. So the concept is quite sound, however things
become subjective when it comes to choice of the photo used, and fonts.
Some may find the fonts garish, others may appreciate them, there's no
right or wrong answer to that i guess.
Thirdly, Triplicate.
Dylan has mentioned in interview (also in the 2001 Italian Press Conference i think)
that he associates certain sounds within music to certain colours, he's not
unique in that, ive met quite a lot of musicians saying the same thing, so it could
well have been at the request of Dylan that they used the colour scheme that we got.
Of course, maybe he had no part to play in the sleeve at all, unless he speaks about
it, then we won't know. The font for the title 'Triplicate' is very Ye Olde English isn't
it, i'm no expert on lettering, and what styles of lettering come from what eras in
history, but it would appear he/label were aiming for simple and classy looking.
Some may agree that's what was achieved, others may hate it.
It is was it is. But i'd be interested to know if the music/colour aspect came
into play here.
The Triplicate artwork clearly was inspired by a 1999 compilation released on Rhino (see attachment). Interestingly the 1999 album is a gospel compilation. The font used on both Triplicate and that compilation album is Goudy Text, which was based on the movable type created by Gutenberg for the first printed edition of the bible.