Bob Dylan’s ‘Times They Are A-Changin’ lyrics for sale for $2.2 million
Hindustan Times: [2] Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to his 1960s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin'” are going up for sale with a $2.2 million asking price in what could mark a world record for rock lyrics.
[3] Gary Zimet, owner of Los Angeles-based autograph dealers Moments in Time, said on Sunday the one-page sheet of lyrics, written in a notebook and with changes and scribbles, was originally owned by Dylan’s current manager, Jeff Rosen, and was now being sold by an anonymous private collector.
[4] “It’s not an auction. It’s a private sale. First come, first served,” Zimet told Reuters.
[5] Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to “Like a Rolling Stone” fetched a world-record $2 million when they were sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York in 2014.
[6] “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, written by Dylan in 1963 and released on his 1964 album of the same name, is regarded as one of the most iconic protest songs of the 1960s.
[7] Zimet said he was also selling the lyrics of two other Dylan songs – his 1965 track “Subterranean Homesick Blues” for $1.2 million, and 1969 ballad “Lay Lady Lay” for $650,000.
“They are not quite as important, as iconic,” said Zimet, explaining the lower prices. “‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ is certainly a major, major song but not in the same league as ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
The lyrics to popular songs, especially when handwritten and with scratched-out ideas or doodles, have become some of the most sought-after items for collectors of celebrity memorabilia.
Don McLean’s 16-page draft for “American Pie” fetched $1.2 million in 2015, while Paul McCartney’s scribbled partial lyrics for a recording of “Hey Jude” sold for $910,000 at an online auction earlier this month.
Dylan, 78, last month released his first original music in eight years with a 17-minute song called “Murder Most Foul” that was inspired by the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. In 2016, Dylan became the only singer-songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.