The Beatles aren't the only ones putting handwritten lyrics on the auction block: Pieces of paper with sentences and rhymes written by Bob Dylan himself will be auctioned at Christie's next month. The lyrics, which also include some unpublished works, come from Dylan's fertile mid-1960s period that yielded albums like Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. While the prospect of owning draft copies of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" or "Maggie's Farm" might seem like the big news here, the stunning disclosure is that Dylan wrote some of his greatest songs in crayon. Crayon! Like a first grader! Reuters doesn't elaborate on which color Dylan used, but we've always been partial to Midnight Blue and Goldenrod.
Before anyone starts bidding heavily on these unreleased Dylan lyrics, we should mention that there have been some, ahem, plagiarism concerns about Bob's early works. Back in 2009, a poem penned by a 16-year-old "Bobby Zimmerman" called "Little Buddy" was supposed to get auctioned at Sotheby's. The poem was originally published in the newspaper of a Jewish summer camp the teenage Dylan frequented. However, it was soon discovered that Dylan didn't actually write "Little Buddy," an ode to a dead dog, and instead just claimed credit for a song that was penned by country singer Hank Snow. Maybe give the lyrics a quick Internet search before investing on what could be the next "Desolation Row."
Last December, Dylan's handwritten lyrics for "The Times They Are A-Changin'" sold for $422,000 at auction, but next month's items are estimated to reach a high bid of between $70K to $90K.
[Photo: Marty Temme/WireImage.com]