Like A Rolling Stone Draft Scores Hefty Haul At Auction

Yesterday, Sotheby’s presented an auction in NYC dubbed “Rock & Roll History: Presley To Punk” that brought in over $4 million for a batch of more than 100 pieces of memorabilia from artists such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Doors and Joni Mitchell. However the big story from the auction pertains to just one of those lots -a four-page written manuscript for “Like A Rolling Stone” penned by Bob Dylan.

Dylan wrote out the draft for “Like A Rolling Stone” in pencil on Hotel Roger Smith Washington letterhead stationery. The pages include “four long stanzas and the repeated chorus of the song as recorded and released, with edits, corrections and marginal notes of song references, reminders and personal appointments.” An unidentified buyer won the auction with a jaw-dropping bid of $2,045,000.

Sotheby’s claims that the winning bit represents a world record for a popular music manuscript. The $2+ million bid makes the $485,000 paid in the same auction for Dylan’s handwritten final draft of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” almost seem like a bargain.

Watch Dylan discuss and perform “Like A Rolling Stone”: