*Update: AP reports that Dylan’s lyrics were purchased by the owner of a hedge fund for $422,500 well over their previously estimated value.
Earlier this year Bob Dylan performed his perpetually relevant 1964 protest anthem “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for an event honoring the civil rights movement at the White House — remaining, according to the president, “a little skeptical about the whole enterprise.” Not only have the song’s lyrics held up over the past 46 years, but the literal handwritten words (complete with edits) are still kicking. And for sale: ArtsBeat reports that Sotheby’s, who provided the above image, will put the original lyric sheet up for auction next month at an expected cost of $200-300k.
While Dylan’s “Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen…” verse doesn’t appear on the “sheet of unruled three-hole notebook paper,” one lucky (read: rich) buyer will get some “North Country Blues” lyrics on the opposite side to hopefully make up for the omission. Check out a larger scan of the document, which was first given to folk singer Kevin Krown by Dylan himself back in the early ’60s, here.