Handwritten Bob Dylan lyrics set to fetch six-figure sum at Sotheby's auction

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 11:47 EST, 8 December 2010


Handwritten lyrics penned by Bob Dylan for his iconic song The Times They Are A-Changin' are expected to fetch up to $300,000 when they go under the hammer at auction on Friday. 

One of the most celebrated songs of the 1960s, Dylan's manuscript features four verses of lyrics, without musical notation, scrawled in pencil on a scrap of notebook paper according to auctioneers Sotheby's.

The 1964 song was a beacon for a folk-inspired protest movement that challenged prevailing attitudes towards race, poverty and and the Vietnam War. Dylan, who turns 70 next year, continues to record and perform.

Iconic: the handwritten sheet of lyrics dates back to 1963 and has had several owners

Iconic: the handwritten sheet of lyrics dates back to 1963 and has had several owners

The Times They Are A-Changin' first debuted on the January 1964 album of the same name.

The auction which will be held in New York on Friday December 10.

The autographed lyric sheet also features an early draft of the Dylan song North Country Blues on the other side.

The singer gave the copy of the lyrics to fellow folk singer Kevin Krown, who introduced Dylan to the New York music scene when he first visited the city in 1960.

After Krown's death in the 1990s the draft was given to Eve and Peter McKenzie, whose apartment Dylan would often stay in when he was writing music.

The private collector who now owns the lyrics was inspired to offer them to Sotheby's after the auction house sold a copy of John Lennon's lyrics to A Day In The Life for over $1.2m last June.

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