A working draft of one of Bob Dylan’s most popular songs, Like a Rolling Stone, has set a record at auction for a popular music manuscript.
The manuscript, said to be the only known draft of the final lyrics, garnered $2m (£1.2m) at Sotheby’s.
Dylan wrote the song, about a debutante cast from upper-class society who becomes a loner, in 1965 at age 24.
It was immortalised in pencil on four sheets of stationery from the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington DC.
Aside from the well-known lyrics – including “No direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone” – the manuscript also contains margin notes of song references, reminders and personal appointments, according to Sotheby’s.
The name Al Capone is written in the margin, indicating Dylan’s experimentation with rhymes.
The unidentified seller is described as a long-time fan of Dylan’s who met the rocker and bought the manuscript directly from him.
The sale of the handwritten lyrics eclipses the 2010 sale of John Lennon’s writings for A Day in the Life, the final track on the Beatle’s 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Those lyrics sold for $1.2m in 2010.
