One man's trash is another man's treasure. Old, discarded lyrics for 'Mr. Tambourine Man' Bob Dylan had thrown away have been auctioned off for a solid $500k.
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The auction, which netted an incredible $1.5 million, contained the lyrics among other items. The large collection was gathered from Bob Dylan's younger life. All but ten were items collected by Al Aronowitz, a music journalist.
Bob Dylan had lived with Al Aronowitz in his younger years. It was here, after he had broken up with his girlfriend, that Dylan lived and wrote the first drafts of 'Mr. Tamborine Man.' Copy after copy was hammered out on a typewriter before being scrapped, and diligently collected by Al Aronowitz.
Now, these previously forgotten scraps have been sold for $500k at a Bob Dylan auction.
$500k Lyrics Part Of A Much Bigger Bob Dylan Collection
While living with Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan penned his work and practiced his art. Looking back, Aronowitz has recounted the reasons he ended up collecting the $500k Dylan lyrics from the trash. Writing about his time with musician he spoke about his experience in a 1973 Sunday News article.
"Bob Dylan wrote 'Mr. Tambourine Man' one night in my house in Berkeley Heights, N.J., sitting with my portable typewriter at my white formica breakfast bar in a swirl of chain-lit cigarette [sic] smoke, his bony, long-nailed fingers tapping the words out on my stolen, canary-colored Saturday Evening Post copy paper while the whole time, over and over again, Marvin Gaye sang 'Can I Get a Witness?''
Looking back at his profitable $500k swipe, he spoke of how he should have probably left the Bob Dylan lyrics, but couldn't bring himself to. He says he "found a waste basket full of crumpled false starts." He then "took the crumpled sheets, smoothed them out, read the crazy leaping lines, smiled to [himself] at the leaps that never landed, and then put the sheets into a file folder."
It was his son that found the files and folders full of Bob Dylan memorabilia. He has recounted how his father never threw things away. It was a good thing too, these scraps of old Bob Dylan lyrics have netted him a huge $500k.
