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Bob Dylan

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:200,000.00 - 300,000.00 USD
Bob Dylan

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Auction Date:2014 Mar 20 @ 22:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Amazing and rare handwritten lyrics to the song ‘Lay Lady Lay,’ on an off-white 5 x 8 sheet of Atlantic Lumber Company stationery. In pencil, Dylan has added the title at the top, with the musical keys near the right edge. He proceeds to write all three verses of the song. In full:

“Lay lady lay
lay across my big brass bed (2)
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you you'll see them shine
Whatever colors you can have and hold
I’ll show them to you, they’ll shine like gold
Lay lady lay lay across my big brass bed

Stay lady stay stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile
Clothes face (keep) travelling on the moonlit mile
Hands are dirty, hands are clean
You're the best thing I (he’s) ever seen—
Stay lady stay stay with your man awhile

Why wait any longer for the world to begin
Why wait for the sky to turn blue
(You can have your cake and eat it too)
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing right in front of you.

Lay lady lay lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay—stay while the night is still ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to hold you in the night (all thru the night)
Got my night light shining and the stars are too
Got the heartbreaking blues and they’re all for you
Stay lady stay stay while the night is still ahead
Lay lady lay across my big brass bed.”

Several subtle differences exist from the recorded version and the lyrics offered here, with Dylan changing a couple of the lines including: “shine like gold,” as well as the removal of the two lines, “Got my night light shining and the stars are too / Got the heartbreaking blues and they’re all for you.”

Accompanied by 2013 letter of authenticity from Jeff Rosen, President of the Bob Dylan Music Company which reads: “I have represented Bob Dylan for the past 35 years. This letter will certify that the lyrics to Lay, Lady, Lay, contained herein, are authentic, original Bob Dylan lyric worksheets, written in his own hand. These lyrics were discovered in a storage vault with several other of Bob Dylan’s personal items dating from the 1960’s and 1970’s.” In fine condition.

Originally written to be included on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, the song missed the submission deadline, and was then reportedly offered to the Everly Brothers, who also declined. Finally released on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline, ‘Lay Lady Lay’ subsequently appears on several of his compilations, as well as making the set lists of his live performances. An unbelievably scarce offering from one of music’s most influential songwriters, authenticated directly by Dylan’s longtime current manager.