Lot 273

Bob Dylan Handwritten Signed Lyrics for "Blowing in the Wind", Legendary Civil Rights Anthem, with Jeff Rosen COA, Just in Time For Oscar Buzzworthy Movie "A Complete Unknown"

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Bob Dylan Handwritten Signed Lyrics for "Blowing in the Wind", Legendary Civil Rights Anthem, with Jeff Rosen COA, Just in Time For Oscar Buzzworthy Movie "A Complete Unknown"

Estimate: $60,000 - $70,000

Current Bid: $37,500

(7 Bids)

January 29, 2025 10:00 AM EST
Live Auction
Wilton, CT, US

Description:

Bob Dylan
New York, NY, ca. 2011
Bob Dylan Handwritten Signed Lyrics for "Blowing in the Wind", Legendary Civil Rights Anthem, with Jeff Rosen COA, Just in Time For Oscar Buzzworthy Movie "A Complete Unknown"
AQS
Superb handwritten lyrics signed "Bob Dylan 2011", one page, 6" x 8", on letterhead of the St. Regis Hotel, New York, 2011. His beautifully handwritten and signed full lyrics to his iconic song, "Blowing in the Wind," in fine condition and accompanied by a letter of authenticity signed by Jeff Rosen, Dylan's manager and President of Bob Dylan Music Co.

These lyrics are especially important in light of the outsized role the song had in "A Complete Unknown" the Oscar buzzworthy new Dylan biopic. We have located 2 examples of these lyrics selling at auction, one nearly a decade ago was a messy contemporary pencil version and it fetched $324,000. This would probably bring over $1 million today. The other, a similar set of handwritten lyrics fetched over $108,000 half a decade ago.

"Blowing in the Wind" was released on Dylan's 1963 album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and has been described as a protest song which became song track of the 1960s civil rights movement. Its lyrics, while they condemn the past and the present, do not foretell the future: instead Dylan observes in a quiet, philosophical and perhaps most of all, youthful, way, that there is no definitive answer to the problems plaguing the times; and that the answer, perhaps, may come from an unforeseeable direction, fluttering wildly in the winds of change. And while some 21-year-olds of the time preached with all the arrogance of youth, the 21-year-old Dylan deftly side-stepped prescriptive rhetoric and embraced the humbler side of youth, admitting that he did not know; he could not know; and maybe would never know.

Indeed, Dylan described the ambiguity of the song best in an interview in the quarterly folk journal "Sing Out!": "There ain't too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind – and it's blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some…".

Since its release, "Blowing in the Wind" has been inducted into the Hall of Fame (1994) and ten years later, ranked 14 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs" list. Performed by countless other artists, the song has been celebrated in a striking varieties of music, from performances by other folk artists such as Peter, Paul and Mary, to hip-hop legends Public Enemy, who referenced it in their 2007 song "Long and Whining Road."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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    Provenance:
  • LOA from Jeff Rosen, October 22, 2013.
  • Dimensions:
  • 5" x 8"
  • Artist Name:
  • Bob Dylan
  • Medium:
  • AQS

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000