Bob Dylan's Fender Stratocaster sells for nearly $1m

[Jimbuna]

Steve you were missing last night, were you at the auction buying this?

The electric guitar played by Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival has been sold at auction in New York for a record $965,000 (£591,000).

To think, it was left on a plane forty eight years ago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25273104

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Steve you were missing last night, were you at the auction buying this?

Oh yeah, just thought I'd add another tidbit to my collection. Next up is Roger McGuinn's electric 12-string. I enquired about Nigel Tufnel's $39.99 Yamaha that's never been touched by human hands, but he won't talk to me. Says he's convince I'll take it out of the box and play it.

[Jimbuna]

Well the seller certainly had a pay day

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Well the seller certainly had a pay day

Indeed. Considering you could by a new one for around $1000.

Much has been written and debated about Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival 'performance'. So much theatre. In my opinion the albums he released at that time, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde
were his best. Such good writing. Inspired many, copied by many.

"You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, "Who is that man ?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you'll say
When you get home."

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Says he's convince I'll take it out of the box and play it.

...

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by u crank

Indeed. Considering you could by a new one for around $1000.

Much has been written and debated about Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival 'performance'. So much theatre. In my opinion the albums he released at that time, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde
were his best. Such good writing. Inspired many, copied by many.

Agreed, some of his best music but I'd still settle for the guitar.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by u crank

"You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, "Who is that man ?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you'll say
When you get home."

"Ballad of a Thin Man", one of Dylan's best and a great favorite of mine. I drove some bandmates crazy may, many years back trying to persuade them to laearn the song; never succeed, though. I also tried to get them to learn "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat", but that went nowhere, also...

On the official Dylan site, a section is devoted to the lyrics of all his songs:

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/

The listing on the first page gives you the name of the song, its first release, first time played and last time played. The lyrics of his songs, particularly his early songs, are some of the best poetry of the sixties...

Here is a link to the PBS segment of the series "History Detectives" that verified the autheticity of the guitar:



As for the guitar itself, I hope they at least threw in a few picks, a guitar strap, and, maybe, a Fender Champ amp (no, a Pignose won't do)...


<O>

[u crank]

Originally Posted by vienna

"Ballad of a Thin Man", one of Dylan's best and a great favorite of mine.

The lyrics of his songs, particularly his early songs, are some of the best poetry of the sixties...

Yes. So many good songs/poems.

I remember laughing out loud the first time I heard him sing these words ...

Cinderella, she seems so easy
It takes one to know one, she smiles
And puts her hands into her back pockets
Bette Davis style

I wore that album, Highway 61 Revisited, out as a teenager.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u crank

Much has been written and debated about Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival 'performance'. So much theatre. In my opinion the albums he released at that time, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde
were his best. Such good writing. Inspired many, copied by many.

He angered his folk fans when he went electric. He angered his electric fans when he went Christian. He angered his Christian fans when he went back.

All the time exploring his boundaries and writing some of the best music of the modern era. There are some just as good in their own way, but he is the absolute master of his own world.

[vienna]

I have somewhere in my record collection (kids, records were our version of mp3) a bootleg album of Dylan performing in England at the Royal Albert Hal soon after the Newport Folk Festival uproar. He also played an electric set and was also roundly booed by the audience. At one point someone shouts out "Judas" to which Dylan responds, "I can't hear you! You're a liar!" Later the audience start to clap rythmically and make catcalls and whistles to try and drown out Dylan. Dylan starts to speak in a very low voice, mumbling, and the crowd starts to lower the intensity of its noise as if to hear the words of Dylan. As they hushed, Dylan's voice gets a bit louder and the mumbling breaks out into clear voice with Dylan saying something like "I cna't hear myself because you're clapping so loud." The audience breaks into laughter and the concert continues...

Incidentally, the backup musicians for that concert would later go on to for another legendary act, "The Band"...

Dylan is the master of his own world and is very comfortable in it. He has a house out here in Southern California, in Malibu. He lives a very downplayed life and keeps his own privacy. He is sometimes seen shopping at the local markets and drives around in a older model car. He also pumps his own gas, much to the surprise of some people who see him at the gas station. I sometimes wonder if Dylan ever complains to the station attendant that the "pump won't work, 'cause the vandals stole the handles"?...


<O>

[u crank]

Yea, he was also very good at handling the media. He gives a very good interview because he has never 'played' along like he's expected to. And he always has a cryptic answer to the more inane questions. I don't think most of the media types got it. One of my favorites.

At a press conference in San Francisco in 1965.

Journalist: Do you think of yourself primarily as a singer or a poet?

Dylan: Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y'know.

Oh my.