Bob Dylan lyrics sell for $2m

Bob Dylan's original draft of the lyrics to 1965 classic Like A Rolling Stone sold for over $2m this week, setting a new price record.

It’s now the most expensive rock music manuscript ever auctioned, after Sotheby’s had estimated it would go for half the amount.

The price tag soared beyond the $1.2m cost of John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for 1967 Beatles track A Day In The Life.

Dylan wrote his words on four sheets of headed notepaper from the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington, DC. The pages include scribbles, ideas and unused lyrics including a reference to gangster Al Capone and the line “Dry vermouth / you’ll tell the truth.”

Sotheby’s head of books Richard Austin said: “It’s always pleasing to set the world record. I’m a Dylan fan myself – I thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever handled.”

Also sold were Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall lyrics, which went for $485,000. Elvis Presley’s peacock jumpsuit sold for $245,000 while a Vox organ owned by the Beatles raised $305,000.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.