'How does it feel?' Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone lyrics on course to beat auction record set by John Lennon and fetch $2 million under the hammer

  • 1965 song regarded as an all-time greats, propelling Dylan to stardom
  • Lyrics contain multiple doodles and a reference to mobster Al Capone
  • John Lennon song 'A Day in the Life' sold in 2010

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: | Updated:

Handwritten lyrics for Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone', one of the most popular songs of all time, are going under the hammer this summer and could fetch a record $2 million.

Sotheby's is offering a working draft of the finished song in Dylan's own hand for an estimated $1 million to $2 million. The previous record sale for lyrics sold were from the John Lennon song 'A Day in the Life'

The song is about a debutante who becomes a loner when she's cast from upper-class social circles.

How does it feel? Sotheby's is auctioning off a working draft of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, one of the most popular songs of all time

How does it feel? Sotheby's is auctioning off a working draft of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, one of the most popular songs of all time

Like a complete unknown: The draft, in Dylan's barely legible scrawl, is up for sale on June 24, with estimates it could fetch as much as $2 million

Like a complete unknown: The draft, in Dylan's barely legible scrawl, is up for sale on June 24, with estimates it could fetch as much as $2 million

You never understood that it ain't no good: Dylan was only 24 when he recorded the song in 1965

You never understood that it ain't no good: Dylan was only 24 when he recorded the song in 1965

With no direction home: The lyrics contain a number of doodles, including what appears to be a bowler hat as well as the name Al Capone scrawled in the margin

With no direction home: The lyrics contain a number of doodles, including what appears to be a bowler hat as well as the name Al Capone scrawled in the margin

You've gone to the finest school: The stationery comes from the Roger Smith hotel in Washington DC

You've gone to the finest school: The stationery comes from the Roger Smith hotel in Washington DC

Bob Dylan backstage at De Montford Hall, Leicester in the 1960s

Bob Dylan backstage at De Montford Hall, Leicester in the 1960s

The draft is written in pencil on four sheets of hotel letterhead stationery with revisions, additions, notes and doodles: a hat, a bird, an animal with antlers. The stationery comes from the Roger Smith hotel in Washington, D.C.

'How does it feel To be on your own' it says in his scrawled handwriting. 'No direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone.'

Scrawls seem to reflect the artist's experimentation with rhymes.

The name 'Al Capone' is scrawled in the margin, with a line leading to the lyrics 'Like a complete unknown.'

Another note says: '...dry vermouth, you'll tell the truth...'

Dylan was only 24 when he recorded the song in 1965.

The auction is June 24 as part of Sotheby's rock and pop music sale. Experts at the auction house have described it as 'the most significant piece of rock material to appear at auction.'

Sotheby's described the seller as a longtime fan from California 'who met his hero in a non-rock context and bought directly from Dylan.'

He was not identified.

Sotheby's says it is 'the only known surviving draft of the final lyrics for this transformative rock anthem.'

In 2010, John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for 'A Day in the Life,' the final track on the Beatles' classic 1967 album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' sold for $1.2 million, the record for such a sale.

Bob Dylan in 1965, the same year that he wrote the song
Dylan before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Freewheelin Bob Dylan: The star recording a song in 1965 (left), the same year he wrote Like a Rolling Stone, and (right) in 2012 before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

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