We all know that Bob Dylan had/has a strong predilection for country and Americana music of yesteryear, but new news revealed by Reuters reveals that he even wanted to rip off country legends!
On June 23, a poem, written by a 16-year-old Dylan and submitted to his Jewish summer camp’s newspaper, is going to go up for auction at Christie's as the earliest known example of the singer-songwriter’s handwritten lyrics and is expected to receive bids nearing $15,000. However, it turns out that the “poem” Dylan submitted isn’t even an original work.
Christie’s announced the sale of the manuscript, written in 1957, on Tuesday, but within days it became apparent that the auction house had failed to detect that the “Dylan Original,” with a few minor alterations, was actually the words of Hank Snow’s previously recorded song “Little Buddy.” Reuters investigated the claim made by one of their faithful and alert readers and were promptly able to back up the claim of their stalwart subscriber.
"Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled ‘Little Buddy.’ The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song," Christie's said in a statement. "This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan and Christie's is pleased to offer them in our Pop Culture auction on June 23."
Ah, Christie's, quite the defender of artistic integrity, eh? Even with plagiarizing, I marvel at the ability of a place that can still sell handwriting for thousands of dollars. I also wonder who would ever be such a Dylan fan that they would pay exorbitant amounts of moolah just for a teenage Dylan writing down lyrics he likes and playing a prank on his camp counselors. I wonder if this means I can get a major payday for a “Possible Song Titles for New Dylan Album” manuscript that turned out to just be a grocery list I found at Bob’s house while cleaning his pool.
