NEW YORK — A draft of one of the most popular songs of all time, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” sold Tuesday for $2 million, which Sotheby’s auction house called a record for a popular music manuscript.
A working draft of the finished song, written in pencil on four sheets of hotel letterhead, went to an unidentified bidder. It includes revisions, additions, notes and doodles: a hat, a bird, an animal with antlers.
The
1965 song is about a debutante who becomes a loner when she’s cast from upper-class social circles. In addition to the well-known lyrics “How does it feel To be on your own. 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 … ”
