Someone Paid $2 Million For Paper Bob Dylan Wrote On

A handwritten draft of "Like a Rolling Stone" sold on Tuesday at Sotheby's.

On Tuesday, New York auction house Sotheby's sold a draft manuscript of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” for $2.045 million. They called that a record for a popular music manuscript.

funny-as-folk.tumblr.com / Via bigstory.ap.org

The seller was not identified, but Sotheby's said he or she is a fan from California, who'd bought the manuscript directly from Dylan.

The purchased draft was written in pencil on the letterhead of Washington, D.C.’s Roger Smith Hotel.

Via rogersmith.com

The manuscript sprawls across four pages, and offers some insight into Dylan’s thinking. There are doodles of “a hat, a bird, an animal with antlers.” Al Capone’s name is written in the margins, linked by a line to the lyric, “Like a complete unknown.”

Hulton Archive

Back in 2010, John Lennon's lyrics for 1967 Sgt. Pepper's song "A Day In The Life" sold for $1.2 million, a record at the time.

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Record. Smashed.

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Watch Bob Dylan's 2013 interactive video for "Like A Rolling Stone," released in conjunction with an epic box set, The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. 1.

youtube.com

Yeah, it co-stars rapper Danny Brown, actor Drew Carey, and podcast host Marc Maron.

Thumbnail image: Columbia Records