Bob Dylan Handwritten Letter Among Highlights at RR Auction
Boston, MA - A handwritten letter from Bob Dylan to an old Greenwich Village friend will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction.
The one-page letter postmarked July 26, 1975. Letter to musician Debbie Green Andersen, in part: "Usually I write songs and put it all there so I don't write too many letters. Are you still in New York? I am. If you are, I am making a record starting Monday. You can sing on it if you want. Columbia Studios. 50th and Madison. Studio E. If not maybe next time."
The recipient, Debbie Green (1940-2017), was a talented folk musician who taught Joan Baez the guitar and later toured and recorded with her husband, singer-songwriter Eric Andersen, as part of the Greenwich Village folk scene during the 1960s.
The couple moved to California in 1970, had a child, and then separated. In early 1975, after a dinner with Eric Kaz in the Village, Green made an impromptu vocal performance at The Bitter End in what turned out to be a surprise audition for Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour. When Green returned to her Mill Valley home for the summer, she found this letter from Dylan, who, impressed by her performance, inquired if she wanted to sing on his forthcoming Columbia Records album Desire.
In spite of the flattering offer, Green had to refuse: ‘I couldn’t have gone on tour for that long anyway. Sari was in school and I was a mom.’ The recording of Desire pushed ahead, as did Dylan’s historic Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which played a total of 57 shows from October 30, 1975 to May 25, 1976, and was highlighted by a benefit concert for imprisoned boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter on December 8th in Madison Square Garden.
Additional featured lots include:
Beatles fully signed 1963 Parlophone mono first pressing of “Please Please Me.”
Paul McCartney handwritten lyrics for “Through Our Love.”
Elvis Presley’s gold and diamond ring.
Jim Morrison handwritten poem, discovered in the famed “127 Fascination.”
Guns N’ Roses: Slash’s 1992 AMA for Favorite Heavy Metal Artist.
Prince handwritten lyrics for the unreleased song “Go,” in purple ink.
Prince’s personally owned and worn purple shirt, circa “Purple Rain” era.
The Marvels of Modern Music from RR Auction will begin on July 12 and conclude on July 19. More details can be found online at www.rrauction.com.
