A torn page of handwritten lyrics from Dylan’s 1967 Basement Tapes sessions has been discovered inside a book owned by the Beat poet.
A single torn page of lined paper, containing Bob Dylan’s draft lyrics for the 1967 song ‘I’m Not There,’ has been discovered. It was found tucked inside a paperback book that belonged to Allen Ginsberg.
The page originates from Dylan’s prolific summer of 1967 in upstate New York, where he recorded over a hundred songs with The Band. These sessions, later known as The Basement Tapes, yielded material officially released years or even decades afterward. ‘I’m Not There’ remained unheard until a 1975 bootleg and saw its first official release on a soundtrack in 2007.
The manuscript is scheduled for auction in April, with an estimated value of up to forty thousand pounds. Its discovery inside Ginsberg’s book underscores the close, collaborative relationship between the iconic songwriter and the leading Beat poet, a connection that helped shape the cultural landscape of the 1960s.
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