Rare Bob Dylan ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ Drafts Found in Journalist’s Archive

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — Rare early drafts of Bob Dylan‘s iconic song “Mr. Tambourine Man,” rescued from a trash can nearly 60 years ago, are set to fetch up to $1 million at auction this weekend. The handwritten lyrics, discovered in the archive of late rock journalist Al Aronowitz, offer a glimpse into Dylan’s creative process during a pivotal moment in his career.

In March 1964, a 22-year-old Dylan spent the night at Aronowitz’s home, typing and retyping the song on a portable typewriter before discarding the drafts and falling asleep on the sofa. Aronowitz, who had befriended Dylan after interviewing him in 1963, retrieved the crumpled pages from the trash and preserved them for decades. The drafts, now stained and partially torn, reveal Dylan’s meticulous revisions, including word substitutions and line deletions.

“It feels like there’s a stream of consciousness there — but you can also see from the drafts how carefully each word was crafted,” said Myles Aronowitz, Al’s son, who discovered the lyrics after sifting through 250 boxes of his father’s papers. “It gives you a feeling for what was going on in Bob Dylan’s head.”

The drafts show Dylan experimenting with phrases, replacing “bootheels” with “feet” and “magic” with “priceless.” Laura Woolley, managing director at Julien’s Auctions, which is handling the sale, noted that the lyrics appear to have been written quickly, with vernacular spelling and abbreviations. “He is constantly in search for perfection, on some level, of things having the right ring and sound,” she said.

Aronowitz’s home served as a “safe haven” for Dylan during a tumultuous period in his life. “He was licking his wounds,” Woolley said, referencing Dylan’s recent breakup with his girlfriend. “And he just threw himself into his work.” Aronowitz later recalled the scene: Dylan typing at a Formica breakfast bar, surrounded by cigarette smoke, with Marvin Gaye‘s “Can I Get A Witness” playing on repeat.

The auction house estimates the lyrics will sell for $400,000 to $600,000. Also up for sale are 50 other items from Aronowitz’s archive, including an early oil painting by Dylan from 1968 and a handbill from his first major headline performance at New York City‘s Town Hall in 1963.

“No one will ever know how Dylan came up with some of these lines,” Woolley said. “And I think it makes him human that not everything he wrote just poured out of him. He really did have to work on this one.”