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Bid on the bard: Auction features historic items from Bob Dylan's life

January 14, 2025

American folk pop singer Bob Dylan at a press conference in London, 1966. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images) — Bob Dylan at a press conference in London in 1966.
Express Newspapers/Getty Images

Bob Dylan's cultural staying power is proving as potent as ever, with a huge auction featuring historic artifacts from the crooner's life and career set for Jan. 18.

3 things to know:

The collection is from the oft-called "godfather" of rock journalism, Al Aronowitz, whose credentials include being the original manager of The Velvet Underground and introducing Dylan to a little unknown indie band called The Beatles back in 1964.
The auction lot includes more than 50 items and features early handwritten notes on Dylan's hit, "Mr. Tambourine Man," as well as photographs, posters and a signed harmonica.
There's also some original art from t he bard himself, including a painting inspired by the work of Marc Chagall, according to the detail-rich item descriptions (that are worth perusing if you want to know more about this guy's old stuff).

Want more? The Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast suggests and dissects the buzziest new movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more, five days a week.

What's up with Bobby these days?

His Timothée Chalamet-led biopic A Complete Unknown hit theaters this past Christmas. As NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour panel discussed, the film was a hit for some people and a miss for others, and is now the subject of plenty of awards season chatter. (You can hear from the meta-Bob himself, as Chalamet talks to NPR about the challenge of portraying one of the biggest names in American pop culture.)

As for the man himself, Dylan headlined the Outlaw Music Festival last year alongside Willie Nelson, and tweets every once in a while to honor a late friend or a good restaurant. There's no verdict from him on whether he enjoyed the biopic or not.

And if you're desperate for a piece of Dylan memorabilia but don't have several thousand dollars to spend on the auction later this week, you can always purchase a handle of his very own branded whiskey.

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Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast, where host Brittany Luse goes beyond the obvious takes. Because culture doesn't happen by accident.
Hear from three people from Dylan's life all depicted in A Complete Unknown, courtesy of Fresh Air.