One-off recording of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind sells at auction for £1.5 million
- A one-off new recording of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind has sold for £1.5 million
- Release is the first new studio recording of the song Dylan wrote in 1962
- The record, which raised a total of £1,482,000, was made in March 2021
A one-off re-recording of Bob Dylan’s hit Blowin’ In The Wind has sold for nearly £1.5 million at auction in London†
The release is the first new studio recording of the song since Dylan wrote it in 1962 and was sold by Christie’s yesterday.
The sale exceeded the original price estimated by the auction house at £600,000 to £1 million.
The record, which raised a total of £1,482,000, was made in March 2021 with Dylan’s longtime collaborator T Bone Burnett and was part of Christie’s Exceptional Sale during Classic Week.
It also showcases a new type of record that combines some of the materials used on CDs and vinyl.
Burnett said he hoped the new recording, offered on a new audio medium: Ionic Original, would help “develop a musical space in the visual arts market.”
Bob Dylan at a rock concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 12, 2019
The record (pictured) sold at Christie’s in London for almost £1.5 million
“I trust and hope that it will mean as much to those who bought it at Christie’s Exceptional Sale today as it did to all of us who made it, and that they will regard it and care for it as a painting or other unique piece of art,” he said.
This year marks Dylan’s 60th birthday as an artist and of Blowin’ In The Wind, which was written for his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Peter Klarnet, Christie’s senior specialist in Americana, books and manuscripts, said: “We are so pleased with the excellent result tonight for the ‘Ionic Original’ disc of Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording of Blowin’ in the Wind since 1962.
“It is a tremendous honor to work with such an incredibly important and groundbreaking advance in analog playback technology.
“We’re excited that this is just the beginning of this exciting new opportunity for artists to work with T Bone and NeoFidelity to reset the value of music.”
Peter Klarnet, Christie’s senior specialist in Americana, said nothing of its kind has ever been sold, with the definitive example being Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, by the Wu-Tang Clan, when a single CD copy was released in 2015. was created.
Originally written and released in 1962, the new version features a full band playing alongside Dylan as he sang. Pictured, Bob Dylan recording his first album in 1961
The plate was housed in a custom walnut and white oak cabinet, pictured
Although it was sold to hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli for an undisclosed amount, it was resold by the US Department of Justice for a reported $4 million when Shkreli was convicted of fraud.
The Dylan plate is made of an aluminum disc with a protective lacquer made of a combination of sapphire and quartz.
It uses the same technology as test pressings, also known as acetates, which musicians often say sound better than vinyl.
However, they have a shorter life, because the needle pushing into the grooves melts the usual lacquer.
The new type of record, known as Ionic Original, has been developed using Space Station technology, which removes enough friction to stop the degradation of acetate.
It can be played on a normal turntable and was described by Burnett as ‘the pinnacle of sound’.