Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Auction: Bob Dylan Sells, Lizard King Doesn't

Here's another installment in my ongoing feature "Advanced Auctions," from BBC:

Poems written by Bob Dylan in his college days have fetched $78,000 (£45,000) in a New York auction.

The 16 pages of poems are the first known time Robert Zimmerman used the Dylan name and come from his stint at the University of Minnesota in 1959-60. The selling price was the highest auction price to date for the acclaimed songwriter, according to Christie's. The European buyer was not identified.

...The title page to Dylan's work was inscribed in blue ink with Poems Without Titles, while the poems were written in pencil and signed "Dylan" or "Dylanism". Many poems show the folk singer's "witty and sometimes coarse sense of humour", his desire to stop smoking and his relationships with various women, according to Christie's.

...A medallion worn by Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, when he famously set his guitar on fire, found no buyer.

...The words to the song Not To Touch the Earth written by The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison also went unsold.
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I love the scene in the movie "The Doors" (which really should have been called "Jim Morrison" because it focuses almost exclusively on him) that features "Not to Touch the Earth." Advanced Actor Val Kilmer does an amazing job on that song. So why don't we take a look at those lyrics:

Not to touch the earth
Not to see the sun
Nothing left to do, but
Run, run, run
Let's run
Let's run

House upon the hill
Moon is lying still
Shadows of the trees
Witnessing the wild breeze
C'mon baby run with me
Let's run
Run with me

The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill
Rich are the rooms and the comforts there
Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs
And you won't know a thing till you get inside
Dead president's corpse in the driver's car
The engine runs on glue and tar
Come on along, not goin' very far
To the East to meet the Czar

Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake
The minister's daughter's in love with the snake
Who lives in a well by the side of the road
Wake up, girl, we're almost home
Ya, c'mon!
We should see the gates by mornin'
We should be inside the evenin'
Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
I will get you
Soon!
Soon!
Soon!
I am the Lizard King
I can do anything

Anything but sell lyrics at a celebrity auction. Oh well.

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