One-Of-A-Kind Bob Dylan Song Sold For $1.7m At Auction
via Bob Dylan/YouTube
Bob Dylan‘s classic “Blowin’ in the Wind,” was sold at an auction for $1,769,508. Partnered with T Bone Burnett and with the use of new technology, Dylan re-recorded his 1963 song in 2021.
The auction event happened at Christie’s in London and began at hundreds of thousands of dollars. It ended four minutes later and the winner has not been revealed. Only one physical copy of it exists, but that doesn’t stop the people from wanting to hear it. In Los Angeles, New York and London, an in-person “listening experiences” were held.
To provide the best audio quality possible, the new piece was recorded as an Ionic Original, a hybrid of CD and vinyl formats. In the original track, only Dylan does it all by playing the guitar, harmonica and vocals. While, in the new version, they used a whole band, Burnett on the guitar, Greg Leisz on the Mandolin, and Don Was on the bass.
In 2008, Burnett was exploring music technology before he created ΧΟΔΕ (pronounced “Code”), which allows DVD players to be used in playing studio-quality recordings. The first album to be publicized in this format was John MellenCamp’s Life, Death, Love and Freedom.
The one-off recordings will possibly be as a collector’s item and rare possession, at least for now, because according to Burnett, the Ionic Original can’t be mass-produced. He told BBC News:
“I don’t look at this as a replacement for anything.
“I just look at it as another arrow in the quiver for every musician in the world [and] a whole new way of earning a living that we’ve never had before.”
Burnett also stated that Dylan recorded several tracks using the new technology and even though nobody was named specifically, other artists are slated to do the same. Burnett told Variety:
“It’s something both Bob and I have done to the degree we could for our whole lives. But this is a chance now to do it not just for Bob, but for many other artists who are gonna do this with us, who’ve already signed up. With any luck, this is the way I’ll spend the rest of my working life, doing these beautiful one-of-one pieces of high art.”
