Wednesday, November 3, 2021

A Bob Dylan Artifact is a Treasure of the New York Public Library - Changing of the Guards

 Today I visited the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street where I worked as a Sci/Tech Librarian from 1983-90.  This time, I came to view the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures.  It featured a sample of items from the research collection selected for their rich significance.  Leave it up to me to find something related to Bob Dylan

Above are typewritten lyrics with changes from The Changing of the Guards from the Street Legal Album (1978)

Description of the above from the exhibition's curator

What piqued my interest was a statement above -"variety of handwritten alterations the record production team made."  Are they altering the words of Dylan's song without his consent?  Is changing the words of a song normal procedure in a recording session?

Below is the final product

6 comments:

Shineboy said...

Thanks Bruce, that was a great find. I hoping to discover stuff like that when I visit Oklahoma.

I'm thinking he either dictated the revisions or he showed them to someone who wrote "Give to Bob"
to give it back to him for the recording session.

Very interesting.

Rich said...

Thanks for your post. I always enjoy seeing Bob's working lyrics and revisions. I don't believe anyone would be changing anything to Dylan's work. My guess is that this may be the sheet the production team was working from in the studio and they made updates to it as Bob made revisions. Just my two cents.
Let's Go Mets!

Rich

Unknown said...

I first saw Bob at the Berkeley Community Theater in '65. It was just him and a guitar. The place was packed. I loved those songs and still do, but I'm glad he kept going and never turned into a nostalgia act. The 'guard' may have changed, but it kept changing for the better. Jim Ghidella

Bruce S said...

There is certainly a lot more like this at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa

buddyobush said...

Yes, most likely a copyright thing. He changed the lyrics on the fly all the time, so they were probably updating them for registration purposes.

Adam Selzer said...

This looks like someone attempted to transcribe the lyrics, probably for a copyright filing or some such, and Bob fixed up the stuff they'd misheard. They heard "man is united," he corrected that it was "banners united."

 
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