When a unique Bob Dylan record is auctioned off at Christie’s on Thursday, it might sell for up to £1 million.
The album includes a new rendition of the artist’s timeless song Blowin’ In The Wind, which he and longtime collaborator T Bone Burnett created in March 2021.
Since Bob Dylan composed the song in 1962, this is its first brand-new studio rendition. The one-off release also has a brand-new record format that mixes some of the components of CDs and vinyl and claims to have superior sound quality and longevity to vinyl.
The new format, which can be played on any standard turntable, is referred to by Alan Burnett, who worked on its creation, as “the pinnacle of sound.”
Ultimately, Blowin’ In The Wind’s new recording will only be available to one wealthy Dylan lover. Fans can, however, visit Christie’s in London to hear the album before to purchase.
They will then be escorted into a quiet side room of the auction house, where a silk glove is used to handle the 10-inch disc before it is set up on a £30,000 hi-fi system.
With the exception of a few pops and cracks (maybe four in total) caused by dust or static on the record’s surface, the warmth and precision of the sound are immediately audible when listening via headphones.
Dylan’s voice is consistently supple and agile, thanks to a protracted tour hiatus caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.
The lyrics, which are intrinsically linked to the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, carry much more weight when he sings with his distinctive rasp.
There are lines in the song like, “How many times can a man turn his head / and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” Sung from the perspective of an 81-year-old who has seen history repeat itself a decade after decade after decade, the lyrics resound more powerfully than ever.
The song becomes more reflective as a result, reflecting on our shortcomings. Finally, Bob Dylan takes a little longer to get to the song’s ending, stretching out his words as though he’s thinking over each lyric again.
The 2021 re-recording, in contrast to the original, includes a full band captured live in the studio as Dylan sang. Their empathetic and understated arrangement, which features Don Was on bass and Greg Leisz on mandolin, gives the song a fresh perspective without detracting from its main point.
Nearly regrettable, according to the Christie’s catalog, “There will never be another duplicate of Bob Dylan’s recording from 2021 made; this is the only one. There won’t be any more sales or releases of this recording,” explains Burnett, who is best known for his Grammy-winning work on Alison Kraus and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand as well as the soundtracks of The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
