Books and Manuscripts

Talking Folklore Center
(New York: Folklore Center, 1962). Folklore Center Series No. 1. Small folio, 8 1/2 x 7 in. (216 x 178 mm). Printed sheet music. Creased from contemporary fold; scattered light soiling.

An early and very rare printing of sheet music for Dylan's spoken blues song, "Talking Folklore Center." Dylan wrote the song for Izzy Young (1929-2019), an early champion of the folk singer, and the proprietor of the Folklore Center, a book and record store in Greenwich Village, New York that catered to the folk revival scene. Although the song was never recorded by Dylan, Young had his lyrics and music printed in these small pamphlets, sometime in the months following the release of Dylan's debut studio album, and sold them in his shop for 25 cents. Young opened the Folklore Center in 1957 at the beginning of the folk revival, and Dylan spent hours in the shop, discovering music, listening to records, and chatting with Young. He later referred to the Folklore Center as a "citadel of American folk music."

Rare. We can locate only one other copy in the auction record.

Together with:

Silo 4 / Fall 1963
Bennington, Vermont: Bennington College, Printed by the Chapel Press, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1963. 8vo. 44, (4), 45-57 pp. Edited by Lynne Coleman and Stephanie Spinner. A rare copy of the fourth issue of Bennington College's biannual literary journal, Silo, featuring the first published appearance in any form of Dylan's iconic song, "The Time's They Are a-Changin'" (inserted between pp. 52-53). Illustrated with work by Megan Parry Marash and Tonia Noell, musical score by Gitta Steiner, and literary pieces by Coleman, Karen Jackel, Gerard Malanga, Sandra Hochman, Ellen Wilbur, William Meredith, and Holland Taylor. Original stiff printed red wrappers, heavy loss along extremities of front and rear wrapper, rear wrapper detached but present; text leaves toned, scattered light soiling to same.

Dylan performed at Bennington College in Vermont for the second time in December 1963 (his first was in October 1961, opening for Reverend Gary Davis). While on campus before the show, Dylan shared handwritten lyrics of his yet-to-be-released song, "The Times They Are a-Changin,'" with poet and student Anne Waldman for inclusion in the college's literary journal, Silo. Dylan had recently wrote and recorded the song earlier that fall, in September-October, and first performed it live, on October 26, at Carnegie Hall. The editors of Silo published a copy of those handwritten lyrics, signed "Me, Bob Dylan," in this Fall issue (under a slightly different title, "The Times They're a Changin"). They are the first published appearance in any form of this iconic song. It would be released on Dylan's third eponymously-named studio album the following January, 1964.

A rare survival.