Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics go on sale for £1.75 million

Original lyrics to ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’, ‘Subterranian Homesick Blues’ and ‘Lay Lady Lay’ are being sold at a lucrative auction

Handwritten lyrics to three songs by Bob Dylan have been placed on sale for huge amounts of money.

In a memorabilia auction organised by Moments in Time, the original lyrics to “The Times They Are A-Changin’” are offered at a starting price of $2.2m (£1.75m), while the lyrics to “Subterranian Homesick Blues” cost a minimum of $1.2m (£960,000).

The lyrics to “Lay, Lady, Lay” also cost a staggering $650,000 (£520,000).

“History is constantly being made all around us,” reads a statement announcing the sale. “Possessing these items gives one a sense of pride. With these manuscripts you can fall into the moment of their creation as they are truly a ‘moment in time’.”

The lyric sheets feature Dylan’s own contemporaneous annotations, including crossed-out verses and instrumental notes.

It’s been a big month for Dylan fans, with the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter releasing his first new original music since 2012’s Tempest, in the form of two singles.

“Murder Most Foul” is an enigmatic 17-minute-long ballad about the assassination of John F Kennedy, while ”I Contain Multitudes” is a song in which Dylan compares himself to Anne Frank and Indiana Jones.