YESTERDAY'S LESSON
ARCHIVE EVIDENCE LEADS, PATREON QUESTIONS LINGER
What Happened
The clearest Dylan development yesterday was archival. The Independent, The Guardian, and others reported that a working lyric draft for “I’m Not There” was found tucked inside Allen Ginsberg’s first-edition copy of Ankor Wat, a book that had belonged to Sally Grossman. The page is described as a typed sheet with handwritten revisions and is headed to Omega Auctions with an estimate of £20,000 to £40,000. For a song that has long sat in the half-lit mythology of the 1967 basement recordings, that is a genuinely useful find, not just a collectible curiosity.
The murkier story was the Patreon page attributed to Dylan, “Lectures from the Dead,” which offers paywalled stories, letters, essays, and audio pieces in the voices of historical figures. Coverage from Cult Following and Firstpost captured the split response already forming around it: some hear a recognizable Dylan habit of quotation, ventriloquism, and literary reworking, while others are treating it as possible plagiarism or something even stranger. Right now it is producing more argument than understanding.
The most worthwhile touring note came from Rob Mitchum’s Waukegan review at Flagging Down the Double E’s. He described a more acoustic, dual-guitar texture than usual on the current Rough and Rowdy Ways run, with “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” moved deeper into the set and songs like “I Contain Multitudes,” “Crossing the Rubicon,” and “Masterpiece” sounding newly rethought. That is still one close reading of one show, but it points to a live set that remains more flexible than it can appear from a distance.
Key points
- A draft lyric sheet for “I’m Not There,” with handwritten changes, surfaced inside Ginsberg’s Ankor Wat from Sally Grossman’s collection and is being auctioned by Omega.
- The find matters because “I’m Not There” is one of the most elusive songs from Dylan’s 1967 Basement Tapes-era burst, written long before its official release on the 2007 soundtrack.
- A Patreon page tied to Dylan became the day’s most disputed item, with early reactions split between seeing deliberate collage and alleging unattributed borrowing.
- Waukegan reviews suggest the current tour is still being reshaped in small but meaningful ways, especially in texture and song placement.
- On the business side, Business Insider reported that Callaway Arts & Entertainment filed for Chapter 11, with court papers listing Dylan among unsecured creditors.
Implications
Yesterday split neatly between the tangible and the uncertain. The “I’m Not There” page adds one more real artifact to a period of Dylan’s work that still attracts intense scrutiny, and it may prove most valuable once scholars and collectors get a closer look at the revisions themselves. These are the kinds of small discoveries that slowly sharpen the map of the 1967 recordings.
The Patreon story is harder to place. It may turn out to be a real extension of Dylan’s long-running practice of voice-play, appropriation, and literary masquerade, or it may remain a noisy sideshow unless the work and its provenance become clearer. Meanwhile, the quieter touring story may be the more durable one: Dylan still seems willing to rebalance familiar Rough and Rowdy Ways material rather than simply preserve it.
Things to watch
Watch
Whether the Patreon page receives any clarification, either through more postings or reporting that establishes how the material is being made and attributed.
Watch
Whether the acoustic rebalancing heard in Waukegan shows up again at upcoming dates, especially the mid-set placement of “Goodbye Jimmy Reed.”
Watch
Whether auction images or catalog details from the “I’m Not There” draft reveal anything new about the song’s wording, sequencing, or route through the Ginsberg-Grossman circle.