Entertainment

Dylan’s Newport guitar could go for $500K

Never mind working there, you’d have to own “Maggie’s Farm” to afford this baby.

Dylan’s Fender StratocasterChristie's

On Dec. 6, the Fender Stratocaster played by Bob Dylan during his notorious Newport Folk Festival in 1965 goes under the hammer at Christie’s in New York. It’s expected to fetch anywhere between $300,000 and $500,000 but remarkably, it has spent most of the time since the festival collecting dust in a New Jersey attic.

Dylan was separated from the guitar when he left it on a private plane a few months after the Newport show. The plane’s pilot, Vic Quinto, held on to it and years later, passed it on to his daughter Dawn Peterson who held it at her home in Morris County, NJ. Although she knew it was Dylan’s guitar, Peterson only realized it was probably the same guitar from Newport Folk Festival after she watched a documentary about his performance on TV.

“The guitar was submitted to the PBS TV show ‘History Detectives’ for verification in 2011,” a Christie’s spokesperson told the Post. “One thing they did was to take the guitar apart and verify the serial number. They also used amateur photos taken at the festival and matched the wood grain on the fret board, which is like a thumbprint.”

Also found in the case were handwritten and typed lyrics to five Dylan songs. One was titled “In The Darkness Of Your Room” and went on to become “Absolutely Sweet Marie” from the 1966 “Blonde On Blonde” album. Three others — “Medicine Sunday” (titled here as “Midnight Train”), “Jet Pilot” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover”— were recorded during the “Blonde On Blonde” sessions but only gained an official release decades later. One set of lyrics is untitled and completely unreleased but starts with the line “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” These are expected to sell for anywhere up to $30,000.

The guitar is the real prize and for good reason because the Newport Folk Festival was no ordinary gig. At the time, Dylan was only 24 and already a hero to folk music fans, but it was here that the adopted New Yorker unveiled his new electric sound to thousands of loyal followers.

It turned out to be one of the most controversial events in music history as many folk fans sneered at what they felt was Dylan’s artistic betrayal, as well as the festival’s poor sound quality.


Dylan played just three songs before being booed off. Looking confused and upset, master of ceremonies Peter Yarrow (of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary) begged Dylan to return, which he eventually did for a two-song acoustic encore. “I did this very crazy thing,” Dylan said at the time. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, but they certainly booed, I’ll tell you that. You could hear it all over the place.”

If you can’t afford to buy the guitar or lyrics, you can at least take a look at them free of charge. They will be on display at Christie’s in Rockefeller Center beginning Saturday, Nov. 30, until Thursday, Dec. 5.