(Variety) - Some 57 years ago, Bob Dylan famously enraged folk purists by strapping on an electric guitar and performing with a rock band.
What might those purists might have said upon learning that he’d sold his precious song catalog — including such timeless, era-defining classics as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Hurricane” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” — to a multinational conglomerate for nearly $400 million?
On a purely emotional level, selling one’s songs can seem uncomfortably close to selling one’s soul: After all, what is a song if not an expression of its writer’s spirit? But in practical terms, these deals make sense for both sides.
As one enters the winter of life, it’s prudent to consider what will be left behind, and to whom. For most of us, it’s property, vehicles, stocks and dust-covered boxes of stuff — a.k.a. “junk” or “crap,” in the parlance of spouses across the globe — cluttering up attics, basements, garages, closets and storage spaces. Presumably, Bob Dylan accumulated that stuff too — along with an extremely valuable song catalog, which generates publishing and writer royalties; master recordings, which make money when sold, streamed, synced or otherwise “performed”; and a vast archive of lyrics, notes, notebooks, letters, manuscripts and other “crap.”
By Jem Aswad
April 21, 2022
