Dylan, Clapton manuscripts to go on auction
Original manuscripts of classic songs by Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton will go on auction as part of a collection of rock memorabilia, Sotheby's said Monday. The auction house estimated that the two manuscripts would fetch $50,000 to $70,000 each when they go on sale Saturday in New York. The collection includes the manuscript of "Layla," one of rock's best-known songs of unrequited love, which Clapton wrote in 1970 about Pattie Harrison-then the wife of his friend, Beatle George Harrison. She would later marry Clapton before they eventually divorced after nine years.
Clapton wrote the opening lyrics to "Layla," which was loosely inspired by the tale of the Persian Romantic poet Nizami Ganjavi, on the stationary of the Thunderbird Motel in Miami Beach. Sotheby's will also auction the original typescript of "This Wheel's on Fire," one of the best-known songs from Dylan's 1967 sessions with Canadian folk rockers The Band around Woodstock, New York.
"This Wheel's on Fire," which the future Nobel laureate wrote with The Band's Rick Danko, went on to appear on the 1975 album "The Basement Tapes." Among other items up for auction is a set of seven portraits that Dylan and fellow folk rocker Joan Baez sketched of themselves and each other. Dylan and Baez, who had been lovers, drew the sketches in 1963 on stops at a coffeehouse in Woodstock on their motorcycle trips. Sotheby's estimated that the set would sell for $30,000 to $50,000. — AFP
ANew Zealand man is the latest person to say he is pop icon Prince's heir after a judge dismissed a series of other claims, court documents showed Monday. A lawyer for the administrator in charge of Prince's estate agreed to arrange genetic testing on Max Stacey McCormack, but made no secret of his doubts about the claim. McCormack, from Invercargill on New Zealand's southern tip, submitted as evidence a photo of a person who had a "mild physical resemblance" to Prince but did not appear to be the "Purple Rain" star, said David Crosby, who represents Bremer Trust.
"We must admit that we are somewhat skeptical of your claim, given our understanding that (Prince) was completing high school in Minnesota in 1976, as opposed to living in New Zealand for several months," Crosby said in response to McCormack's account, made under oath. In a letter filed with a Minnesota court, Crosby said it was nevertheless theoretically possible that McCormack's mother had sex with Prince. He gave the New Zealander and his mother until December 12 to arrange DNA tests. Little is known about the new claimant. A 2007 article in the newspaper The Southland Times said McCormack, then 30, was in court for allegedly injuring a woman's eye with a machete.
Prince died on April 21 from an accidental painkiller overdose and left no will, setting off a flurry of claims from people seeking to inherit his multimillion-dollar estate and vast song catalog. A judge last week dismissed a claim from Carlin Williams, an imprisoned rapper who said his mother had sex with Prince in a Kansas City hotel. Williams, who has rapped about killing his alleged father, failed a DNA test and the judge, Kevin Eide, formally excluded him as an heir after a dispute about his request for a new examination. Others who have come forward to claim Prince's estate include a woman who said she had secretly married Prince in Las Vegas and a man in California who said the musician quietly promised him $1 billion. Prince left behind a sister and five half-siblings but no recognized child or spouse. — AFP