IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The Dylan catalog, a 60-year rock ’n’ roll odyssey, is sold
NEW YORK » Bob Dylan’s entire catalog of songs dating back 60 years is being acquired by Universal Music Publishing Group.
The catalog contains 600 song copyrights including “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “Tangled Up In Blue.”
Dylan topped the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015, and the song “Like A Rolling Stone” was named by the magazine as the best ever written.
Dylan was influenced by blues man Robert Johnson and folk singer Woody Guthrie, but added a lyrical depth to his music that eventually earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. He was the first songwriter to receive the award.
Financial terms were not disclosed Monday, but the catalog may be the most prized in the music industry. Four years ago, when Michael Jackson’s estate sold the remaining half-share that it owned in the artist’s catalog, it fetched $750 million.
“Brilliant and moving, inspiring and beautiful, insightful and provocative, his songs are timeless — whether they were written more than half a century ago or yesterday,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, in a prepared statement.
Dylan’s songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times, by various artists from dozens of countries, cultures and music genres, including the Jimi Hendrix version of “All Along The Watchtower.”
Joan Baez, Bryan Ferry and the folk singer Odetta put out tribute albums, though his influence cannot be measured. Patti Smith, Adele and Sting contributed
to an album honoring Dylan for his human rights work in 2012.
The sale of Dylan’s musical catalog comes a few weeks after the singer-songwriter’s musings about anti-Semitism and unpublished song lyrics sold at auction for a total of $495,000.
Dylan first entered the public consciousness with New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene during the early 1960s. When he brought an electric guitar on stage in 1965, he split the music community in what was then considered a radical departure for an artist.
Dylan then produced three albums back to back in just over a year that changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll that decade, starting with “Bringing It All Back Home.”
Dylan has sold more than 125 million records globally.