Bob Dylan’s Fender Stratocaster, which he played at the 1965 Newport Folk festival is finally up for auction.
The Newport Folk Festival is a important mark in Dylan’s career. Dylan performed with a backing back for the first time and has had rock historians debating ever since whether or not the crowd was booing.
The guitar was recently discovered on an episode of PBS’ History Detectives and has been in possession of Dawn Peterson’s family for 50 years. A legal disagreement with Dylan has been settled and Peterson is now able to sell the guitar Rolling Stone reports.
“One term of the agreement that I obviously can disclose is that Mr. Dylan will participate in the sale to the extent that he will be signing off on any ownership interest after the sale. The person who buys it will receive a bill of sale that will be signed both by the Petersons and Mr. Dylan or his representatives,” Peterson’s attorney Christopher DeFalco said.
The guitar came into Peterson’s father, Victor Quinto, possession when he was a private pilot working for Dylan’s manager.
“Dylan left the guitar on the plane,” Peterson said. “My father passed away years ago, but I’ve heard from his friends that he asked the management company what to do with it and he heard back, ‘We can always get more from Fender.’ I’ve also heard that he called and asked them what to do and nobody ever responded.”
According to Consequence of Sound Peterson will also include the handwritten lyrics found in the case in the auction. Peterson said History Detectives said it was work $500,000 and the lyrics are worth around $50,000.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
