Photos: Bob Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS Lyrics Sell for $290,404 at Auction

Bob Dylan's handwritten working lyrics for two songs from Blood on the Tracks, 'Idiot Wind' and 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,' sold for $290,404 in RR Auction's Remarkable Rarities sale, which concluded Sept. 24.

The double-sided sheet contains working lyrics for 'Idiot Wind' on one side and a nearly complete working draft of 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' on the reverse. Dylan wrote the latter under its Working Title, 'You're Gonna Make Me Miss You When You Go.' The manuscript includes revisions, discarded passages and an additional verse absent from the released recording.

The archive also includes a two-sided handwritten transcription of 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' by Ellen Ziffren, who was known to Dylan in 1974 as Ellen Bernstein. Ziffren said she made the copy the day Dylan first played the song for her, writing in blue ballpoint on a 3-by-5-inch leaf torn from one of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks notebooks.

'Blood on the Tracks stands among the defining albums of Dylan's career, and here you can see two of its songs still taking shape,' said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction. 'The revisions and discarded passages are right there on the page, along with Ellen's firsthand history of the period and how the material was preserved.'

Ziffren was 24 and serving as Columbia Records' director of West Coast A&R in San Francisco when she met Dylan in early 1974. She later spent time at his Minnesota farm as he composed and revised songs for Blood on the Tracks and was present during the New York recording sessions.

Ziffren has said 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' was written about her and was not a breakup song. She cites personal references in the song to Ashtabula, Ohio, where she was born; Honolulu, where she was preparing to travel; San Francisco; and Queen Anne's lace, which she recalled identifying for Dylan during a walk near his Minnesota farm.

Ziffren recently rediscovered the manuscript while clearing out a storage space. She said she decided to sell the material in part to establish a college fund for her 7-year-old granddaughter.

Two additional works from Ziffren's collection also sold. Dylan's 'Blues in E (for Ellen),' a drawing of Ziffren with a handwritten lyric fragment and revisions, sold for $7,563. A collaborative drawing made by Dylan and Ziffren during downtime at the Blood on the Tracks recording sessions at A&R Studios in New York sold for $2,756.

The Remarkable Rarities auction realized $2.1 million.

Additional highlights included:

Edgar Allan Poe autograph letter postponing publication of his planned journal because of his illness, sold for $206,266

Abraham Lincoln signed carte-de-visite portrait donated to benefit a Union soldiers' aid society in 1864, sold for $149,020

Sealed first-generation 4GB Apple iPhone, sold for $94,791

Abigail Adams autograph letter reflecting on her youth, sold for $94,660

Declaration of Independence printing from W. J. Stone's copperplate, circa 1833, sold for $73,761

1990 Topps George Bush White House Issue baseball card, sold for $67,499

RR Auction's Remarkable Rarities sale ran from Aug. 24 through Sept. 24, 2026. For more information, visit www.rrauction.com.

Photo Credit: Ziffren