$300 Million Blowing in the Wind
I paid passing notice to the fact that Bob Dylan recently sold his music catalogue to the Universal Music Publishing Group for an estimated $300 million. Maybe he needed the money, although I thought he had finally met with the Nobel Prize people and picked up that small cheque for about another million. The music business and the associated rights are too complicated for me, but I do suppose that we will now hear his melodies and lyrics in advertisements for such things as insurance and drugs. Perhaps President Trump will be able to use Dylan's tunes at his campaign rallies in 2024. To learn more, look for news stories in early December. For example: "Bob Dylan Sells His Songwriting Catalog in Blockbuster Deal: Universal Music Purchased His Entire Songwriting Catalog of More Than 600 Songs in What May Be the Biggest Acquisition Ever of a Single Act’s Publishing Rights," Ben Sisario, New York Times, Dec.7, 2020 or, "What Bob Dylan Selling His Music Catalog Does and Doesn't Mean," Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, n.d.
The Bob Dylan Archives
I paid more attention about three years ago when around 6,000 personal Dylan items, including his old wallet from 1965 and Otis Redding's business card, were purchased and deposited in the archive at ----Are You Ready?--- the University of Tulsa. It is not in Minnesota where Robert Allen Zimmerman was born. The city of Tulsa is home to George Kaiser and the Foundation bearing his name and he ponied up the reported $20 million for the purchase. He had already provided another $3 million to acquire for the University, the archives of Woody Guthrie. Apparently Mr. Kaiser is only marginally interested in either gentlemen. He is more interested in other things and gave $200 million for a park along the Arkansas River. If the border re-opens you will find the Bob Dylan Archive housed in The Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum. It is predicted that, "So many people will be going to Tulsa," says the historian Brinkley. "Eventually, this will be one of the most important 20th-century literary and musical archives anywhere."
The Bonus:
The University of Tulsa also has material from "One of the most influential man of letters in the twentieth century..." Edmund Wilson. This collection even includes glass window panes inscribed by such individuals as Stephen Spender and Dorothy Parker.
His son is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Modern Languages & Literature at Western University and lives here in London, Ontario.
Sources:
For more about George B. Kaiser see: "A Billionaire's Quirky Quest to Create a Mecca for Dylan Fans," Karen Heller, Washington Post, Oc. 12, 2017.
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