‘Dylan & the Dead’

When an object or a collection is welcomed into a museum, values are raised for objects with similar provenance; a MJ reader’s Bob Dylan collectible vinyl album is a great example of this phenomena, albeit on a celebrity scale. 

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, there is now a museum dedicated to the life and works of Bob Dylan. A new book, Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine, shares photos and artifacts never seen publicly from seven decades of Dylan’s career. Some of the amazing photos from the Tulsa Museum Collection include a 1957 photo of Bobby Zimmerman singing his first show at summer camp in Wisconsin, a 1964 Dylan meeting with Johnny Cash, a photo of Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac’s grave, a Rolling Thunderphoto of 1975, a 1987 photo of Dylan and George Harrison, and Blood on the Tracks1993 tour photo, and an intimate “card game” shot from the “Never Ending Tour,” which began in 1988 (Dylan continues to tour today).

Our reader’s object is the famous “Dylan and the Dead” LP, a first release album Feb. 6, 1989, a collaboration between the Grateful Dead and Dylan, a compilation of recordings from the 1987 stadium tour. Critics at the time said, “What? Folk rock meets psychedelic rock? Dylan won’t wear tie-dye.” There are seven songs by Dylan, accompanied by the Dead, and produced by Jerry Garcia and John Cutler. Side one: “Slow Train,” “I Want You,” “Gotta Serve Somebody,” “Queen Jane Approximately”; Side Two: “Joey,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

The album, though originally panned in 1989, soon reached Gold Certification, Billboard’s No 37th in the U.S. and 38th in the United Kingdom. When an album reaches Gold status, many are in circulation, and usually a top seller will not be a rare album today. But the new museum influences value.

What is it worth? Our reader says it is in near-mint condition, pressed in 1989 at Columbia Records Pressing Plant in Carrollton, Georgia, the sleeve condition is near-mint, still in poly shrink but the seal is broken, played once (how can he tell?) with original inner-picture sleeve, and the hype sticker which reads: “The Legendary Meeting.” If this is all true, the album is worth $300; if one factor is not true, the album is valued between $20 and $50. 

A client in Paradise, California, (before the fire) had a harmonica which was rumored to have been played by Bob Dylan at a certain venue, and for this valuation I consulted harmonica virtuosi Joe Powers; he said that just the apocryphal story increases the perceived value from $50 to $250.

The question of provenance – why it was purchased, and by whom, adds to value. 

In a stunning example of Tulsa’s Dylan Museum influencing the value of an object, Art Net News reported that Dylan’s sprawling Scottish Highlands Mansion was on the market as of August 2023, an estate built in the Edwardian Era, Aultmore, in the village of Nethy Bridge in Cairngorm National Park, a remote area, with 18,357 square feet, 16 bedrooms, 11 baths (if you know Scotland, you know this is rare), on 25 acres of gardens with statues, gazebos, and three cottages. 

Dylan and his brother David Zimmerman bought the estate in 2006; it was offered in 2023 for $3.9M. Why Scotland? Dylan apparently loved Scottish folk music and poetry.

Reviewing the Dylan and the Dead album, critics in 1989 believed that Dylan may have wandered away from his folk roots, but Dylan was never far from those roots. The website “Untold Dylan” reports that Dylan was a follower of Hamish Henderson, the founding father of Scotland’s 20th-century folk renaissance, and his poems and songs, for example, his “The 51st Highland Division’s Farewell to Sicily” has a line “the times are a-changing.” A 2008 Guardian article titled “Robert Burns is My Biggest Inspiration,” reported that the 18th-century Bard of Ayrshire wrote a famous poem that reverberated for Dylan: “My Love is Like a Red Red Rose/ that’s newly sprung in June/ O my love’s like the melodie that’s sweetly played in tune.” 

The Center for Burns Study at the University of Glasgow reported to the Glasgow Herald that “‘Rabbie’ Burns (like Bob Dylan) was a hugely committed artist who dealt with everyday emotions: we are not surprised (Burns) influenced Dylan” and not surprised Dylan owned a Scottish Mansion.

The fact that this great artist has a museum to his name has increased the value of all things Dylan.