149 Bob Dylan acetates have been discovered in boxes in a Greenwich Village apartment.
The recordings consists of in-progress versions of songs made as he was recording his 1969 LP Nashville Skyline and his two 1970 albums, Self Portrait and New Morning.
The records previously belonged to the woman who owned the Greenwich Village building where Dylan had rented a room to use as a studio.
The discovery was made by record collector, Jeff Gold, reports Rolling Stone. Writing on his website, RecordMecca, Gold says the records, which range in size from 10-inch to 12-inch, were in excellent condition after being stored in boxes marked “Old Records” for over 40 years.
The man who sold Gold the acetates had noticed the address of Columbia Records and a Dylan song title and realized they might be valuable. The sleeves contain notes written by Dylan and producer Bob Johnson, indicating which takes were good, as well as some Dylan doodles. Johnson confirmed his and Dylan’s handwriting to Gold.
Writing on RecordMecca, Gold reports, “We discovered many of the acetates were unreleased versions of songs, in some cases with different overdubs, sometimes without any overdubs, many with different mixes, different edits and in a few cases completely unreleased and unknown versions. There are outtakes too, including electric versions of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ recorded during the Self Portrait sessions, and a gospel tinged version of ‘Tomorrow Is Such A Long Time’ recorded during the New Morning sessions.”
Currently, there are four of the acetates available on RecordMecca. Among the recordings are a different mix of “Winterlude” (current price: $1,750), an unreleased version of “It Hurts Me, Too” ($2,500), an unreleased sequence of side 2 of Self Portrait ($2,500) and the most expensive item currently up for sale: an acetate containing a different sequence of Nashville Skyline, which is going for $7,000.