“His clothes are dirty, but his hands are clean. And you are the best thing that he’s ever seen.”
Bob Dylan‘s “Lay Lady Lay” was an instant hit. From Duran Duran to Ministry, countless music groups have taken a crack at one of the most popular love songs of the late ’60s. For decades, the song was thought to have been written for the 1969 film, “Midnight Cowboy.”
But in transcripts of a 1971 conversation with Dylan that are going up for auction, the song is revealed to have been written for Barbra Streisand.
The transcripts are from an interview that took place over several days between Dylan and friend Tony Glover. They were reportedly for an Esquire article that Glover had been writing, though the story was never published. In the conversation that took place on March 24, it’s clear that Dylan wrote the song for her, not necessarily about her.
“You said Father of Night was written for a play, and Lay Lady Lay was done for Midnight Cowboy,” Glover says.
“Actually it was written for Barbra Streisand,” Dylan replies.
Streisand had no knowledge that the song was written with her in mind.
“I’m very flattered to find out that Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for me,” Streisand said this week in a statement to NBC News. “What I remember is getting flowers from him with a handwritten note asking me to sing a duet with him, but I just couldn’t imagine it then. Guess what, Bob, I can imagine doing it now!”
And it’s not the only bit of new information from the exchange with Glover. From Dylan’s fear of anti-Semitism to the 1966 motorcycle wreck that nearly killed him, the transcripts give an intimate look at the performer.
Glover, also a musician, died last year. The interview transcripts, as well as other Glover memorabilia, are being offered by RR Auction Company with estimates for some of the copies starting at $2,000. The weeklong bid is scheduled to begin November 12.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.