BOB DYLAN Dylan Owned Unreleased Acetate BALL AND STRIPE RAG aka Little Sadie

Sold Date: July 24, 2017
Start Date: June 30, 2017
Final Price: $1,500.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 8968
Buyer Feedback: 31



A 10” acetate of an unreleased, alternate version of Bob Dylan’s “In Search of Little Sadie” (titled here  “Ball & Stripe Rag”) from his 1970 album Self Portrait.  This acetate was previously owned by Dylan and used during the making of that album.  The version is just voice and guitar; it was completely unreleased until a different mix of it appeared on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971).

This acetate was part of a collection of Dylan acetates discovered this year in a five story brownstone at 124 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village.  From approximately 1969 through 1972, Dylan rented the ground  floor of the building for use as a studio (at the time, he lived two blocks away at 94 McDougal St.)  When the owner of the building died in January 2014, her executor found the acetates in two boxes labeled “Old Records,” in a a loft closet above the bedroom.  The discovery of these acetates by Recordmecca’s Jeff Gold received extensive media coverage in publications including The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Rolling Stone, and Billboard.

The Houston St. Studios acetates originally belonged to Bob Dylan, who either discarded them or left them when he moved out of the building in the early 1970’s. For more than 40 years, they were carefully stored by the building’s owner, and only discovered by chance by before the building was put up for sale earlier this  year.  This acetate is in EX+ condition, probably played no more than a few times.

Included is a copy of a letter of authenticity from the estate’s executor detailing how he discovered the acetates, and a letter of authenticity and written lifetime guarantee from Recordmecca’s Jeff Gold, an internationally recognized Dylan authority.  A remarkable Dylan artifact formerly owned by Dylan himself. (Inventory #103.)


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We have been buying and selling music collectibles for 45 years, at present on the RECORDMECCA website and Ebay.

Recordmecca's clients include the Smithsonian Institution, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Experience Music Project, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Recordmecca's Jeff Gold was named by Rolling Stone as one of 5 Top Collectors of High-End Music Memorabilia. He authenticated previously unknown Bob Dylan manuscripts for PBS's History Detectives, appeared as a featured appraiser on VH1's Rock Collectors, and has been profiled as a top dealer and collector in the books Vinyl Junkies and Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to it's Own Past.

Gold is author of the acclaimed books Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges/As Told By Iggy Pop;  and 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl a survey of seminal rock albums, featuring contributions from David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Johnny Marr and Graham Nash.

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