For the Bob Dylan fan who has everything, here’s a gift that would make even Greil Marcus bolt out of bed soaked in cold jealous sweat.

Right now at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, the store has one copy of one of the rarest pieces of Dylan ephemera ever produced. It’s a test pressing of his landmark 1975 album “Blood On The Tracks” that contains alternate versions of half the songs on the LP.

Legend has it Dylan test-pressed this version to listen to in 1974 to prepare for its Columbia Records release, but after taking advice from his brother David that too many songs sounded alike, he stopped the presses and re-recorded five songs on the album.

The alternate take of “You’re A Big Girl Now” had been previously released on 1985’s “Biograph” set, but “Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts,” “Idiot Wind,” “If You See Her, Say Hello” and “Tangled Up In Blue” are all unreleased versions that you can only hear for the cost of an entry-level new car.


Only five copies of this test pressing are known to exist.

The store said it came upon this one during a massive buy from a collection in New Jersey, and it is the most expensive thing Amoeba Music in Hollywood has ever sold. It’s still, however, a far cry from what believed to be the most expensive rock and roll LP for sale - the first known acetate demos of a little-known English group called the Quarrymen (who, of course, later re-formed as the Beatles) which fetches an estimated $300,000.

The Dylan LP is available for perusal and sale to the general public, and placed right alongside the rest of the rare Dylan music behind the counter in the sprawling record store.

Who says nobody will pay for music anymore?


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