New York – Christie’s is pleased to announce that three NeoFidelity Ionic Original Acetate Discs of Bob Dylan classics “Masters of War,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” and “Gotta Serve Somebody,” will be offered for Private Sale at Christie’s New York. These unique, new Dylan recordings–created during recent special studio sessions with multi-Grammy winning producer T Bone Burnett–represent the second, third, and fourth recordings to ever be put to disc utilising the patented Ionic technology from Burnett’s company, NeoFidelity, Inc. These discs follow the successful sale of the first-ever edition to employ this ground-breaking technology, a recent recording of Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, which was the highlight one year ago of Christie’s London Classic Week, selling on July 7, 2023 for $1.8 million USD.
This opportunity to acquire one of these new recordings of Bob Dylan’s seminal songs is a landmark moment. Burnett notes that the technology used to create the Ionic Original disc “advances the art of recorded sound and marks the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years, achieving dramatic improvements in listening experience and durability.” These three offerings, each available individually, present a unique opportunity for international collectors, music fans, historians, aficionados and audiophiles. Upon purchase, each disc will be custom-cut and coated with NeoFidelity’s ionic deposition, and then personally signed by both Bob Dylan and Burnett.
Masters of War
First released on Bob Dylan’s classic second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, he has performed the song live many times in the subsequent decades. The song has been famously covered by Pete Seeger, The Roots, Ed Sheeran, The Staple Singers, Eddie Vedder and countless others.
Simple Twist of Fate
The most well-known version of ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ was recorded on 19 September 1974 at A&R Recording Studios in New York City for Bob Dylan’s fifteenth studio album Blood on the Tracks.
Gotta Serve Somebody
This Ionic Original recording notably features many new lyrics recently penned by Bob Dylan. Originally recorded on 4 May 1979 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Alabama, “Gotta Serve Somebody” marks the beginning of Bob Dylan’s gospel period. It ultimately won him the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance the subsequent year. The song was originally featured on his nineteenth studio album, Slow Train Coming, which achieved platinum status shortly after it was released in 1979 . The song has continued to receive praise, being featured on lists such as Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs”. Since its release, ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ has been covered by over 50 musicians, including Shirley Caesar, Willie Nelson, and Etta James.
T BONE BURNETT
Multiple Grammy and Oscar winner Joseph Henry ‘T Bone’ Burnett is a producer, musician and songwriter. Born in St. Louis and raised in Fort Worth, T Bone came to music at an early age, listening to a variety of styles. After seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, he began performing with various garage bands, but soon gravitated to the world of recording. One of his early efforts was to produce (and play drums on) the song ‘Paralyzed’ by the legendary Stardust Cowboy (1968), but his big break came when Bob Dylan asked him to join his Rolling Thunder Review in 1975. After the tour concluded in 1976, Burnett went on to become a prominent solo artist while also producing and composing for film and television including the five-time Grammy winning soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski, Cold Mountain, The Hunger Games, Crazy Heart and Walk The Line, among others. Burnett also composed and produced the music for the critically acclaimed HBO series True Detective and the FX series The Old Man. He has collaborated with numerous artists including Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Roy Orbison, and won Album of the Year and Record of the Year Grammy Awards for producing Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand. Most recently, Burnett released The Invisible Light: Spaces, the second full-length installment in The Invisible Light trilogy: An experimental song cycle which explores the idea that society has been subject to a programming pandemic which is causing us to lose our ability to differentiate fact from fiction.
