In this past weekend’s New York Times there is an article about the new Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK, where all his archives are stored. The collection includes a variety of artifacts, including Bob Dylan’s notebook shown below, in which he made notes for lyrics, many of which evolved into the final version known … Continue reading Bob Dylan’s Notebook
The creator of the musical Hamilton use Moleskine notebooks…. and despite the images below of Hemingway, Picasso, etc, the linked article does a good job of explaining the true history of “moleskine” vs “Moleskine®”. “Lin-Manuel Miranda worked for six years to get his Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning musical Hamilton from his head onto a stage. He … Continue reading Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Moleskine
“For years, Bob Dylan scholars have whispered about a tiny notebook, seen by only a few, in which the master labored over the lyrics to his classic 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks.†Rolling Stone once called it “the Maltese Falcon of Dylanology†for its promise as an interpretive key. But that notebook, it turns … Continue reading Bob Dylan’s Secret Notebooks
It’s hard to imagine a world without David Bowie… I can’t say I’d really thought of him in connection to notebooks at all, but I was happy to find this, from a 2014 review of a David Bowie exhibition in Berlin: David Bowie, original lyrics for “Ziggy Stardust†(1972) (courtesy the David Bowie Archive, image … Continue reading David Bowie’s Notebooks
What does a jailed rockstar write in his notebooks? Take a look: “Feel like dropping some cash for a personal peek into Pete Doherty’s head? Dreams can come true: Doherty’s prison notebooks are now on sale. You can pick up the Babyshambles and Libertines star’s Prison Journal for £4,250, or his Notebook for £4,750. Both instalments are … Continue reading Pete Doherty’s Prison Notebooks
Back in 2008, Sotheby’s auctioned a private collection of various papers and memorabilia belonging to the Belgian singer Jacques Brel, who died in 1972. The notebook below, probably from the 1950s, was used by Brel for draft song lyrics, and was estimated to sell for between 50,000 and 70,000 euros. It’s a nice looking notebook– … Continue reading Jacques Brel’s Notebook
I’d never heard of the band Snow Patrol— does this mean I’m hopelessly uncool and out of it? But anyway, their lead signer, Gary Lightbody, is a notebook user: As for his own lyrics, he keeps notebooks full of them. “Bad, bad words. The day I die I hope those notebooks are incinerated. Some of … Continue reading Snow Patrol: “I hope those notebooks are incinerated.”
Here’s one for all you hard-rockin’ notebook fans: A pair of handwritten lyric notebooks (see photo below) by late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott, dating from the late 1970s, was among an array of 300 musical items that went under the hammer at a Christie’s pop memorabilia auction on June 22 in New York. A description … Continue reading Handwritten AC/DC Lyrics Notebooks Sell For $35,000