Bob Dylan's Teenage "Poem" Actually A Hank Snow Song

An auction at Christie’s next month purports to offer a “handwritten poem” by a teenaged Bob Dylan, written for summer camp newspaper The Herzl Herald in 1957 and signed ‘Bobby Zimmerman.’ But despite the story being covered by many big media outlets, often accompanied by effusive praise for Dylan’s early artistic development, few have noticed that it’s not an original poem of Dylan’s at all. It’s an almost fully accurate transcription of a song by country singer Hank Snow, which he later recorded for his album When Tragedy Struck. Both “poem” and song are called Little Buddy, and both tell the same sorry tale of the death of a family dog. The editor of the camp newspaper kept the manuscript for 57 years, and when told by Dylan to “do what you like with it,” decided to auction it with all proceeds going towards refurbished cabins and other equipment. But the current guide price estimate of $15,000 will not be met now that it’s been revealed to be no more than a hastily scribbled transcription of somebody else’s song.

Here’s a video of the song set to pics of the uploader’s own little buddy…







Actually, the mystery hasn’t quite been solved yet. Instead of being a
transcription taken by young Bob hunched beside his wireless, it
could’ve been that Hank Snow read Dylan’s “poem” in The Herzl Herald
and decided to borrow it. But somehow, we think the former theory is
far more likely!

Update: Christie’s has noticed the error, and released a statement:

“Additional information has come to our attention about the
handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written
when he was 16, entitled ‘Little Buddy.’ The words are in fact a
revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song.”





“This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of
Bob Dylan and Christie’s is pleased to offer them in our Pop Culture
auction on June 23.”

Hmmmm, perhaps continuing to describe the item as the “handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan” is still a little wide of the mark.

It’s a shame for the campers, who will obviously not
be happy about losing out on some swish cabin upgrades, although the paper will still attract some bids. Kudos to the Dreamtime blog for spotting it before almost anyone else.

–Ally @ SoundUnwound

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