Mojo - The Music Magazine

NEWS DIGEST, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20

A poem Bob Dylan wrote when he was just 16 is to be auctioned at Christies next month and is expected to fetch up to £5,000.

Written while the young Zimmerman was at summer camp in Wisconsin in 1957, 'Little Buddy' tells the story of a child whose dog is beaten to death by a drunk.

The poem featured in the newspaper for Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin. The newspaper's then editor, Lisa Heilicher, kept the piece and has decided to auction it to raise money for the camp.

"I kept it with all of my stuff that I collected from camp," Heilicher told the Associated Press. "When I realised how famous he had become, I put it in a piece of plastic and stuck it in an encyclopedia."

While not exactly Gates Of Eden, 'Little Buddy' is not as inane as some reports suggest, featuring lines such as:

By a tiny narrow grave
Where the willows sadly wave
Are the words so clear you're sure to find
Little Buddy Rest In Peace
God Will Watch You Thru The Years
Cause I Told You In My Dreams That You
Were Mine

To view Dylan's full effort, visit Christies' website

Other items for sale from Dylan's childhood include a signed copy of the 1958 Hibbing High School yearbook, in which Dylan has written the following message to a fellow classmate: "Dear Brenda, Well I didn't see you too much this year but you know that went (sic) on in Study Hall was jus' kidding. I hope you and Jerry have all the happiness or is it LeRoy?? See yuh around this summer. A Friend, Bob Zimmerman."

At the time of going to press, what went on with Dylan and Brenda in study hall remains a mystery.

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Echo & The Bunnymen will be going into space. NASA astronaut and Bunnymen fan Timothy Kopra has contacted the band to say he will be taking Ocean Rain with him on his next space mission.

"What an honour," said Ian McCulloch. "Now it's official. We are the coolest band in the universe. As a kid I dreamt of being an astronaut, and now in a way it feels like I'm fulfilling that dream. I cannot wait to hear from Tim what it is like to listen to The Killing Moon in the actual glow of the moon."

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Blur will release a new 2CD compilation called Midlife to tie in with their comeback shows this summer. The collection, their first since 2000's The Best Of Blur, will be released on June 15.

The full tracklisting is:

CD1
Beetlebum
Girls & Boys
For Tomorrow
Coffee & TV
Out Of Time
Blue Jeans
Song 2
Bugman
He Thought Of Cars
Death Of A Party
The Universal
Sing
This Is A Low

CD2
Tender
She's So High
Chemical World
Good Song
Parklife
Advert
Popscene
Stereotypes
Trimm Trabb
Badhead
Strange News From Another Star
Battery In Your Leg

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And finally... A very happy birthday to Joe Cocker, who is 65 today. Here's Joe performing The Beatles' She Came In Through The Bathroom Window with Leon Russell on the infamous 1971 Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour.