It was met by a chorus of boos when it was introduced at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 — but Bob Dylan‘s infamous Stratocaster clearly has its fans these days.
The guitar that Dylan reputedly played when he decided to notoriously go electric, to the dismay of folkies in attendance at the festival, sold for nearly $1 million at a Christie’s auction in New York on Friday.
The instrument has been a source of controversy for reasons other than the performance –while an episode of PBS’s “History Detectives” deemed the guitar to be the real deal, the singer’s attorney, Orin Snyder, has questioned whether it was the one that Dylan actually used during the Newport set, claiming that the singer still has the Strat he actually played onstage.
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To be precise, the ax (pictured) fetched $965,000 — but that includes the buyer’s premium, and the guitar came with a hardshell case and leather strap, so it’s not really that outrageous.
The 1964 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, which Dylan also used on the recording sessions for “Bringing It All Back Home,” according to Christie’s, had been estimated to be worth $300,000 to $500,000.
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In addition to the guitar, newly discovered Dylan lyrics dating from1965 to 1966 were also auctioned off.