"Lay Lady Lay" is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his "Nashville Skyline " album. Unlike his high pitched voice, Dylan sung in a low, soft voice. Released as a single, it peaked on the US Pop Chart at number seven. Over in the U.K., it did even better-peaking at the number five spot.

The song was written for the soundtrack of the movie "Midnight Cowboy"-however it was not submitted in time. The Everly Brothers have been quoted that Bob Dylan offered them the song to record. After hearing Dylan sing "Lay Lady Lay", they thought the song was about lesbians and turned it down.

What they will put up for Auction on EBAY is a piece of AMERICAN MUSICAL HISTORY. It is one of the actual 8 track tapes used to record Bob Dylan's famous "Nashville Skyline" album What makes this one-of-a-kind tape so valuable is it primarily contains out takes of "Lay Lady Lay", which until now have never been heard before! The auction will be for the tape itself, not the intellectual property. The tape which is in excellent condition, has been spliced in several spots (common practice). We have played and inspected the complete tape. They have concluded that the version of "Lay Lady Lay" used on "Nashville Skyline" is not present on this tape however, there would be little or nothing that could be done commercially with the already released version. The tape features three "Lay Lady Lay" takes and two truncated versions. Dylan's performance on each were exceptional and distinctive, it is there opinion that any of the takes could have conceivably made it to the album. And as a bonus, Bob Dylan and the musicians perform the song "Going Back To Chicago" at the end of the reel. Our research concludes that this song was never released by Dylan. Obviously a departure from the album and a chance for everyone to just "jam" and relax a little. The group started playing and the engineer decided to roll the tape, catching the song after the start. There is a one second blank midway thru the song. This is not a defect in the tape. they can only speculate as to the reason for the pause.

Technical Data-
Tape Type -- Scotch 3M 1" 8 track tape
Length --- 27 minutes, 5 seconds (27:05)
Tape Player -- 1" or standard 2"- 24 track machine
Recording Date --February 14, 1969 at Columbia Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee
Personnel-
Bob Dylan-Vocals, Charlie Daniels-Guitar, Kenneth A. Buttrey-Drums, Bob Wilson-Piano/Organ, Charlie Bragg- Engineer, Neil Wilburn-Engineer and Bob Johnston-Producer. Please note that this is the listing on the album, however on this tape there was an additional guitarist or bassist. Pete Drake's steel guitar was overdubbed later and not present on these takes.
Back in 1969, Country Music was out-of-date. Bob Dylan's label Columbia was not too happy with his desire to do a Country album. More so with the word Nashville in the album's title. As history has now shown-Dylan was ahead of the game, he didn't wait for the music to change-he changed it! His embracing Country Music led to the begining of it's new acceptance. On "Nashville Skyline" he duets with the one and only Johnny Cash in "Girl From The North Country". Still "Lay Lady Lay" is a landmark song and style. This is an original master tape recording. There is nothing like it-period. It makes you feel that you are right in the studio with them. Take a moment and listen to the sound clip we have provided for your enjoyment. Just left click on http://www.nycsightseeingessentials.com/dylan1.mp3 sure you ok ActiveX. It will only take a minute to load. Thanks.

If you are interested in bidding on this rare piece of American Musical History, go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewOtem&rd=18item=2503426429900&ss...