Bob Dylan

Signed manuscript with corrections and edits, numbered verses of “Masters of War,” released on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Inscribed in pencil on notepaper. 5 inches by 8 ½ inches.

Bob Dylan’s 1961 arrival in New York City was pivotal, a decisive milestone not only in his career but in the downtown bohemian scene at large. Minnesota-born and bred, Dylan left the comforts of his home state for the vibrant and burgeoning Greenwich Village, taking the local artistic colony by storm. The undisputed epicenter of America’s artistic and countercultural movements in the 1960s, the neighborhood functioned as an incubator for groundbreaking folk music, avant-garde literature, alternative theatre and political rebellion. 

Unsurprisingly, The Village became a site of rich creative exploration for the tender troubadour as he grew increasingly enmeshed in the neighborhood’s folk scene, regularly performing at such landmark venues as Gerde’s Folk City, the Gaslight Cafe and Cafe Wha?—the last of which is still in operation. “Masters of War,” one of Dylan’s earliest and most iconic antiwar songs, came out of this early period. 

The present manuscript is an early working draft of “Masters of War,” and includes several different word choices from the final version. It passed directly from Eve McKenzie, a formative figure in Dylan’s early career. McKenzie, along with her husband and son, took Dylan in when he arrived in New York, providing the young folkster a home, mentorship and entrée into Greenwich Village’s artistic milieu.

At this juncture in his career, most of Dylan’s music was derived from traditional folk standards. For the melody on “Masters of War,” Dylan borrowed from “Nottamun Town” by Appalachian folk songstress Jean Ritchie, which he had discovered on the folk revival circuit. The lyrics, however, are all his own. Biting and savage, “Masters of War” is a fierce and direct denunciation of the military-industrial complex that fuels unnecessary war in the name of greed and profit.

From Appalachia to Minnesota to the streets of New York, the antiwar anthem remains relevant to this day, a hallmark composition by one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.