Law & Crime report..
The estate of Jacques Levy sued Bob Dylan in New York State court Wednesday, claiming to have been denied millions rightfully owed as part of the recent nine-figure sale of Dylan’s works.
In December 2020, Bob Dylan sold his entire song catalog to Universal Music Publishing for an unprecedented $300 million. The epic deal paralleled Dylan’s storied career. Over nearly six decades, Dylan wrote over 600 songs, won a Nobel Prize, and left an indelible mark on American music and culture. The New York Times reported that the sale, which included iconic compositions such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin,’” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” could well have constituted the largest-ever acquisition of publishing rights of a single songwriter.
As prolific as Dylan had been, he didn’t always work alone.
One individual with whom Dylan collaborated was a psychologist, musician, and theater director named Jacques Levy. Levy and Dylan worked together on Dylan’s 1976 album Desire. According to Levy’s estate, Levy and Dylan entered into a written agreement in 1975 reflecting their collaboration on ten songs. The songs were: “Romance in Durango,” “Hurricane,” “Catfish,” “Joey,” “Money Blues,” “Rita Mae,” “Mozambique,” “Oh Sister,” “Black Diamond Bay, a bedtime story,” and “Isis,” seven of which landed on Desire. Levy died in 2004.
Levy’s work with Dylan had not been anomalous; rather, Levy co-wrote with many artists, including Carl Perkins, Elvis Costello, Michael Bolton, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Carly Simon.
Read more at https://lawandcrime.com/entertainment/bob-dylan-sued-for-millions-by-estate-of-co-songwriter-jaques-levy/
