Bob Dylan tinkered with multiple edits of Mr Tambourine Man before he was happy with the final version of what would become one of his most famous songs.

Two pages of early typed drafts of the 1964 song reveal how he rewrote the words, with earlier lines crossed out with a row of “x”s and replacement lyrics typed out above them or scribbled by hand.

The drafts sold for £417,145 over the weekend in the United States by the family of Al Aronowitz, the US rock journalist who befriended Dylan in the early 1960s.

Dylan was staying with Aronowitz in New York after breaking up with his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.

Aronowitz, seen by some as the grandfather of modern rock journalism, woke one morning to find the crumpled drafts of Mr Tambourine Man in his wastepaper basket.

He promptly rescued them and they were passed on to his children when he died in 2005.

Aronowitz’s son, Myles, unearthed the lyrics in 2024 after spending three years looking through 250 boxes of his father’s papers, photographs and audio recordings.

The three drafts reveal that Dylan substituted words such as “feet” for “bootheels” and “priceless” for “magic”.