Bob Dylan Wrote "Lay Lady Lay" for Barbra Streisand

On March 24, 1971, Bob Dylan sat for an interview with his friend Tony Glover for an Esquire cover story. The article was eventually scrapped, but nearly 50 years later, we have a new revelation from the chat: Dylan claims he wrote “Lay Lady Lay” for none other than Barbra Streisand. (As CNN notes, “it’s clear that Dylan wrote the song for her, not necessarily about her.”)

“You said ‘Father of Night’ was written for a play, and ‘Lay Lady Lay’ was done for Midnight Cowboy,” Glover says on the tape of the interview. “Actually it was written for Barbra Streisand,” Dylan responds.

Streisand reportedly had no idea until this week that “Lay Lady Lay” was written with her in mind.

“I’m very flattered to find out that Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for me,” she said in a statement to NBC News. “What I remember is getting flowers from him with a handwritten note asking me to sing a duet with him, but I just couldn’t imagine it then. Guess what, Bob, I can imagine doing it now!”

Glover died last year, and his tape of the 1971 Dylan interview is going up for auction beginning Nov. 12. Bidding is expected to start at $2,000.