Bob Dylan and Universal Music Group have been hit with a $7.25 million lawsuit for allegedly not paying out the estate of one of Dylan’s collaborators following the blockbuster sale of his song catalogue, new court papers show.
The late Jacques Levy co-wrote 7 of 9 songs on Dylan’s 1976 album “Desire” for which he’s owed 35% “of any and all income earned by the compositions” including “35% of the purchase price paid to the Dylan defendants,” according to wife Claudia Levy’s, Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Wednesday.
But Levy’s estate was never compensated after the 79-year-old Dylan sold the rights to his roughly 600-song collection to Universal Music Group on Dec. 7, 2020 for over $300 million, the court filing alleges.
Levy co-wrote songs with Dylan including “Romance in Durango,” “Hurricane,” “Catfish,” “Joey,” “Money Blues,” “Rita Mae,” “Mozambique,” “Oh Sister,” “Black Diamond Bay, a Bedtime Story” and “Isis,” the court papers say.
The album “Desire” topped the Billboard Pop Album chart for five weeks, went double platinum, and was ranked 174th on Rolling Stone Magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, the suit highlighted.
Levy’s company and wife asked for “their rightful share” of the sale with Universal Music Group on Dec. 14 or 15 but the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer and his companies have refused to fork over the money, the court documents claim.
And this is in addition to a pattern of “The Times They Are a-Changin’” musician not giving Levy songwriting credit throughout the years — including in the 2019 film “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”, the court papers allege.
“The Dylan defendants have engaged in a civilly wrong pattern and history of intentionally and maliciously ignoring and disregarding plaintiff’s rights, including those to income and any and all revenue generated by the compositions, including the subject buy-out of the catalog sale,” the suit charges.
Levy — who passed away in 2004 — was a psychologist, teacher and theater director in addition to writing songs for other artists including The Byrds and Carly Simon, the court papers say.
Claudia’s lawyer, Richard Golub told The Post, “there is a great creative history between Jacques and Bob.”
“This lawsuit is a sad attempt to unfairly profit off of the recent catalog sale,” Dylan’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, said in a statement. “The plaintiffs have been paid everything they are owed.”
“We are confident that we will prevail. And when we do, we will hold plaintiffs and their counsel responsible for bringing this meritless case,” Snyder said.
A spokesman for Universal Music Group declined to comment.
