BOB DYLAN fans have been left dismayed after the iconic sign outside the former cafe where he wrote BLOWIN' IN THE WIND almost 50 years ago was painted over by the building's owners.
Tourists regularly flocked to the former Fat Black Pussycat bar in New York's Greenwich Village to pay homage at the spot where the legendary folk-rocker penned his most famous song in 1962.
The venue became a restaurant in the 1970s but the owners left the iconic sign on the wall outside - and local officials are now baffled after the lettering was finally painted over last month (May 11).
Andrew Berman, executive director for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, says, "It's a tangible link to this incredibly important era in the neighbourhood's history, when so many great musicians, poets and artists used the Village as a springboard to transform the world."
But the building's current owner, Bob Engelhardt, has defended his decision to get rid of the sign, telling the Associated Press, "There are buildings that are worth preserving. Ninety per cent of what's in the Village isn't. The Village was freedom. The Village was not rules and regulations set in concrete. It destroys everything the Village was always famous for."
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