They’ve been signaling their mutual interest in a musical collaboration quite a lot in the past several years. The most recent issue of ‘Rolling Stone’ contains an excellent Dylan profile by historian Douglas Brinkley in which Dylan is, by turns, uncharacteristically candid, then typically obscurantist. There, he makes clear–or, as clear as Dylan makes things–that he would love to work with McCartney.

Now, according to Gibson Lifestyle, that collaboration will happen:

Recent months have seen both Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney express interest in working together. Now, according to Britain’s Daily Express, that collaboration is set to become a reality. The newspaper reports that the legendary rockers will head into the studio together this summer, presumably to work on new songs as a duo.

“Paul has a home in California not too far from Bob’s, so the idea is for the two to meet when Paul is in California over the summer,” an unnamed McCartney spokesman said. “They’ll obviously want to work in privacy and it’s felt one of their homes will be the best bet. Getting these two together for any length of time is difficult schedule-wise but they both want this to work out. The music that comes out of this will be fascinating to hear.”

Dylan’s latest album, Together Through Life, recently topped both the American and British charts. Last year McCartney released an acclaimed album under the auspices of his alter ego, The Fireman.

I’ve been listening to and getting to know the latest Dylan collection and was hugely pleased with McCartney’s adventurous Fireman release late last year. Artistically then, both still more than cut it.

Bring on an LP and please, a tour!

[This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]