for the dress rehearsal the next afternoon, the day of the show, a CBS program practices executive told him the song would have to be replaced because of possible defamation against John Birch Society members. Refusing to do a different song, Dylan walked off the set. The incident drew national attention with reports running in The New York Times, Billboard and The Village Voice. Sullivan, meanwhile, backed Dylan, arguing that if network programs could poke fun at President John F. Kennedy, the John Birch Society should not be immune from similar treatment. Concerned about possible reprisals from the John Birch group, the network held to its decision. Then the controversy spilled over into Columbia, CBS's records division. When the company's lawyers learned that "Talkin' John Birch" was slated for the album, they ordered the song removed. Dylan was in a delicate situation. His first album had sold poorly, and he did not have the power at this point to fight his record company. Though upset by the order, he relented. The initial shipments of Freewheelin, which had already been sent out, were recalled, and the album was re-issued without "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues". Per a 2012 report, early copies of the record that feature "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" are worth as much as $20,000. Dylan ultimately profited from the affair. Besides the favorable publicity from The Ed Sullivan Show walk-out, it gave him a chance to re-consider his selections for Freewheelin, which he felt had too many "old fashioned" selections, songs closer in style to his earlier material. In addition to "Talkin' John Birch Society", he dropped three of his other older songs, including "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" and "Rocks and Gravel". In their place, he substituted four tunes recorded during the last of the Freewheelin''' sessions: "Masters of War", "Girl from the North Country", "Bob Dylan's Dream" and "Talkin' World War III Blues". Recordings and performance Dylan recorded "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" during the first Freewheelin' Bob Dylan session at Columbia's Studio A on April 24, 1962. He wrote the song in February 1962, and its lyrics and music appeared in the premiere issue of Broadside later that month, becoming the first of Dylan's songs to be published. In March 1963, nearly a year after recording the album version, he taped a demo for his music publisher, M. Witmark & Sons.