John Lennon once said…
Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.
Maybe, JL saw the handwriting on the wall. That being said, I believe that John Lennon did it for the love but, he wasn’t against making a buck either. He also understood the value, even if the value was imaginary, of what he was doing. A generous guy too, from Reuters.
John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the hit song “Give Peace a Chance” will go under the hammer at auction in July and are expected to fetch 200-300,000 pounds ($400-600,000), Christie’s said on Tuesday.
The lyrics are being sold by comedy writer and presenter Gail Renard, who was 16 when Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their famous “Bed-In” at a hotel in Montreal in 1969.
Renard and a friend sneaked into the Queen Elizabeth Hotel where the recently married Lennon and Ono were holding a protest for peace and became friendly with the couple.
According to Christie’s, Lennon gave Renard some mementos, including the lyrics, telling her: “One day they will be worth something.”
600 grrr, that’s a goodly chunk of dough for some scribbled words.
It makes me think about taking another look at Eric Idle’s brainchild, “The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash”.
Pacifism as capitalism, or baby boomer cashing in a lottery ticket, however it susses out is OK by me. I don’t have anything against any of it. Hell, I once pitched the idea of a mail order, gift, pizza delivery franchise called “Pizza Chance”. You know, “all we are saying is give Pizza Chance”. Looking back, maybe I should have taken the whole idea more seriously. My motive was closer to Johnny Rotten than John Lennon, see if I could get this guy with the money to actually go for the idea and then, see if it would would raise enough sand to draw Yoko’s lawyers out.
I suppose it’s the natural order for punk to develop in the wake of Woodstock, for cynicism to follow optimism. And, like John Lee Hooker said, “It’s in him and it’s got to come out”. The punk cynic is inside me the same way that the starry eyed optimist resides in the soul of the Hippie Artisan friends that built their nest eggs hawking wares at craft shows. The cynic is there but, I try to not let it drive the tractor. I try to see the good. Sometimes, can’t see through the surreal layer of ground fog.
$600,000 for some words scribbled at a contrived, if well meaning photo-op. $600,000 for, “Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism”.
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Tags: Gail Renard, john lee hooker, John Lennon, Johnny Rotten, Pizza, rutles, Tuesday, Yoko Ono
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
John Lennon… hmmmmm, is he the left-handed one?
Pat Darnell and Friends’s last blog post..Nello and Orso weigh in on Penguins: UPDATE !!
Link | April 29th, 2008 at 11:00 am