Description:

John Lennon
[New York, NY], August 31, 1971
John Lennon 8pp Signed & Annotated TDS re: Paul, Linda, Yoko, Brian Epstein & Allen Klein
TDS

An 8pp typed transcription from a 1971 interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, featuring 12 separate comments and annotations in Lennon's hand to 5 of 8 pages. Measuring 8.5" x 11", n.p. [New York], August 31, 1971. Signed at the text's conclusion, where he circles a passage regarding Linda McCartney: "for christ's sake don't use this!/ John Lennon." An additional holograph note is found on the verso of page 8, reading: "I think it important to/ tell about my statement/ that 'we were going broke'/ to the English music papers,/ which gave the red light to/ Allen Klein [Beatles manager from 1969] to move in!/ don't you?". All pages have been bound together with a single staple at upper left, with expected creasing near the same. Faint staining present to note of last page, else near fine.

Lennon's interesting note refers to his controversial statement in the press that the Beatles would be "broke in six months" in the wake of their late manager Brian Epstein's financial mishandlings of the group. After reading this comment, Klein met with Lennon on January 26, 1969 with an offer to represent him and the rest of the Beatles. John, George, and Ringo all agreed to the arrangement, while Paul preferred to be represented by his in-laws, Lee and John Eastman. It was this managerial divide that ultimately led to the group's downfall, serving as a catalyst for Paul's legal actions against them in late 1970.

Later, in August 1971, authors Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfeld would conduct an in-depth interview with John and Yoko for an upcoming book on the Beatles' breakup entitled 'Apple To The Core' (1972). Originally intended to be used as source material, it was eventually published in the September 1984 issue of 'Penthouse' Magazine, four years after Lennon's death. The discussion covered a range of notable moments in Beatles history- including its downfall- in addition to John's relationships with Yoko, Paul, Linda and others.

Highlighted excerpts from the interview, with type errors corrected for clarity:

- [Top of page 1]: "Paul… wouldn't go against his dad… and his dad was always trying to get me out of the group behind me back I found out later. He'd be saying to George why don't you get rid of John he's jus a lot of trouble. Y'know, cut your hair nice and wear baggy trousers. I was the bad influence because I was the eldest and I had all the gear first usually."

- [Bottom of page 1]: "…he'd [Paul] always done the family thing and now if Jane [Asher] would have a career that's not going to be a cozy family is it?... Linda not only had a ready made family but knows what he wants obviously and has given it to him… I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd married Jane… but with Linda it just like Boom she was in and that was the end of it."

- [Middle of page 3]: "We had complete faith in him [Brian Epstein] when he was runnin us… He had hellish tempers and fits and lockouts and yknow he'd vanish for days… he'd come to a crisis every now and then and the whole business would fuckin stop cause he be on sleeping pills for days on end and wouldn't wake up for days or be missin… suddenly the whole business would stop… Brian contributed as much as us in the early days although we were the talent and he was the hustler…."

- [Middle of page 4]: "Rubber Sole was a pot album… we never recorded under acid or anything like that… drugs is to prevent the rest of the world crowdin in on you. They don't make you write better. I never wrote any better stuff because I was on acid… then I wrote 'Tomorrow Never Knows' which is on Revolver which was almost the first acid bracket song y'know lay down all that thought and surrender to the voice and all that shit [Timothy] Leary had pinched from the [Tibetan] book of the dead. I don't ever feel responsible for turning them (the kids) on to acid…."

- [End of page 4, beginning of 5]: "If ^when^ I'm friends with Paul again I'll never write with him again there's no point. I might write with Yoko because she's in the same room as me. I was living with Paul then so I wrote with him. Its whoever you're livin with…."

- [Middle of page 6]: "…he's [Allen Klein] highly sensitive and highly intelligent… things like avant garde or anything like other than the music business he had a complete block on he doesn't know from Adam and this irritates me sometimes when I try and sing him a song before I've recorded it he can't hear it till it's a finished record…."

- [Middle of page 7]: "I don't know how it happened I just realized that she [Yoko] knew everything I knew and more probably and that it was coming out of a womans head…. As she was talkin to me I would get high and the discussion would get to such a level that I would be goin higher and higher and when she'd leave I'd go back to this sort of suburbia and then I'd meet her again and me head would open like I was on an acid trip…."

- [Top of page 8]: "…it was always presumed that she [Yoko] joined me and that I didn't do anything that's why I changed me name to Ono to show people it was just exactly the same for me as her… and Paul and Derek and all them were in collusion to kill 'Two Virgins'… and I gave them chance after chance… and they went on and on and on just being abusive… trying to pretend she didn't exist and that she didn't have any art and that she had a lucky break meetin me and that she should be on her fucking knees and get on the back just like them…."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: TDS

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