"Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" Handwritten Lyrics Up For Auction

Reuters

Los Angeles— John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" are up for auction, in the latest episode for a storied Beatles classic.

Auction house Profiles in History said on Wednesday that it expects the draft lyric sheet to sell for more than $200,000 at a sale next month in Beverly Hills.

It has the opening lyrics for the song, and a rough sketch by of four people in a room with windows draped in curtains.

When the psychedelic song was released on 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," listeners and the media speculated it was a thinly disguised paean to the drug LSD, based on the first letters of Lucy, sky and diamonds.

But Lennon always disputed that notion, even though he was known to experiment with drugs. Lennon said he did not realize until later the title contained those letters in sequence.

As Lennon and others have explained it, the inspiration came from his son, Julian, who was then a child and drew a picture of his classmate Lucy. Julian Lennon is said to have showed the painting to his father and told him, "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

A British woman named Lucy Vodden, whose maiden name was O'Donnell, revealed in 2007 that she had been the source of the song. She died in 2009.

Despite the explanation of the song's origins, the debate about its ties to LSD has persisted, in part due to the song's swooning melody and strange lyrics.

It was one of the most popular songs on an album Rolling Stone magazine ranks as No. 1 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The draft "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" lyrics will be sold at an auction scheduled for May 14 and 15 at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.

Source; http://www.wgnt.com/entertainment/sns-rt-entertainment-us-jotre73c8ib-20110413,0,359850.story

Birthday Today

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY

JOHN LENNON
Born: October 9, 1940 Died: December 8, 1980

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
— John Lennon

"There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all"
— John Lennon

Still missing you................

Yoko Ono Opposes Parole For Lennon's Killer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Three decades after John Lennon's death, Yoko Ono said she opposes his killer's parole because he remains a potential threat.

Ono said she was trying to be "practical" in asking that Mark David Chapman remain behind bars for fatally shooting the pop legend on Dec. 8, 1980, outside Lennon's Manhattan apartment building. Chapman, who has been repeatedly denied parole, is up for review again this month in New York State.

Lennon's widow said Chapman might be a danger to her, other family members and perhaps even himself. She did not elaborate.

At his last parole hearing, Chapman said he was ashamed and sorry for gunning down the former Beatle. He told the parole board he understood the gravity of his actions and was a changed man.

Ono, 77, made her remarks at a meeting Thursday of the Television Critics Association. She was discussing a new PBS documentary on Lennon's family and artistic life in New York in the 1970s.

"LennonNYC," airing Nov. 22 as part of the "American Masters" public TV series, includes rare studio recordings, concert film outtakes and home movies, producer Susan Lacy said. Ono provided access and was among those interviewed for the documentary.

Reviewing her life with Lennon was "painful" at times, Ono said, but provided the chance to show him as a "three-dimensional person" and to explore his ultimately tragic affection for New York.

The film "is about New York, the city he was in love with and strangely, the city that he loved so much, it killed him," Ono said. "It was his love, and it was his death."

Lennon would have been 70 in October.

www.ap.org