Lyrics penned by the late, great John Lennon have sold for a huge £145,644 at an auction in the US.The sale of the handwritten scrap of paper, which features the third verse of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the opening words to She’s Leaving Home, took place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.
Both songs feature on 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Lennon’s lyric sheet also featured a drawing of four people in a room with draped curtains. Complete with crossings out, the sheet reads: “Picture yourself on a train in a station, with plasticine porters with looking glass ties.
“Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile, the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”
From She’s Leaving Home it featured the opening words: “Wednesday morning at…”
Lennon said that the inspiration for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds had come from a picture his son Julian had drawn of a classmate named Lucy Vodden – who died of the immune system disease Lupus in 2009.
While the near-£150,000 figure paid is astonishing, it is far from being the most expensive lyrics written by Lennon. Last year, the handwritten lyrics to A Day In The Life – the closing song from Sgt Pepper – sold for £810,000.
In total, the auction, which featured costumes and costume sketches, props, special effects and makeup elements, animation artwork, posters, photographs, film reels, scripts and other cinematic artefacts, grossed in excess of £3.6 million.
Meanwhile, Beatles aficionados still have time to bid on a whole host of items which have connections to the fab four.
Microphones and equipment from John Lennon’s home studio are being sold in an online auction which is being handled by specialist seller MJQ Ltd.