Rare Recording of Inebriated John Lennon for Sale
Posted Dec 19th 2008 6:02PM by
Jared Paul Stern
Filed under:
Auctions
A rare, never-publicly-heard recording of a drunk and high
John Lennon improvising naughty song lyrics is on offer for an estimated $30,000 - $40,000 at
Bonhams' Entertainment Sale in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The six minute audiocasette, recorded in the fall of 1973, features Lennon's off-the-cuff rendition of the Lloyd Price song "Just Because." The recording took place during what Lennon referred to as his "Lost Weekend" when he and Yoko Ono separated and he took up with mistress May Pang.
The cassette is an outtake from a recording session for the song, which was included on Lennon's 1975 album
Rock 'n' Roll. At the time, while working on the album with Phil Spector in Los Angeles, Lennon was heavily into drink and drugs, as reflected in the recording.
Though some of Lennon's lyrics are garbled, he can be heard to sing, in part, "
I wanna take all them new singers, Carol and the other one with the nipples, I wanna take 'em and hold 'em tight, all them people that James Taylor had...I wanna suck your nipples, baby... Just a little cocaine will set me right."