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[In My Life]

For anyone who is interested, I thought I’d start a new thread about the items in the Beatles exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since there was so much I’ll just write about a few each day. It took me a little while to find the exhibit, even after getting the shortcut directions from one of the Hall of Fame guys, a self-proclaimed “fellow Beatles head” but when I heard you say goodbye and I say hello I knew I was headed in the right direction. Up first was John’s Mellotron. It’s deceptively simple looking for all it could do. They should have had a picture of John playing it. A lot of people just walked right by it but I looked at it for quite a while and resisted the urge to tell people to get over here and look it this; it’s important!





http://ourvinyl.com/with-a-little-help-from-my-mellotron/

The Mellotron at work in Strawberry Fields Forever. At 3:39 you can see another exhibit item, Ringo's jacket. It's also visible to the right of the Mellotron.

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever [HD][1080p][Remastered 2009][CC Subtitles]

Next to the Mellotron was John’s 1979 Yamaha upright piano. According to the Hall of Fame’s website, “In 1979, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent part of the summer at their friend Sam Green’s house on Fire Island, New York. Yoko thought the creative atmosphere at Green’s house would help inspire Lennon to write songs for their new album, so she had this piano shipped to the beach house. Lennon played this piano often and wrote several of the songs from Double Fantasy on this piano. The candle wax melted on the piano while he was playing. John and Yoko gave the piano to Sam Green in 1979.”  Sure enough, there was wax dripped all over the front of  it. 

[Hello Goodbye]

This is gonna be a good thread!  Thank you, Kelley.

While we're waiting for the next installment, here's Paul demonstrating the use of the Mellotron...

Historia breve del Mellotron por Paul McCartney - Brief history of Mellotron by Paul McCartney

[In My Life]

This is gonna be a good thread!  Thank you, Kelley.

While we're waiting for the next installment, here's Paul demonstrating the use of the Mellotron...

You're welcome Barry. Those people seeing the Mellotron demonstration certainly were lucky.

[In My Life]

On to the items in the wall display. I’m taking them out of order, just so I can group similar things together.
This gave me chills!





A very rare and historic early piece of Beatles memorabilia, this is a Paul McCartney and Stuart Sutcliffe handwritten set list and lyrics in pencil. The writing is on a sheet of white paper, now aged, measuring 8.5" x 12". The top portion of the page is a set list along with the respective key for each song, handwritten by Stuart Sutcliffe. The bottom half of the page are lyrics for the Gene Vincent song, "Peace of Mind" handwritten by Paul McCartney. The collaborative efforts of both McCartney and Sutcliffe in creating this set list with lyrics (possibly to be included in the performance as well) makes this piece extra special.) The page shows water damage on the left side, however the handwriting is strong and bold and in excellent condition.
Estimate: $11,000-$13,000
Final bid: $10,800.00

From http://www.gottahaverockandroll.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=5201


Stu Sutcliffe was also represented with a page from his sketchbook featuring his self-portraits, his illustration of John Lennon and Lennon’s illustration of Sutcliffe. I could not find an image anywhere but if anyone else can please post it.


Silver Beetles contract 1960

I’m sorry I couldn’t make this more readable.


John’s report card from 1953 showed better comments from his teachers than I expected! There are images for other report cards but I could not find this particular one.


I really enjoyed seeing two examples of John’s early writing, “The Daily Howl”. Bill Harry explains this well here:

http://triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/archives/dailyhowl.shtml

The one pictured here is “The Daily Hool (scotch edition), exactly as in the exhibit. There’s some typical political incorrectness in it but I got a kick out the drainpipe kilt.

[In My Life]

John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for “In My Life” made a big impression on me. I wasn’t expecting to see them and I have to admit I got a little teary eyed.


There were also handwritten lyrics for “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Beautiful Boy” and Paul’s arrangements for “Birthday” (below) and “Hey Jude”.



A program from the 2007 unveiling of the Imagine Peace Tower and a Nutopia badge that was handed out was included. That was interesting but I was more into the things that an actual Beatle touched. 
http://www.squidoo.com/imagine-peace