Lennon's lyrics to 'Day in the Life' on auction
John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to the Beatles song A Day in the Life could fetch up to one million pounds ($2 million) at auction, according to London auctioneer Bonhams.
An unnamed collector who bought the lyrics in 1992 is selling the lyrics in a sealed-bid auction to end March 7. The single sheet of paper contains Lennon's first two drafts of the song.
"Based on market history, we believe somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2 million," could be the final sale price, Martin Gammon of Bonhams told Reuters.
That could make the lyrics "the most valuable musical manuscript composed in the 20th century to be offered at auction," he said.
Lennon was inspired to write A Day in the Life by headlines in the January 17, 1967 edition of The Daily Mail newspaper. He sat down at the piano, with the paper propped up in front of him and created the final track on the Beatles' ground-breaking 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The reference to a young man killed in a car crash are thought to be about Tara Browne, friend of the Beatles and heir to the Guinness empire. That edition of the paper also had a study showing that the streets of the northern English town of Blackburn had 4,000 potholes.
"He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed" and "I heard the news today, oh boy, 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire," are among the lines of the song.
The BBC banned the record from its stations because of the line "I'd love to turn you on," saying it appeared to advocate drug use.
Paul McCartney added the middle section, including the line: "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, somebody spoke and I went into a dream." That section is not included in the handwritten sheet.
Lennon's handwritten lyric sheet for the Beatles' 1967 live satellite broadcast of All You Need Is Love sold last July for 600,000 pounds ($1.2 million).
However, original lyrics for the 1966 song I'm Only Sleeping failed to sell at auction in September 2005.