Lennon’s ‘A Day in the Life’ lyrics for sale

John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “A Day in the Life” are up for auction (oh boy).

Update 6/18/10: The “A Day in the Life” lyrics went for $1.2 million, about the same paid for the handwritten sheet for “All You Need Is Love.” Some lucky American. (/update)

The sheet has two versions of the song, one on each side. The first version is a rough draft, although all lyrics shown appear in the song. One of the Beatles’ best-known productions, it was the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album’s closing number — known for its druggy vibe and the eternal ending chord — a true psychedelic classic.

The Sotheby’s auction is set for June 18. The estimated price could hit $700,000, according to the auction house, although Beatles collectors are speculating the price could be a record for their handwritten song sheets. The lyrics to “All You Need Is Love” went for $1 million five years ago.

The lyric sheet reportedly belonged to longtime Beatles roadie/assistant Mal Evans, who died in 1976. His estate sold the “A Day in the Life” lyrics via Sotheby’s in 1992, with the final bid near $100,000. The owner’s bid to sell the lyrics in 2006 failed to draw a suitable bid, with expectations as high as $2 million.

Sotheby’s describes “A Day in the Life” as “the revolutionary song that marked the Beatles’ transformation from pop icons to artists,” apparently never having heard “Rubber Soul” or “Revolver.” The auction house notes that the song had “a depth that was absent from the Beatle’s earlier pop songs.” Indeed, the song is filled with studio stunts and incorporates a 40-piece orchestra. The final E maj chord — played by multiple people on three pianos — is among the most famous in music, no doubt out there still resonating. (Hear the “Oh, shit” work version of the Beatles psychedelic classic.)

McCartney’s “Woke up, fell out of bed” section doesn’t appear on the lyrics, but its insertion for the middle 8 is indicated on the second side of the sheet, which has the more polished version of Lennon’s lyrics, all capitalized. There are crossouts and corrections on both versions. The line “I love to turn you on” appears added later, in different ink.

Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting partnership had pretty much run its course by the time of “A Day in the Life.”

McCartney successfully sued the Evans estate in 1992 to halt the sale of the handwritten lyrics for “With a Little Help From My Friends.” The songwriter noted that Evans kept lyrics sheets as part of his job with the Beatles. Ten years later, McCartney stopped an auction of his “Hey Jude” lyrics, which had been stolen from his home.

Essential reading: Abbey Road studio’s diary of the “A Day in the Life” sessions.

A Day in the Life lyrics (Lennon/McCartney)

I read the news today oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
but I just had to look
Having read the book

I’d love to turn you on

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,
and somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I read the news today oh boy
4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

I’d love to turn you on

Julian Lennon remembers ‘Lucy’

The real-life Lucy of “Lucy in the Skies With Diamonds” is inspiring Julian Lennon once again. On Dec. 15, he’s releasing the single “Lucy” in her memory, with proceeds going to fight lupus, the disease that killed her.

Lucy Vodden’s death in September reminded Beatle fans of the genesis of the “Sgt. Pepper” psychedelic classic.

Julian, John Lennon’s son, brought home a picture he’d drawn in preschool. He titled it “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” providing his dad with material for the song.

Lennon always maintained the song was about the boy’s drawing, not LSD, but the content and initials suggested otherwise.

The new “Lucy” song was being recorded by Julian Lennon’s colleague James Scott Cook near the time of Vodden’s death at age 46. Lennon and Cook rewrote some of the lyrics and cut the “Lucy” record as a duet. Cook’s grandmother, Lucy, also suffers from lupus.

Lennon looked up his old classmate after learning she had the autoimmune disease. “She created millions with her name,” he told USA Today. “The least I could do was try to support her and make sure she was comfortable.”

Vodden, who died at 46, tried to keep a low profile regarding the song. She liked the Beatles, but not “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” “I don’t relate to the song, to that type of song,” she told the Associated Press before she died.

The “Lucy” EP will feature a foldout copy of the original Lennon drawing (pictured). The digital download will be exclusive to the iTunes Store for now, as was the 40th anniversary release of “Give Peace a Chance” released by Lennon, Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono earlier this month. That single benefited the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund.

Lennon runs a new digital-media record label — theRevolution — whose first release will be “Lucy.” Next year Lennon plans to release an album, “Everything Changes.” The musician and filmmaker has not released new music in almost a decade.

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is a top 10 entry on our list of the Top 100 Psychedelic Songs of all time.

Psychedelic Beatles rarities up for auction

What appear to be the rarest and strangest of all Beatles album pressings are coming to auction next week.

The story begins back in the twilight of the vinyl era. A Capitol Records employee who worked in the label’s Toronto pressing plant killed time by making multicolored vinyl records, colorful psychedelic things. Among them, appropriately, were the psychedelic classics “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Revolver.”

Canadian collectors Akim Boldireff and Aaron Keele bought the vinyl beauties from the ex-record presser, who apparently kept them in a closet. They said the presser had access to the original plates of the Beatles records.

Keele told the Vancouver Sun: “The real thing that makes this fascinating is that they were pressed at the original plants, using original stampers with the catalogue number of the original release as issued and created by Capitol Records.”

The eBay sale might have gone relatively quiety, except for the Guardian newspaper in Britain, which decided to dub them “the rarest Beatles albums ever.”

(This days after bestowing the title on an in-house version of “Sgt. Pepper” that had Capitol execs’ faces replacing the 1960s celebrities’ mugs found on the famed cover.)

Here is the Guardian’s description of the eBay goods:

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on bright baby-blue marble vinyl, the 1967-70 greatest hits compilation on swirled blue-and-white vinyl, and a translucent blue LP with side A of “Revolver” and side B of John Lennon’s “Plastic Ono Band” album. However, the most beautiful item in the collection is the Beatles’ “Love Songs” anthology, made with gold vinyl. This is streaked with an abstract expressionist rainbow, like an explosion at a paint factory.

Opening bids for each of the albums is $1,000, but this being the Beatles, look for soaring values. The fun starts on eBay on Nov. 10.