Letter from John Lennon asking Eric Clapton to form new supergroup with him goes up for sale
By Lianne Kolirin, CNN
(CNN) — A handwritten letter that John Lennon wrote to Eric Clapton inviting him to be part of a new supergroup is to be offered at auction next month.
The eight-page letter sees Lennon express his heartfelt admiration for Clapton and his music, as he outlines his vision for a musical project that he hoped would have a “revolutionary” effect on live performances.
Dated September 29, 1971, the signed draft — which features several corrections and deletions — sees Lennon outline his plans for a “nucleus group” that would include musician and producer Klaus Voormann, drummer Jim Keltner, pianist Nicky Hopkins and producer and songwriter Phil Spector, all of whom had previously worked with the Beatles.
Lennon told Clapton he believed the prospective group, which would also be joined by his wife, Yoko Ono, would “bring back the balls in rock ‘n’ roll.”
The letter is expected to fetch up to €150,000 (around $158,000) when it goes up for auction on December 5. International Autograph Auctions Europe SL, which is holding the online sale, described it in a media statement as “one of the rarest forms of Lennon’s personal communications available.”
Lennon wrote: “You must know by now that Yoko and I rate your music and yourself very highly. You also know the music we have been making and hope to make. Anyway… after missing the Bangla-desh concert we began to feel more and more like going on the road but not the way I used to with the Beatles, night after night of torture.”
The Bangladesh concert was a benefit gig organized by Lennon’s fellow Beatle George Harrison, at which a host of big-name musicians played, including Clapton.
The new band could tour internationally, Lennon suggested, as he expressed interest in playing for audiences as far afield as Russia and China.
The early 1970s were a turbulent time for Clapton. He had retreated from public life while battling heroin addiction and also due to the controversy surrounding his pursuit of Pattie Boyd, Harrison’s then-wife — whom he would later go on to marry .
The letter hints that Lennon was aware of Clapton’s delicate situation and felt some sympathy with him. He was divorced from his first wife, Cynthia Powell, in 1968 and married Ono the following year.
He wrote: “Both of us have been thru the same kind of shit/pain that I know you´ve had — and I know we could help each other in that area — but mainly Eric — I know I can bring out something great — in fact greater in you that has been so far evident in your music, I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us — which I know will happen if/when we get together.”
He said he was not pressuring Clapton, but hope that he would seriously consider the idea.
“I´m not trying to pressure you in anyway and would quite understand if you decide against joining us, we would still love and respect you. We’re not asking for your ‘name’, I’m sure you know this — it´s your mind we want!”
Lennon kept this draft letter and it is not known what made it into his final version.
The auction house said in the statement: “The rarity of such personal expression over multiple pages in handwritten form by Lennon to Clapton highlights Lennon’s enduring passion for his music but also what could have been a monumental moment in rock history. It also reminds us of a remarkable association between two of the world’s most legendary icons in music. Sadly, John Lennon died December 8, 1980 and was never able to see through this idea.”
Earlier this year, Christie’s auctioned a host of Boyd’s personal effects, including an anonymous love letter that Clapton sent her in 1970. It sold for $135,000.
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