USA: Paul McCartney handwritten lyrics and a Jimi Hendrix Fender guitar are the highlights of an upcoming Christie's rock memorabilia auction.

Original handwritten lyrics by former Beatle Paul McCartney and a guitar owned by legendary rock musician Jimi Hendrix are among the featured items in a major New York auction of rock and pop memorabilia. Love letters and personal notes by Bob Dylan and a previously unheard interview recording with the late Beatle John Lennon will also be sold at the Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia auction on Dec. 4. McCartney's working lyrics written in 1968 for the Beatles song 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer,' from the 'Abbey Road' album, is expected to fetch the highest price with an estimate of 200,000 to 300,000 U.S. dollars, according to Christie's. "Rarely do McCartney lyrics come on the market. They're probably mostly in private hands. Paul McCartney's probably got a lot of lyrics himself, and, so yeah, it's very rare for them to come on the market, a very rare opportunity indeed," said Christie's spokeswoman Helen Hall. A Fender Stratocaster guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix for two years before his death in September 1970 could sell for 80,000 to 120,000 USD. The right-handed guitar was modified and restrung for the left-handed Hendrix, but it is unclear if he actually played it, according to Christie's. "Hendrix apparently favoured a rosewood neck rather than a maple neck for recording in the studio, whereas he used a maple neck on stage in sort of later years, so we think it's probably purchased just for use in the studio," Hall explained. "We can't find any pictures of him playing it so we can't categorically say, you know, yes, he used it on this date and this time, but certainly it's been modified for his use, for left-handed use. He used to take the nut off the top so that when he reversed the strings for left-handed use that they would feed through the nut at the top of the neck properly." A rare notebook belonging to Neville Garrick, the former Art Director to Bob Marley and the Wailers is also on offer. Garrick used the book to make a note of Marley's lyrics while the singer composed his songs. It's estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 USD. A handwritten letter that John Lennon and Yoko Ono composed for readers of "Disc" and "Music Echo" magazines, which discusses the political situation in Ireland in 1972, could fetch 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. dollars.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006

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