'Unseen' John Lennon Letter Rants About Pee Incident

Music legend sells out his two pals for urinating in studio
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2014 8:12 AM CDT
'Unseen' John Lennon Letter Rants About Pee Incident
The letter, up for sale today.   (Cooper Owen Auctions)

It was a letter dubbed "A Matter of Pee." In it, an irritated John Lennon wrote to producer Phil Spector that it was Who drummer Keith Moon—a hell-raiser with a thing for blowing up toilets and TVs—and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson who urinated on a recording console at Capitol Records, a studio the three shared. Described as "unseen" by the Telegraph, the letter dates to Lennon's "Lost Weekend" phase, an 18-month period in which he dated his assistant May Pang (while married to Yoko Ono) and worked on 1975's Rock 'n' Roll. It hits the auction block today, and includes such stellar quotes as "Should you not yet know, it was Harry and Keith who pissed on the console!" It's expected to fetch between $6,600 and $9,900, reports Rolling Stone.

He wrote that the studio apparently wanted to kick all three out over the incident, and continued, "I can't be expected to mind adult rock stars nor can May, besides she works for me, not A+M! I'm about to piss off to [rival recording studio] Record Plant because of this crap!" The auction house owner notes the piece—written in red felt tip pen on lined paper—is "a rare note in that it mentions so many well-known figures from the era..." Record Plant was where Lennon was recording at the time of his 1980 death. Other Lennon papers up for sale: several doodle drawings, including a self-portrait initialed by Lennon and signed by Yoko Ono on the back. (In other dead rock star news: New photos from Kurt Cobain's suicide scene have been released.)

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