Nothing sells like anger, it seems — especially these days.
A vitriolic letter that John Lennon wrote to his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney and his wife Linda McCartney pulled in nearly $30,000 at auction this week.
The letter, believed to date from 1971, sold for $29,843, according to Boston’s RR Auction.
The winning bidder, a collector from Dallas, wished to remain anonymous.
The scathing, two-page missive from Lennon was reportedly a response to Linda McCartney’s criticism leveled at Lennon over Lennon not publicly announcing his split from the Beatles.
“I was reading your letter and wondering what middle aged cranky Beatle fan wrote it,” the typed letter with handwritten annotations by Lennon reads. “I resisted looking at the last page to find out. I kept thinking who is it, Queenie? Stuart’s mother? Clive Epstein’s wife? Alan Williams? What the hell – it’s Linda! Who do you think we/you are?”
Lennon also seethed over the treatment that he and his wife Yoko Ono received from Lennon’s “friends,” writing, “I hope you realize what sh-t you and the rest of my ‘kind and unselfish’ friends laid on Yoko and me, since we’ve been together. It might have sometimes been a bit more subtle or should I say ‘middle class’ — but not often. We both ‘rose above it’ quite a few times — & forgave you two — so it’s the least you can do for us –you noble people.”
“The letter captures the intense rivalry between Lennon and McCartney in the months, and even years, surrounding the breakup of the Beatles,” RR Auction’s executive vice president Robert Livingston said of the letter.
Lennon wrapped up the letter by asserting that Paul McCartney and Beatles manager Allen Klein persuaded him to keep quit about his split from the group.
“Finally, about not telling anyone that I left the Beatles — PAUL and Klein both spent the day persuading me it was better not to say anything — asking me not to say anything because it would ‘hurt the Beatles’ — and ‘let’s just let it peter out’ — remember?” Lennon wrote. “So get that into your petty little perversion of a mind, Mrs. McCartney — the c-nts asked me to keep quiet about it.”
Youch — apparently love isn’t all you need after all.
And here you were dreading the squabbling that awaits at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner…