Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
London (dpa) - A letter written by John Lennon in which he defended The Beatles' early covers of black American music has sold for 12,000 pounds (22,500 dollars) at auction in London.
It was sent to a journalist from the New York Times in 1971, in response to an article which accused the band of ripping off black artists.
Lennon was so upset that he fired off a handwritten letter on American Airlines notepaper.
It sold to a British bidder in a rock and film memorabilia sale held at Bonhams auction house in London Wednesday.
In the letter, Lennon wrote: "Money, Twist'n'Shout, You Really Got A Hold On Me, etc, were all numbers we used to sing in the dancehalls around Britain, mainly Liverpool."
"It was only natural that we tried to do it as near to the record as we could - I always wished we could have done them even closer to the original," said Lennon, explaining that The Beatles did not sing their own songs in the early days because they weren't "good enough."
The letter ended: "It wasn't a rip-off. It was a love-in."
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
