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TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, Lennon Music letterhead, April 1975 [“no time at all in april .75”]. Letter to Charles Shaar Murray, the influential English journalist and broadcaster for New Musical Express (NME), which reads: “dear c.s.and m.of n.m.e. / tanx for a most heart warning cyble of an extraordinary depth charge man. i was bifurcated to realism by your insight left. and remember, eternity is a hell of a long time. your foreign body, dr.winston o'boogie. a.k.a.b.i.l.k.” Lennon signs at the conclusion in felt tip, and adds a small self-portrait sketch. In very good to fine condition, with scattered light staining and small pin holes. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from noted Beatles expert Frank Caiazzo.
This letter, playfully dated "no time at all in april .75," was written during one of the last active periods of Lennon's recording career before his five-year retirement from music. His covers album, Rock 'n' Roll, had been released that February, its single 'Stand by Me' becoming his last chart hit until 1980; he had also recently completed backing vocals and guitar for David Bowie's 'Fame,' released that July as Bowie's first U.S. number-one single.
On April 8, 1975, Lennon sat for a lengthy interview with Tom Snyder on NBC's The Tomorrow Show, his last major television interview before withdrawing from public life, in which immigration attorney Leon Wildes joined him to discuss the ongoing deportation proceedings stemming from Lennon's 1968 London drug conviction. Although a New York State Supreme Court judge had recently reversed a pending deportation order, the case remained unresolved; the decisive ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals would not come until October 1975. Ten days later, on April 18th, Lennon gave what proved to be his final live public performance, appearing at the Waldorf Astoria during ‘A Salute to Sir Lew Grade’ backed by a masked band parodying Grade's reputation for duplicity.
Written within this same remarkable ten-day span, the letter's surreal wordplay and the persona of ‘Dr. Winston O'Boogie’ reflect the literary style Lennon had cultivated since In His Own Write (1964), just months before he stepped away from the music industry to devote himself to raising his newborn son, Sean.
From the Mark Erbach Collection.
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