![John Lennon piano at Phoenix museum John Lennon piano at Phoenix museum]()
John Lennon piano at Phoenix museum
by Michael Clancy - Mar. 18, 2010 03:12 PM
The Arizona Republic
Almost 40 years ago, John Lennon sat down at his Steinway upright, situated in his bedroom at Tittenhurst Park, outside of London, and wrote the song "Imagine."
Lennon knew he had written something special. In one of his last interviews, he declared "Imagine" to be as good as anything he had written with the Beatles.
The song certainly made a star of the piano, now considered perhaps the most valuable piece of musical memorabilia. Experts have estimated its value at $8 million to $12 million.
The instrument is on loan to the Musical Instrument Museum in northeast Phoenix for one year. It will be displayed in the new museum's Artist Gallery, along with Bob Dylan's harmonicas, guitars from Paul Simon, George Benson,and Eric Clapton, and the first Steinway piano ever built.
The museum opens on April 24.
It was not the white grand piano now known from films and photos.
Lennon bought the piano, a walnut-finished model Z, in December 1970. His estate sold it to a private British collector in 1992. It was put up for auction in October 2000, where it was bought by musician George Michael for a little more than $2 million.
Since then, the piano has been on display in several venues.
Notably, it has been showcased at numerous scenes of violence to send a message of peace. It has been photographed at Dealey Plaza, where President Kennedy was assassinated; at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were gunned down by a student in 2007; and at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.
"Kenny (Goss, a gallery owner in Dallas) and George's deepest wish is to imagine a world of peace, a world without violence," said Caroline True, creative director. "The selection of these sites evokes a deep sense of emotion for everyone. Capturing these images of this special piano on which a song of peace was composed is the heart of this project."
The song, "Imagine," was released in 1971 and was Lennon's most famous post-Beatles song, but it took on a whole new life after Lennon's murder in December 1980, when it became a No. 1 hit.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/03/18/20100318john-lennon-imag...