The story of John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/07/28/the-story-of-john-lennons-ps.html

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Dunno about the car but I sure want that shirt he is wearing.

more people should do this sort of thing.

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Groovy!

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It’s strange what sticks in the mind, as I was only 13 at the time John Lennon had the Rolls repainted. My parents had the Daily Express delivered, I think out of inertia from when my grandparents lived with them. Anyway, I can distinctly remember that the Express was not at all happy with the colour scheme. They thought it an affront to the fine British crafstmanship that epitomized the best the nation could do. Replacement of the superlative paintwork with something so tawdry was an act of willful destruction - and the opinion piece carried on like this for quite a while.

Years later my mother told me that the Beatles were one of the few things that helped her get through those years.

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Well, a Rolls-Royce Phantom V Motorcar is rather spacious inside.

According to
Rolls-Royce - The Complete Works (The Best 599 Stories about the World’s Best Car)
by Mike Fox and Steve Smith, Guild Publishing, London, 1984

“John Lennon’s Rolls-Royce had a bed in the back.”

However, in the category “British musicians and their Rolls-Royce Motorcars”, it’s hard to top Keith Moon.
From the same source:

"Keith Moon, drummer of The Who, was a good customer of Rolls-Royce but an erratic driver, as was demonstrated the day he sold his lavishly appointed house. The morning after he moved out, Moon received a frantic phone call from the new owner.
“There’s a Rolls-Royce in the swimming pool!” he complained.
“Oh yeh, forgot to tell you. I took a right when I should’ve took a left. Sorry,” replied the imperturbable Loon [sic].

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“…Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can…” I love it when multimillionaires tell others that giving up materialism is a good thing and being happy with less is even better.

Very 60’s psychedlicly prescient of Trump in its own way. “I’ve got mine, you don’t need yours and will be happier if you stop wanting things. I’m off to a gated and guarded estate in a car that cost more than your house with other very wealthy people to take drugs while you hit the dole queue once more.”

It was probably considered an advantage at the time, presenting that video in black and white. How many people had color tv those days, anyway? But its a crime against history not to see what the hubbub was about… this clip needs to be colorized by some obsessive hobbiest, by whom I mean, “somebody other than me”.

in the video, looks like they had a John Lennon impersonator…

I’ve always and seriously believed that the rich have an obligation to be eccentric.

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