Well the recession has finally hit the memorabilia market. Sky high prices for rock’s relics are plummeting. However, they still remain out of reach for most of us. John Lennon’s toilet did well recently, fetching $14,000 in a high profile British auction. However, there are a number of boomers out there who have some pricey items that they wish they could liquidate right now. 
The Rock And Roll Detective® has recently unearthed an example of one such collectible. The item is an acoustic guitar that George Harrison bought just before The Beatles “The White Album
” sessions began in 1968. The guitar was likely used on the acoustic demos that The Beatles recorded at Harrison’s home in Surry. Some of these acoustic White Album demos have appeared on The Anthology 3
CD set. 
The guitar in question is a 12-string Harptone acoustic. It is also likely that George used his new Harptone during The White Album sessions.
After the Beatles break up, Harrison continued to use the guitar for songwriting and to record his solo album All Things Must Pass
. In the bootleg world, one can hear George playing this Harptone on his studio demos for Phil Spector prior to recording All Things Must Pass
. The CD containing these sessions is called Beware of ABKCO (a sly reference to his then manager Allen Klein).This famous guitar surfaced again at The Concert for Bangladesh
in the hands of Badfinger guitarist Tom Evans at Madison Square Garden in 1971. You can view Evans playing the guitar in the film GEORGE HARRISON "THE CONCERT FOR BANGLA DESH" Multimedia Collection: 2 CD's + 1 DVD set
.
When Harrison formed his own record label, Dark Horse
Records in 1974, he began producing a band called Splinter. Splinter was a two man band consisting of Bob Purvis and Bill Elliott who originally were discovered by The Beatles’ assistant Mal Evans. George produced their debut album for his new label and played guitar as well under various pseudonyms: P. Roducer, Hari Georgeson and Jai Raj Harisein. The album was released in September of 1974 and was titled, The Place I Love
. At the conclusion of the sessions, George gifted the 12-string Harptone to Bob Purvis.
The guitar was sold to a private collector. The Harptone made one more public appearance at the venerable Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
in conjunction with the Concert for Bangladesh exhibit. The guitar was loaned by the collector to the museum and was displayed from September 8, 2005 to May 31, 2006. It was insured at that time for $190,000.Today, the collector is attempting to sell the guitar privately. The provenance of the guitar is impeccable and indisputable. In a good economic period the value of this rock gem might have doubled since the 2005 auction, with the added cache of being displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, these are tough times and a “buyer’s market” now exists. The private selling price today for this guitar is a mere $58,000. So, instead of buying that Cadillac Escalade or paying your kid's private college tuition this year, you could own a piece of rock history. Or, you can just read about it here for free!
Until next time, we will keep on digging up the music history…
2010 © Rock And Roll Detective ® and Jim Berkenstadt
All Rights Reserved
The guitar picks of legendary supergroup The Traveling Wilburys (TW) are part of long and mysterious history of musicial pseudonyms first used by The Beatles; a tradition that dates back well before they were famous. Aside from the near impossibility in locating a complete set of these TW picks, they contain only fictional names of the band members and their friends. Searching for authentic Wilburys picks with the real band member names will yield a dead-end because they simply don’t exist. Who are Nelson, Otis, Lefty, Lucky and Charlie T. Jr., and just how did these picks come about? How valuable are they to collectors? Read on...
.
for the British pop singing duo Peter and Gordon. 
His intent was to see if the song could reach the top of the charts without the help of a Beatle, standing merely on the merits of the song and the performance of Peter and Gordon. In 1967, McCartney produced an album for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (
under the name Apollo C. Vermouth. This time the intent was to help musical friends on a rival record label, due to record contract obligations that would have prevented his assistance to the band. Again in 1967, McCartney came up with the concept and pseudonym - 
- to help free the group to create their latest album outside the confines and expectations of using their Beatles moniker. 
. On it, he secretly credited himself as Artur Wax. On a brief liner note he poked fun at himself with the line “There are a lot of people around, making a lot of noise, here’s some more.” 
, produced with Jeff Lynne. Warner Bros. Records' International Department had asked George Harrison to come up with an extra track for Europe for the single 
. At the time it was customary to couple an A-side with a never-before-heard track, giving the single extra sales value. 
was written, George figured, no use wasting all this assembled talent, and put them to work sharing lead vocal duties. No doubt Harrison and Lynne realized they had formed the group they often joked about during the Cloud Nine sessions. A group they referred to early on as “Trembling Wilburys”. 
was recorded a couple of years later, the band members again gave themselves new monikers, however, no Volume 3 picks ever surfaced. This author requested a Traveling Wilburys pick (through a mutual friend) from Jeff Lynne after Volume 3 had been released. Although Lynne didn’t have one, he did provide something even more rare… Lynne said, "I haven't got a pick, but (pulling it out of his pocket) will this do?" It was a golf game-used “Clayton Wilbury” golf tee, which, I suppose one could use as a pick. 
