Мой первый журнал SUNRISE November № 1 2018 | Page 56
MUSIC
John Lennon’s Nine Guitars
1) GALLOTONE CHAMPION
Alexander Stankovskiy
School No. 2
Blagoveschensk (Russia)
You may listen to The Beatles and love
them, or just the opposite. But it makes no
sense at all to deny that four ordinary guys
from the port town of Liverpool have had a
colossal impact on all the contemporary rock
music. And by the way, on the pop music too,
but I'm afraid that Elvis was the first there
nonetheless. The history of the group and its
participants has been described in all
directions, and it seems that there's nothing
more to write about. But those who are not
familiar with the subject, would hardly have
any idea about such a problem…
This article is exactly for them. For
music lovers, musicians, creative people, and
everyone who is not indifferent. It's a tribute to
you and to John Lennon's 78 th birthday.
Everybody knows who John Lennon is.
Everyone has seen at least one photo of that
thin guy in round spectacles and with long hair.
And that guy was one of The Beatles. This is
known to everyone too. John cannot be
imagined without The Beatles, and The
Beatles without John. Many people think for
some reason that he was the group's
constant leader, though it never had a leader.
There were four ambitions Liverpoolians, and
each of them with his own plans and whims.
For example, John often boasted that an
important role in his life was played by…
number 9. And this is really so! See for yourself:
John was born on October 9, 1940. He was
murdered in New York on December 8, but in his
native country, Great Britain, it was already
December 9, 1980. There were many nines in
John's life, but the most important one of
them is probably associated with guitars.
There must have been very many of them in
John's life, but only 9 were important. Only 9
guitars reflecting the most important
milestones in the history of a man, a group,
and rock'n'roll, which were destined to change
the world together. Only 9 guitars of John
Lennon.
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This is John's very first guitar. He
purchased it in March 1957 when he was 17
years old. Lennon himself remembered that he
used to play public guitars until he got his own
one. He learned about the Gallotone from a
magazine ad that guaranteed that it wouldn't
crack or break. There are three interesting
stories associated with this guitar.
The first one is devoted to the
question of who was the person that bought
the guitar: John's mother Julia, or Mimi Smith,
his aunt and guardian (John's mother left him
very early). There was an opinion that Aunt
Mimi did it, but John's friends disprove it. Mimi
did buy a guitar for John, for 17 pounds, but it
was already after the Gallotone. Now
everyone agrees that it was Julia who paid for
the Gallotone for her son from a guitar
catalogue.
Another story started after John.
When The Beatles became popular, John gave
the Gallotone to his Aunt Mimi. After John's
death, Mimi gave it to a family friend whose
son was disabled. When he passed away too,
the Gallotone was handed over to a sick little
girl's family. Her father sold the guitar to save
his daughter. Soon the guitar was purchased
by a private collector named Adam Sender for
140,000 pounds. And this gets us gradually to
the third story: when the guitar was checked
for authenticity it was found out that at one
of the concerts of The Quarrymen (even
before The Beatles) John had torn his finger
and, when replacing a string, left a blood stain
inside the guitar body. When examining the
guitar, the experts really found a stain inside
the Gallotone. It was John Lennon's first
guitar.
November 2018 №1