The Great John Lennon Warehouse Find of 1978 (or 9)

A recent reference to a (hopeful) warehouse find had me harking back to this memory.

If I remember right the finds were Life With the Lions LP and two 45s with pic sleeves. I'm recalling the 45s as "Instant Karma" and "Power to the People" (or maybe it was "Give Peace a Chance?).

What I remember is that I had recently traded my used and worn copy of Life With the Lions for copies of the Red and Blue albums on colored vinyl. My trade partner was a good friend who had an odd "It's just business" attitude. He neglected to tell me the Red and Blue albums had just been released and were sitting at Walmart. Between that and the then current value of Life With the Lions he came out of the deal like a robber.

But very few months later, after the warehouse find, I was able to replace LWL with a still sealed copy pretty cheaply.

At that point I had become the robber. The next time I saw him he said, "You look like a sea monster with that ship eating grin of yours. What's up?"

So was anyone else able to take advantage of that warehouse find?

 

The guy who bought the bulk of the find was a regular at Beatlefest for years (though I haven't seen him in probably twenty years).

The 45's were Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey and Instant Karma and they all had picture sleeves. The LP's were Life With The Lions, The Wedding Album (8-track version also) and Live Peace in Toronto (with and without the calendar). The find really drove down the price of the Cold Turkey sleeve which was previously scarce.

Sort of in the same league was the Happy Xmas (War is Over) promo 45 find. This was a super rare record that regularly sold for $1000.00+ until Phil Spector sold a stash of them about twenty years ago which drove the price down to the current $500-$600 level though some dealers still ask $1000.00.

 

Okay, yea I do remember now that Live Peace in Toronto was part of the find. But I completely missed out on the Wedding Album (still don't have a U.S. version of that.) "Cold Turkey" I didn't think was part of the find at all.
But, yea, it really drove prices down.
I believe all of these were worth more in 1977 than they are now, 2014.

 

I have no recollection of this... where was the warehouse, who discovered it, and how were the records made available?

 

This is the first time I've heard anything about this.. More info please

 

I wonder if that's why I landed a NM copy of Cold Turkey (w/sleeve) recently for like $15 or something. I NEVER thought I'd get a copy of that single, let alone in such great shape.

 

I have a vivid memory of going through what seemed like a thousand copies of Instant Karma at a record show in New Jersey many years ago. I grabbed a bunch of perfect picture sleeves and some rare label varieties/odd ball pressings, all for like 50 cents each. The dealer referenced the the 'warehouse story' but I never got all the details.

 

I remember this being around 1983 and 84. Unless there were two warehouse finds, or still a lot of leftovers. But yes, the Cold Turkey and GPAC sleeves and The Wedding Album, Live Peace and Life with the Lions. All mint. Albums all sealed. Seems like the 45 sleeves were $5-10 and the lps under $20.

 

Also in this find were a lot of sealed Wonderwall Music and Electornic Sounds lps as well. With the Live Peace in Toronto albums you could choose either the plactic or wire binding for the calendar! I don't think they ever came up with Wedding Albums on vinyl, but there were a lot of 8-tracks floating around.

Hard to believe there was a time when you could get all these albums sealed for about $25 each. I remember this as being circa '78-'80 Chicago Beatlefests.

 

I am fairly certain my sealed Live Peace with Calendar came from this stash

 

I do remember this, I thought it was around 1979...There was actually a load of Apple 45s that was part of the warehouse find. I was working in a small record store and we had a couple of boxes of these 45s. It Don't Come Easy with the promo Star on the label, I remember lots of James Taylor, White Trash, Hot Chocolate, Badfinger, Black Dyke Mills Band. They were all in the Black Apple sleeve.
I also remember lots of the Live Peace in Toronto lp with calendar. Cool times.

 

Others can share more details/specifics but the story I remember was that it had something to do with padding album sales and that someone (Lennon?) purchased large volumes of some releases and just stashed em in this warehouse in NYC.

 

I think it was Allen Klein you're thinking of. He was convicted of selling record albums (to somebody) that were designated to be given away as promotional items. The band(s) would give the records to Klein for promotion he and sold 'em and neglected to report the money as income.

Lennon did keep cases of his and Yoko's records and would sometimes give copies to friends. Those are probably still in storage in the Dakota.

 

Yes, you are right, it was Allen Klein in the story I am remembering! I think I mixed the 2 stories

 

Sure.I remember record stores in 1979-80 had a fair amount of all these records,that came from a cutout distributor,although they were uncut.Stores had so many they sold them for $1.99 a whack.

 

Did it get worn from you playing it?

 

I have the Wedding Album 8 track, still sealed.
I gave it to my daughter, who is a photographer and does a few weddings.
she displays it in her apartment.
does anyone know the value of this?

 

I forget whether it was GIVE PEACE A CHANCE or INSTANT KARMA, but I bought a new copy of ONE of those 45's at The Wall record store in the Walt Whitman Mall (Huntington, Long Island--I worked at the store) in 1998, so these things were *still* floating around almost 20 years after the initial discovery.

 

Somebody actually had a worn copy of Life With the Lions? Unbelievable

 

Even today you can get an original, sealed Live Peace In Toronto w/ calendar for about $30 or less.

 

It has more value in an unlistened to state. Did it come with any of the extras?

 

I know that some of those early Lennon 45s that had sort of disappeared for a while re-appeared in quantities at some point. Tbe real rarity was the picture sleeve as those tiles were still available otherwise.

I can also comment on the resurgence of Apple 45s in the mid to late 70s. A record label, I want to say Annuit Coeptus" acquired Apple cast-offs and distributed them promotionally to radio as an attention getting gimmick. I was an Apple collector from the early years, but when the label distributed these discs I collected and saw items I
had never seen commonly in the U.S. Because I was in the biz and acquired many of them at no cost, I even held on to some title font variations, but I was mostly into it for the pic sleeves.

The Wedding Album must have been the most elaborately packaged album issued at the time. It was a boxed set not for the purpose of the music, but for the ephemera enclosed. I bought a copy within a week of issue and was shocked when I got it home and discovered it was only one disc! Not to mention that that there was virtually zero musical content. That was less of a shock having bought Two Virgins and Life With The Lions, but I thought at least I'd get two albums of unlistenable content. I was actually relieved to listen to the album side with an interesting interview. Even the A side was more listenable than the previous two.

 

Everyone remembers John Lennon's solo work as "Imagine" and all the other hits, but few remember that John and Yoko put out some really far out stuff that must have tested the patience of even the biggest Beatle fans. Not everything they did was great, but they always had the opportunity to do what he and Yoko wanted. Most of it was done with a sharp and intelligent wit but it may not be something I listen to often today. Still, it is interesting Beatles history to me.

 

No. the vinyl was mint. Trust me!
But I had made that find in a used record store where the cover had taken some mistreatment.

 

It has all the extras and has never been opened.