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Below I have listed a few items which I have been carrying about with me for the last fifty years or so. I am trying to
sell them in order to pay off some enormous medical bills incurred last year; a heart bypass and two eye operations,
the latter necessitated by the inexcusable bumblings of two eye surgeons back in 2001, one in Kingston, New York,
and the other in Poughkeepsie, New York, leaving me blind in my right eye."
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New Orleans, 1953 |
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This is a picture of me playing my banjo with an unnamed guitar player who happened to be passing
through New Orleans, where I lived at 912 Toulouse Street in l953. You may have a good copy of it,
signed by me, Billy Faier, for twenty-five bucks. Only one hundred of them will be printed." |
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Big
Bill--News from Europe |
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This is a hand-written letter from Big Bill Broonzy to my wife trying to get her to leave me and come live
with him in Europe. It did not succeed."
price $5000.00 |
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THE LENNON-DYLAN CONNECTION |
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My friend, Bernard Paturel owned the Cafe Espresso in Woodstock, New York, in the early sixties. He
also worked for Bob Dylan who lived there at the time. Dylan lived upstairs at the Cafe for a summer
before he bought his own place in Woodstock. Bernard worked for Dylan as handyman and general
factotum for a long while. One day I ran into Bernard in the town dump where he was discarding stuff
from Dylan's house. I looked down and saw the card with John Lennon's picture on it. I picked it up and
saw it was one half of a letter or post card from John Lennon to Bob Dylan which had accompanied a
bottle of wine Lennon sent Dylan to help him recover from his motorcycle accident. This information is
according to the text which I have softened to illegibility in this reproduction to give the card more value to
the buyer. Unfortunately Lennon's signature was on the missing half of the card which I didn't think to
search for at the time. Otherwise I would be asking twice as much for it. The signature on the side of the
card with Lennon's picture is JACKIO.
price $15,000.00 |
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ONE AFTERNOON IN WOODSTOCK |
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I took these pictures of Bob Dylan playing chess with Victor Maymudes, his sidekick at the time, at the
Cafe Expresso in l963. I forget who won the game. The original black and white photos do not have the
horizontal bands. Let's have an auction. I will sell them to the highest bidder by January 1, 2010. Starting
bid, $1000.00. |
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AND...A
LITTLE REMINDER OF THE DEEP HISTORY OF OUR MUSIC.
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"In the fifties I was writing a book
that was to be called HOOTNANNY HIT PARADE. It was an ill-conceived
project that never got off the ground. But in the process I
was connected with Frank Proffitt who was Frank Warner's
informant for the song, TOM DOOLY. This song was the
Kingston Trio's first big hit. It gave rise to an incredibly complex legal situation because none of the megabucks that
were being made from the song were going to Frank Proffitt,
the original informant.This is not the place to tell this
story. Suffice it to say that Frank Proffitt was more
disturbed by the way the Kingston Trio sang TOM DOOLY than
by the money issue. The song was a very important part of
Proffitt's early memories and I have letters from him which
describe in detail how he felt about the story and what it
meant to him. But the money issue was important too. Frank
started making fretless banjos to make ends meet. He learned
to do this from his father-in-law, Nathan Hicks, who was
well known in the mountains for his string instruments. At Frank
Warner's suggestion I bought one from Proffitt and paid him
sixty dollars for it. I was glad to do so, even though I never
played it. Well both Franks are gone now. Frank and Anne
Warner were good friends of mine and even though I never met
Frank Proffitt in person I felt he was a good friend through
our phone talks and letters. So I don't think that they
would mind me selling the banjo for a good price in order to
help get my ends together too. The banjo still has the original
skin head. All the wooden friction pegs are original except
for the fifth peg. There are a couple of minor cracks in the
wood. There never was a bridge." Price $500.00
SOLD
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