- Philip Norman’s “letter” to Paul - May 2, 2016
- The Jets and The Beatles - April 25, 2016
- Lennon and McCartney On The Tonight Show, 1968 - April 20, 2016
We love receiving emails from our ever vigilant commentariat about new developments in Beatleland.
The autographed postcard from the Fred Arnold Collection.
Commentator @ODirony sent us an interesting link about a homeless fellow by the name of Fred Arnold, who was killed after being struck by a car in Little Rock, Arkansas. Turns out Arnold was a prolific collector of Beatles’ memorabilia and had a personal relationship with John and Yoko. You can read the entire story here. A quick google of “Fred Arnold and John Lennon” yielded this–an autographed War Is Over postcard given to Fred Arnold and currently for sale on Ebay by an Arnold acquaintance, who describes it thusly:
This card was given to my friend, Fred Arnold, who is now deceased. In 1972, he visited the apartment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in NYC. He was a friend of both of them, and continued to be close to Yoko until his death last year. Upon his leaving the apt. one night, John gave Fred this card. It is unsigned. I checked with some forensics experts, and they told me that it is entirely possible that John’s fingerprints and DNA could be on the card, even after all of these years. I cannot say 100% that this is true, but the experts thought so. Fred went on to work for Paul McCartney in Nashville in the mid-1970’s, and then he had 3 record stores in Charleston, SC called Prism. After Hurricane Hugo struck Charleston, he moved to Columbia, SC and opened 3 more stores. He died last year in an accident while in Little Rock, AR. I had to write to Yoko and tell her, which was very difficult. Fred told me that he wanted to be friends of John’s, so that he could get close to Yoko. He said he liked her better.
By all accounts, Arnold’s collection was extensive and is probably worth a small fortune. That he died homeless and penniless is as bewildering as it is tragic.
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Some vinyl to complete your collection
What a fascinating story, full of amazing surprises. The biggest surprise for me is that it made me feel warmly towards Yoko!
I knew Fred well during Punk Hardcore 80’s. He did a Punk-a-Rama show on WSCI 89.3 in Charleston South Carolina on Public Radio aboard the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier and owned two punk record stores – The shows name was named after the song with same name by Venus and the Razorblades and he used the song for the beginning theme to his show. We was removed by a new Ambient Space Music the first time around 1987 and he went to do the show on the local new Rock station in Charleston, South Carolina. I did a lot of art for concerts, fanzines, etc and for his show. He is a legend in the southeast Punk era and needs to be remembered for his influence he did in promoting Punk and Hardcore- he was the Rodney in the Rocks of the Southeast America and a very good friend. I had all the shows taped yet my cousin has them now.
Michael Griffin from Pawleys Island SC aka Skinhead my artist name –
Fred was my friend in the 80’s when He owned the Prism Record Store on King Street in Historical Battery Charleston, SC and the Riverside Drive store – I did Punk art for Fred for his Punk-a-Rama show on Saturday Night on the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier Public Radio WSCI 89.3 around 1987 the radio show was replaced by first Space Ambient Music yet he was contracted to do the show on Charleston’s new Rock Station. He was the Rodney on the ROQ ”Rocks” of LA for the Southeast America and he met a lot of the great bands including Ian from the Cult he interviewed when he was in America as Southern Death Cult. Ian stayed with Fred. Michael Griffin aka Skinhead ”Reggae Punk type”