BOB MARLEY

NEW YORK (Reuters)

A notebook containing handwritten lyrics by reggae star Bob Marley sold for US$72,000 at an auction of rock and pop memorabilia at Christie's on Monday.

The Marley notebook, along with a handwritten poem by Doors singer Jim Morrison, 'The American Night', which was sold for US$50,400, went to private collectors in the United States. Prices included buyer's premiums.

Christie's fall New York auction of 147 lots of guitars, clothing, handwritten lyrics and other memorabilia took in a total of US$1,117,920 from people who placed bids in person, by phone and over the Internet. That total was at the upper end of the auction house's estimate of US$800,000 to US$1.1 million.

Rolling Stones

The auction included items connected to Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, the Jackson Five, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis and others.

A Texas bookstore owner bought a rare page of working lyrics for Beatle Paul McCartney's song Maxwell's Silver Hammer for US$192,000.

Bill Butler also won the bidding for one of rock legend Jimi Hendrix's electric guitars, a 1968 Fender Stratocaster, for US$168,000, the guitar's strap for $10,800 and a photograph of Hendrix and band members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell framed by two topless blondes for US$5,400.

"I'm worried about getting it all home," Butler joked with reporters after the auction.

Retired

Butler retired from the telecommunications industry before opening his rare and used book shop in Rosenberg, Texas, just outside Houston. He said he would display the guitar at his bookstore but would store the 1968 McCartney lyrics in a fireproof file cabinet.

Butler lost the bidding for a black leather vest worn onstage by Hendrix. The vest was bought for US$28,800 by Don Bernstine, who acquires rock memorabilia for the Hard Rock Cafés, hotels and casinos.

A previously unheard and undocumented interview with John Lennon for Crawdaddy music magazine was sold for US$38,400, and an acoustic guitar Dylan played during camping trips went for US$24,000. A handwritten 1972 letter by John Lennon to a music magazine about the political situation in Northern Ireland fetched US$24,000.

However, a review of Sophocles' Antigone written as a junior high school assignment by pop star Britney Spears fetched only about US$250, to laughter and applause from bidders, far below the low estimate of US$500, despite auctioneer Helen Bailey's best efforts.