00:00What began as simple doodles on a tablecloth 60 years later are being celebrated as part of a remarkable chapter
00:07in the Beatles history.
00:08The drawings now on display at the Liverpool Beatles Museum were created by John Lennon and filmmaker Stephen Verona
00:14as part of an experimental project built around the Beatles song I Feel Fine.
00:20When Stephen started drawing them he didn't know it was the music video for I Feel Fine.
00:23He thought it was called She Said So. It was given to him by John on an unlabeled acetate disc.
00:29So he got to work and then a number of years later Stephen recalls John and he sat by his
00:35kitchen table smoking, drinking, colouring in the rest of these drawings and he loved the idea.
00:40Then went on to become the music video for I Feel Fine and in the collection it's the original films
00:46in the Library of Congress in America.
00:48According to Verona the idea emerged after he met Lennon in London while directing a commercial.
00:53Phil Verona later recalled the pair started sketching together and decided to turn the drawings into a short film.
00:59The result was a two minute animated production made from 240 individual drawings with each word of the song represented
01:07on its own piece of paper.
01:08The completed artwork was then assembled into a moving sequence designed to follow the rhythm and lyrics of the music.
01:15In 2000 at Christie's Stephen sold all of the drawings, all 240 of the stop motion drawings done by he
01:22and John and they were just dispersed around the world.
01:25Whoever bought them at Christie's separated them out and allowed 240 collectors to have them.
01:29I've been able to piece together a series of a few of them saying baby says she's mine and in
01:34love with her.
01:35So it's the first time that they've been reunited together and on display and glad to have them here at
01:39the Liverpool Beatles Museum.
01:41Joseph O'Donnell stumbled across them in an auction in Tyne and Wear where he said the people didn't really understand
01:48what they were and he did.
01:50So he bought, I think there was 12 at that auction.
01:53This artwork offers a rare glimpse into John Lennon's creative life beyond the recording studio and into a project that
02:01helped bring music and visual storytelling together in a completely new way.
02:05The significance of them is, you know, one, that they were done by John, two, that they were, you know,
02:12dominantly, well, they were done for the I Feel Fine video.
02:15And then when you think of them being done for the I Feel Fine video, you know, it's basically I
02:22Feel Fine was rock and roll's first music video.
02:25And if you look at that in today's times, you don't get an artist or a group, you know, that
02:31doesn't release a video to promote their music.
02:35So I've loved the Beatles for, since I was, I can't even remember, since I was in high school, absolutely
02:41adore their music.
02:43And then as you kind of get to the music and end of the music, you start learning the history
02:48behind the band and the pop culture.
02:50And then, you know, when my normal career career route to learn fashion, art, pop culture, and they're somehow intertwined
02:55into all of that.
02:56So I just, someone has to be the best and the Beatles are the best.
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