Listen To This Balloon: 19th December, 1974.

I am back up in the auld ancestral home at the moment, struttin' aboot in mi tither, etc.. Occasional downtime vis-a-vis the aforementioned "struttin'" allows one the opportunity to peruse the ridiculous amount o' Beatles related shite that one has allowed to congeal over the long, long, long years. (What is, by the way, the correct collective noun for a massive quantity o' shite? How about a "boris"? A boris o' shite has a pleasing ring to it. But I digress.) (At some point I intend to sell the aforementioned boris ... not yet though.) (But I digress.)

Occasionally I come across a "piece" that I had forgotten I had, unt here is a good example. Readahs will no doubt be overly familiar with the good auld "Listen To This Balloon" anecdote. But have ye ever actually seen such a balloon? Well, above, there is one. Now, I have no idea whether this is the type of balloon actually employed by John to irritate his fellow former Fabs. It appears to be a promo device for the UK release of Happy Etc. (War is Etc.):

Even if it is, why would John have had one in the U.S.? And why does it not say "Happy Xmas from John and Yoko", given that it was a joint single? Who knows. Cock-up? Anybody? Maybe, too, there were U.S. equivalents. Maybe John kept a few because he found it amusing. (He did, after all, collect Beatles bootlegs.) Or maybe this balloon has nothing to do with anything.

As usual, I have no idea. All I can tell you is that I got it from a source in the US, and that it in reality it looks (not to mention smells) ... vintage. Lovely stuff.