By now Lennon was the head of a property empire and owner of a prize herd of Holstein cattle, a collection of Ancient Egyptian relics and an original Renoir painting. His wife worked at a desk inlaid with gold.
During this period, Lennon was often portrayed as a recluse, but in fact the couple were surrounded by assistants, psychics, tarot readers, masseurs, maids, acupuncturists and odd-job people, as well as one man whose sole job was to polish the apartment's brass doorknobs.
Some visitors were struck by the contrast between his millionaire lifestyle and the sentiments of his most famous song. Elton John was astounded to discover that Yoko had a specially refrigerated room just for her fur coats.
In 1980, to mark Lennon's 40th birthday, Elton sent him a little verse:
Imagine six apartments
It isn't hard to do
One is full of fur coats
The other's full of shoes
An older friend, the Beatles' former personal assistant Neil Aspinall, once heard Lennon moaning about the costs of running his business empire. 'Imagine no possessions, John,' Aspinall said. Lennon glared back. 'It's only a bloody song,' he said.
Wow
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