A sheet of yellow lined paper on which Mal Evans has handwritten lyrics to his composition 'Dear Judy' in pencil. Annotations have been made in black ink.

The lyrics measure 21.5cm x 33.5cm (8.5 inches x 13.1 inches). There is creasing to the top and bottom edges and corners. The condition is very good minus.

Mal Evans had formed a romantic relationship in Los Angeles with 24-year-old Fran Hughes, manageress of Record Plant West – the girl referred to as Judy in the lyric. The relationship was, obviously, causing a strain on Mal as he became increasingly torn between his family in England and Fran, with whom he was living with in the United States.

‘Dear Judy there’s a tear in my eye

Love’s the reason that I’m crying goodbye

But I’ve been on the phone to my family at home

So I really must take to the sky’

Fran’s best friend was a woman named Laura Gross. In his biography of Mal, ‘Living The Beatles Legend’, author Kenneth Womack quotes Mal in a conversation he had with Laura over lunch one day.

“You know I just don’t know what I want in my life. I love Fran, but I think about my family in England, and I should be with them, and I don’t know what to do. I’m really at crossroads, and I’m trying to figure it out.” At that point he reached out to Gross asking “Could I just come and live with you for a little while? You know, on the couch, just to get away from everything that’s kind of pulling at me and just kind of think things out and be clear.”

Mal and Fran began to drown their problems in drink and drugs. Fran told Kenneth Womack “I remember one particular day at the beach in Malibu. We were watching this whole scene unfold, which we felt was made up of people and stuff. But then later we realized that it was just birds that we had been seeing, not tourists milling around the beach. We were that f***** up. Then there were the times when Mal would get drunk and fall into a depression, often taking Valium to soothe his aching conscience and get some sleep. Inevitably he would become crestfallen about being torn between his family in England and staying in L.A. with me. In those moments life just got too hard for him.”

Provenance: from the estate of Mal Evans.