You can call him a legend, you can call him a genius, you can call him your hero, you can even call him overrated, but one thing that can be said about the late John Lennon is that he is one of the most influential musicians of all time. If Lennon’s time playing guitar with the immortal group the Beatles isn’t enough to convince you of that, his solo career guarantees recognition as an icon in the history of popular music. I personally don’t think one of the most celebrated artists in musical history, whose music captivated and inspired audiences, would want someone to spend thousands of dollars on a piece of his clothing.

On Oct. 30, Yahoo! Entertainment reported that the suit that Lennon wore for the Abbey Road Beatle’s album was sold for $118,000 at an auction, and the Austin Princess he drove in the 1988 biography Imagine went for $150,000.

The history of Abbey Road and Imagine are both quite revolutionary, so many Lennon fans may ask themselves if the auction of these things would be something that the artist would be pleased with.

Obviously, Lennon would be flattered that someone would spend that much money, but I think that he would be upset that two things that he helped make legendary would be put up for someone else’s personal possession.

Many music fans enjoy collecting all that they can from the musicians that they love, which is understandable, but the stuff that most of them collect consists of things like vintage records, autographed pictures, and so on. However, this is an auction for an actual article of clothing that Lennon wore for the cover of one of the greatest albums of all time.

This auction reminds me of when Courtney Love filed an injunction to stop Kris Novoselic and Dave Grohl from releasing a box-set of Nirvana rarities in 2001. She claimed that Novoselic and Grohl were hijacking the Nirvana legacy for their own personal interests.

I think that in a way, this auction of Lennon’s Abbey Road suit is distracting from the legacy that the Beatles created, and perhaps in Lennon’s and the three other Beatles’ minds, having someone buy the suit is almost like having them take a piece of the Beatles’ legacy and history with them.

Aside from that, Lennon was a very socially conscious person and would want that kind of money to go towards something that meant more than his clothes.

Now some people may say that this suit being auctioned doesn’t put a scar on the Beatles at all, and maybe they’d also feel that Lennon would be happy that so many people still recognize his work to this day.

However, I think that putting this symbol of the Beatles’ history in someone else’s possession for money isn’t something that Lennon would appreciate. I think that he’d much rather be remembered for his music, and have the money go toward some worthy charity.