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Howard Smith, a long-time writer for the Village Voice newspaper in New York, interviewed stars such as Lennon, Clapton, Zappa, Joplin and Warhol, in the late 1960s and 70s.

These people helped shape a generation of pop culture.

For decades the unedited tapes lay buried in his Manhattan apartment, but they have now been unearthed.

Documentarian Ezra Bookstein talks about Howard Smith as a journalist: "really had a way of getting people to open up."

He says: "you're not hearing about a time, you're in the time."

He continues: "Sitting there with headphones listening to the tapes, I felt like I was alone in the room with John Lennon."

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