John and Yoko’s Peace Campaign

I’ve always been unhappy with John and Yoko’s bed ins and I’ve finally figured out why: the basic term began when African American college students in South Carolina held “sit-ins” at the lunch counters of drug store and ten-cent store chains that refused to serve them. The idea spread as the civil rights movement geared up after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ruled against segregated schools. Participants in these sit-ins and the later demonstrations of the civil rights movement risked arrest and violence (not either/or, both) from their protest and even the war protestors shared these risks as well as the risk of being kicked out of school.

John and Yoko risked nothing but embarrassment and being laughed at – which they certainly were. Their bed-ins were a cheap shot that depended on John’s fame and provided good publicity for both of them independent of music and the Beatles, a situation they were seeking. Their co-opting the term ultimately cheapened the actions of those who had paid for their struggle in blood.

Yoko’s lack of knowledge of the Beatles

I clearly remember my husband telling me about some new English band that was causing quite a stir back in February, more or less, of 1962. I remember because I went over how they spelled the name and how it might be pronounced in the shower and we only lived in that house with that particular shower for a few months. We were both art majors and members of the old Bohemia that immediately preceded the famous 60s counter culture. Not quite Beat Generation – that has mostly petered out and not completely a part of the foundation for the next. At any rate it was a group that paid attention to what was happening in politics, in the arts and letters, and in entertainment. I remember only that they were English, in England and that there was something different about them.

I relate this because while we were in Nashville, Tennessee and Yoko was in NYC we were essentially members of the same little group. We heard about the antics of her general artistic movement though I doubt we heard of her in specific – she didn’t make a very big splash at that time. I remember that there was a review in the underground newspaper on the University of Tennessee campus the fall of that year. My point is that her crowd must have heard of the Beatles if that knowledge had filtered down to US in Tennessee. Knowing what was going on was one of the base lines of that movement!

One does remember that HM also claimed ignorance of who the Beatles were as well as calling the fans “Beatle nutters” – roughly the same attitude that Yoko seemed to have at that time. I assume they both thought it would make their “falling in love” with a famous man seem to be simply an ordinary person falling in love with another ordinary person and that it had nothing to do with their fame and fortune. Umhmmm.

Interview With The Grand Old Man Of Rock ‘n’ Roll

It’s tempting to wonder what a 66 year old John would say about the celebrations last month of 40 years since Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band was released – worse yet, the rather sentimental observations of the 50th anniversary of the day the Quarry Men played at the St. Peter’s Church Fete in Woolton. The day that Paul McCartney taught John the words to 20 Flight Rock and tuned his guitar. So, donning my reporter impression with my battered fedora bearing a dog-eared cardboard Press pass, I walked up to him as he was entering his apartment and asked:

“Good morning, Mr. Lennon” (I don’t call him “John” because I’m from the south and we just do it that way.)

Good morning Mr. Lennon” (I wonder, wouldn’t it possibly be “Sir John”? Oh well, this is America and we don’t have knights and such.)

“Good morning, Mr. Lennon, would you mind letting the world know how you feel about this anniversary?”

John Lennon, looking at Yoko; “Is it our anniversary or something? You’re supposed to remind me of those things.”

Me: “Oh no, Mr. Lennon, nothing like that. It’s the 50th anniversary of the day the Quarry Men (fill in ad lib please)”

JL: “Well, shit man, that’s, why, it must be 50 60 years ago now! Why would you still be on about that. I apologized for that, I KNOW I apologized for it. Why would I be celebrating getting my life mixed up with that fooker? You see what he did on his last excuse for a record?”

“They don’t make record like they ought to, cost $30.00 and all you get is this dinky little silver colored thingy. What the hell happened to that nice black vinyl we used to have? Those were records, damn it!”

“Kid in the apartment downstairs told me he recorded and mixed his very own album just sitting in his bedroom. That’s not what we did in our bedrooms in MY day. He didn’t have a guitar or anything, just typed it all in .. well, that’s what he said. I don’t know what the fool was on about. Gave me one of those dinky disc things but Yoko hasn’t had time to play it for me. I’m not allowed anywhere near all that electronic and computer stuff. Yoko says my energy is wrong for them and it fucks them up. What good is a fucking new millennium anyway if a man can’t even get a fucking record to play?

John Lennon moves into the door but I hear him muttering as he climbs up the white freestanding circular staircase: “That fucking little shit, Paulie, That Was ME too!”

Yoko gave me a look and I figured that was as much story as I’d get for the day.

This is your on the story reporter signing off for the day.

Some idle questions

Did George Martin get paid a fee for playing on a Beatles recording session?
Why did Yoko kick John out for his “lost weekend”?
Who was the older man dancing right behind Ringo in the Peppermint Lounge footage? I almost can recognize him.

P.S. This is NOT a quiz and I do NOT know the answers!