The U.S. vs John Lennon Page #3

F*** you, L.B. J!

F*** you...

I was with several

paralyzed veterans

in a room at the Bronx

Veterans Hospital

on the paraplegic ward.

And I remember we were

watching the convention.

Mr. Chairman,

most delegates to this convention

do not know that

thousands of young people

are being beaten

in the streets of Chicago.

Perhaps John Lennon

saw the clubs coming down

on top of the heads

of the peaceful demonstrators.

Perhaps John Lennon

heard the chants

of "The whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching."

The whole world is watching!

The whole world is watching!

And perhaps John Lennon

had tears streaming down

his face that night

as I did, too.

I did note the transformation

of The Beatles

when their song

"Revolution" came out.

When I hear the song

"Revolution," even now,

it just chokes me up,

because I remember that...

how hard it was for both of us

at the time.

We were both

ostracized by the world

and by the fans, too,

that we were together,

and also John was

daring to speak out.

When John Lennon argued

that revolution was necessary,

but that it should come about

through peaceful means,

I don't think that he contradicted

what many activists felt

during that period.

It's a mistake, I think,

to assume that revolutions

must be violent.

If I'm a revolutionary,

or we're revolutionaries,

we're revolutionary artists,

not gunmen.

I believe in the Black Panther

original statement,

the ten-point program,

which is not violent,

which says to defend yourself

against attack,

I might consider that,

but anything else I don't consider.

So I'm still for peace,

a peaceful revolutionary,

but I'm an artist first

and a politician second.

He always believed

we had to go about it

in the way that Gandhi did,

for instance.

It was very effective, he felt,

and we could do it that way.

Stay in bed.

Grow your hair.

- Bed peace.

- Hair peace.

Hair peace, bed peace.

They were actually trying

to come up with an idea

to have a honeymoon

like most people,

a secret, romantic place to go to,

but realizing that they were

part of the world media

and that wherever they went

the media would want to go.

We're going to stay in bed

for seven days.

Instead of having

a private honeymoon

it's a private protest...

For the violence

that's going in the world.

To say...

We feel that

instead of making war,

it's better to just...

Let's stay in bed for...

And grow your hair.

For peace?

Let it grow till peace comes.

What the press really wants

is a picture of John and Yoko in bed

on their honeymoon.

And then they turned it

around and said,

"In that case,

let them have a picture

"of John and Yoko in bed on their

honeymoon, but put the word 'peace' in it."

They all thought we were going

to make love in bed, see?

And all the press from all around

the world came,

and we opened the...

Helpers opened the door

and they're fighting to get in like this

with their cameras.

Then their faces dropped.

We're sitting like angels

saying, "Hello. Peace, brother."

All their faces dropped

and we were just in bed.

- You were wearing...

- We thought it was a great practical joke

that most of the world's

headline newspapers,

especially the European

and British was:

"Married Couple Are In Bed."

There had never

been anything like it.

It was completely original,

the conscious use of one's myth

to project a political

and social poetic goal.

It had never happened before.

Up to then, people who were

promoting world peace

were kind of like intellectual,

anemic kind of people,

just sort of

passing out pamphlets

that nobody wants to read.

John was saying, "No, no."

That's why we wanted

to do it this way.

And I think we did a great job.

"Please stop this nonsense.

"Go home. We don't like

people like you.

Go to a doctor to be normal."

Are you getting this?

It's great.

Go to the doctor. Be normal.

We're seeing

a psychiatrist today,

so maybe he'll fix us up, then.

Bloody marvelous.

When people are

creative geniuses,

you have to cut them some slack.

You really have to

cut 'em some slack.

England isn't good

at cutting slack for working-class boys.

If it works, it is right.

If it doesn't work, it is wrong.

Nobody's ever given it

a chance before, have they?

Nobody's ever given

peace a complete chance.

Gandhi tried it,

Martin Luther King tried it,

but they were shot.

But nobody's...

But you can't get peace

in a king-size divan

on floor 802 of the...

We don't expect to.

We're talking mainly to the revolutionaries

who think they can get it overnight

by breaking the sy...

Breaking down the buildings.

- They can't get it either.

- They can't get it.

We thought about this for months.

This is the best possible,

most functional and effective way

of promoting and protesting

against violence

that our minds combined

could think of.

That someone of his caliber

had decided,

"Hell, I'm not just going to stand still

and do nothing

"while the world

around me is in flames.

I'm going to do something."

That action

that he and Yoko did,

it was of course

attacked and mocked,

and there were contemptuous articles

written about them,

but on our generation

it had a fantastic effect.

I remember being absolutely thrilled

and saying, "At last!

Well done! Great!"

We didn't think of it as we made

an incredible success in Amsterdam.

We were totally accused

of doing a silly thing, as you know,

and the press, they attacked us,

they slashed us, you know?

But this was our mission

and we had to do it.

We did it again.

We tried to do it in New York,

but the American government

wouldn't let us in.

They knew we'd done it

in Amsterdam.

They didn't want

any peaceniks here,

which is what we heard the department

of whoever controls that said.

We ended up doing it

in Montreal instead

and broadcasting

across the border.

It's a bed-in, folks.

I think they might think I'm going to

hot up the revolution.

I want to cool it down.

If we make people laugh,

that's enough.

Happiness is a good vibe

for peace.

Make love, not war,

that's all we're saying.

Just remember that.

Peace, peace, peace, peace,

peace, peace, peace, peace,

peace, peace, peace.

Peace in your mind,

peace on Earth,

peace at work, peace at home,

peace in the world.

We're selling it

like soap, you know?

You've got to sell and sell

until the housewife thinks,

Oh, well, it's peace or war.

That's the two products.

I remember being invited up

to the Bed-in For Peace.

The Smothers Brothers

were fairly visible at the time

as anti-establishment spokesmen.

I went up there

and had these long conversations.

You don't realize

the state and the control

that exists in

the United States

in the expression

of what you want to say,

to the mildest form of dissent.

There's no space for...

No space or no time

for negative thoughts.

We just have to say,

"Listen, we're going to make it."

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