Culture

It's the 40th anniversary of John & Yoko bed-in

by marc pijps | May 22, 2009 at 02:58 pm

398 views | 46 Recommendations | 9 comments

It's the 40th anniversary of the bed-in done by John Lennon & Yoko Ono.

I didnt know that a rightwing cartoonist was also in the room trying to get John Lennon to start a fight! I guess he didnt or we'd have heard about it.

On the upside, in late May of 1969, here was the most famous couple in the world – the Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono – nonchalantly sitting in their white honeymoon pyjamas talking peace and non-violence in a Montreal hotel room. I was one of the throng of reporters there – as The Globe's first full-time rock writer, I'd been invited by the pair and their press secretary Derek Taylor after helping them (in a hastily called strategy meeting) to settle on Montreal as the site of “the bed-in.”

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

marc pijps

at 14:58 on May 22nd, 2009

oops- is there any way to delete my own mistakes?

Jordan Yerman

at 15:01 on May 22nd, 2009

Yes, indeed- admins can delete rogue comments... just let us know if it happens again.

sara star

at 15:10 on May 22nd, 2009

Give peace a chance!

The city of Montreal and the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts are paying tribute to John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 bed-in for peace, which took place 40 years ago on May 26.

The museum has re-created scenes from the event in an exhibition called "Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko." Comprising 140 works of memorabilia, the exhibit, organized in collaboration with Yoko Ono, celebrates the event which spawned the song "Give Peace a Chance." The exhibit includes the song’s handwritten lyrics, the reel-to-reel tape on which it was recorded, John Lennon’s Gibson guitar and a replica of the bed used at the event.

Joan Athey (not verified)

at 17:35 on May 22nd, 2009

Thank you Globe for sharing Lennon's spirit of peace. Toronto will have a unique chance to see over 200 photographs, most never seen before, taken by Life photojournalist Gerry Deiter in 1969. He was the only photographer to be there the entire 8 days. Visit www.bulgergallery.com. The show and sale of limited edition prints runs May 26 to June 2 with a huge live radio broadcast June 1 from 2 to 7 pm with musician/DJ Kim Mitchell in the host's chair in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Give Peace A Chance. And there's a book www.peaceworksnow.com.

Roy C

at 18:19 on May 22nd, 2009

I am a great admirer of John Lennon, but this "bed-in for peace" was part of his pre-primal therapy presentation of self that got much more sophisticated after dealing with his own pain in a real way, leading to his breakthrough album of "Imagine".

QueensHart

at 18:42 on May 22nd, 2009

One of the greatest writers I have ever read on John Lennon is Bernie Quigley.

Not only is he an expert of art criticism but he knows and understands depth psychology

such as I have studied for years. I cannot recommend him enough. You will love all the

art he displays and commentary of John and Yoko.

"John Lennon and the Egg Man - this is the work I do on Quigley in Exile and in the manuscript The Age of Thomas which relates to both The Gospel of Thomas and Thomas Anderson, Neo in The Matrix; primarily art analysis which was my first occupation and not characteristic of this journal which primarily lists my essays at The Hill - political writing has always been secondary to my life and I only got back into it recently in opposition to the war on Iraq. I hate politics but am endlessly grateful for The Hill for including my thoughts and perspectives."

http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/john-lennon-and-egg-man-this-is-work-i.html

But for the few who might be interested, this is part of an analysis I've been working on for 15 years on the life passage of John Lennon as an artist and generational hero which might actually be called in Mircea Iliade's characterization of things a shaman; not as a social figure or a political figure, although his essential artistic work bleeds into the culture with long-term effect as an awakening myth does. My thoughts on this are generally recorded at Unus Mundus, an on-line forum hosted by Remo Roth, a Swiss Jungian depth psychologist and colleague of Marie Louis von Franz.

http://bernieq.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-as-bird-john-lennons-unfinished.html

Paschen

at 05:47 on May 23rd, 2009

Great Article, I think John Lennon and Yoko Ono will still make history and always be a beckon for Universal Peace. Imagine!

Here in Tokyo Yoko Ono attends every year the Annual memorial for John Lennon and what the two of them achieved together as well as for what they stood for.

Art de Rivers

at 03:19 on May 24th, 2009

One of John Lennon's biggest achievements will probably not be socially accoladed enough.

(Following on from what Roy indicates :)

It was the facing of deep seperation pain of his early childhood . With help from Arthur Janov therapist/author of the Primal Scream Lennon faced up to dreadful pain inside himself about his mother and father not being the essential stabilising glue of his being .

His aunt helped that, but it did not prevent his losses from forming his personality too and one might say "Give peace a chance" may well have originated as a deep wish for a child to bring warring parties to a unity of stability ..... And its deep grace too see that too ..

And perhaps therefore - pain is also a creative tragic legacy too in this man's life ...

Salute ... I will remember him always ..

Johns Mother-Pain ..

He searched for answers in his life

Found a splitting child of early strife

In the pain he felt

We connected too :

Separation mom, and dad blue

MOTHER YOU HAD ME

BUT I NEVER HAD YOU !