'Man
of the Decade'
Interview With John Lennon
December
2, 1969
John
Lennon was selected as one of only three people
to be featured and interviewed as Man Of The Decade.
The interview was filmed by ATV on December 2nd
as John and Yoko walked the grounds of their Tittenhurst
estate in Ascot, Berkshire. The footage was broadcast
in Britain on December 30th 1969.
The
interview begins with John drawing an analogy
between the effects of LSD and the events of the
sixties.
JOHN:
"You start off with, say, rock & roll
in just the late fifties and sixties when all
the kids including me were on James Dean and Elvis
and early paranoican violence. And then that part
of the trip... That's what happens on acid, folks!
Then from there you start, I don't know, maturing
or thinking about the trip. The first effects
of the drug wear off, and you start coasting along
a bit. And you have time to look at the trees,
and that developed into the actual acid scene.
The psychedelic bit, you know. And everybody was
grooving around with flowers, and that. And then
of course, like any drug, it wears off and you're
back to so-called reality."
"Speaking
as somebody who's been in the drug scene, it's
not something you can go on and on doing, you
know. It's like drink, or anything, you've got
to come to terms with it. You know, like too much
food, or too much anything. You've got to get
out of it. You're left with yourself all the time,
whatever you do-- you know, meditation, drugs
or anything. But you've got to get down to your
own god and 'your own temple in your head,' like
Donovan says. Etcetera. And it's all down to yourself,
you know."
"It's
like the thing I was saying about 'It starts with
us.' When it started with me, George, Paul and
Ringo, and we said, 'Listen man, here's another
field of professionalism that doesn't need any
qualifications except that you gotta get down
to it, and want to do it. And you can make it
in the terms of the world-- the terms of reference
they're talking about. You can make it without
that pressure. And everybody at the same time
was finding that out, you know. I mean, I had
my guitar, Mick Jagger had his in London, and
Eric Burdon was up in Newcastle, and we were all
going through the same changes at once. And we
all discovered that the values didn't mean a thing,
you know, and you could make it without college
and education and all those things. It's nice
to be able to read and write, but apart from that
I never learned anything worth a damn, you know."
"Some
people have sort of discovered a new reality,
and uhh, some people are still sort of confident
about the future. But uhh, we two are, you know.
Everybody is talking about the way it's going,
and the decadence, and the rest of it. But nobody
is really... Not many people are noticing all
the good that came out of the last ten years,
which is the moratorium, and the vast gathering
of people in Woodstock-- which is the biggest
mass of people ever gathered together for anything
other than war! Nobody had that big of an army
that didn't kill somebody or have some kind of
violent scene, like the Romans or whatever. And
even a Beatle concert was more violent than that,
you know, and that was just fifty-thousand. And
so, the good things that came out were all this
vast peaceful movement, you know."
"The
bully-- that's the establishment-- they know how
to beat people up. They know how to gas them,
and they have the arms and the equipment. And
the mistake was made that, the kids ended up playing
their game of violence. And they know how to be
violent. They've been running it on violence for
the last two-thousand years, or a million or whatever
it is. And nobody can tell me that violence is
the way after all that time, you know. There must
be another way, but alot of people fell for it.
And it's understandable in a way, 'cuz when the
bully is actually RIGHT THERE it's pretty hard
to say 'Turn the other cheek, baby.'"
"When
we were in touch with the Berkeley kids, during
whatever was going on, we were peacefully doing
our peace demonstration in a Montreal bed, and
then we suddenly were connected by phone directly
to them, you know. And they were saying, 'Help
us,' or 'What are we gonna do? It's gonna go wrong,'
and this was some of the people who were organizing
it. But they were saying, 'It's out of our control,'
and 'What can we say?' you know. And of course
I haven't got any solution."
"It's
like, for peace or anything, it's all down to
this relationship. To work on this relationship
with Yoko is very hard, and we've got the gift
of love. But love is like a precious plant. You
can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard,
or just think it's gonna get on with itself. You
gotta keep watering it. You've got to really look
after it, and be careful of it, and keep the flies
off and see that it's alright, and nurture it.
And to get a relationship between two people is
a start. And then if we two can make it, maybe
we can make it with you. And from maybe us four--
you and yours-- we can make it with the next four.
It's only that. There's no sort of ANSWER."
"I'm
full of optimism because of the contacts I've
made personally throughout the world... knowing
that there's other people around that I can agree
with, you know, I'm not insane and I'm not alone.
That's just on a personal level. And of course,
the Woodstock, Isle of Wight, all the mass meetings
of the youth is completely positive for me. Now
we're all getting to know it. We're all showing
our flags, you know. And when you show your flag,
you're not alone. It's like, we've no need to
be a few christian martyrs because there's lots
of us. And don't be afraid because they do look
after ya, whoever's up there, if you get on with
it. And I'm completely positive. And when I'm
negative, I've got Yoko-- who is just as strong
as me. And it helps, you know."
"And
this is only the beginning. This sixties bit was
just a sniff. The sixties was just waking up in
the morning, and we haven't even got to dinner
time yet. And I can't wait, you know, I just can't
wait. I'm so glad to be around. And it's just
gonna be great and there's gonna be more and more
of us. (humorously, to the camera) And whatever
you're thinking there, Mrs. Grundy of Birmingham
on toast, you know, (laughs) you don't stand a
chance! A, You're not gonna be there when we're
running it, and B, You're gonna like it when you
get less frightened of it. And it's gonna be wonderful,
and I believe it. Of course we all get depressed
and down about it, but when I'm down, or when
John and Yoko is down, somebody else will be up.
There's always somebody else carrying the flag
or beating the drum, you know."
"So
THEY, whoever they are, don't stand a chance because
they can't beat love. Because all those old bits
from religion about love being all-powerful is
true, you know. And that's the bit they can't
do. They can't handle it."
Source:
http://tinyurl.com/6zjxo
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