Post by beacon on Sept 6, 2012 12:44:03 GMT
Apologies if this appears in another thread.
When John met Yoko.
The story of how John Lennon met Yoko Ono is typical of the mis and dis-information that surrounds the Beatles.
The story, as described by John Lennon to Jann Wenner for a 1971 Rolling Stone magazine, tells of the conventional tale that they met on November 9, 1966 and is as follows: WENNER: How did you meet Yoko?
LENNON: I'm sure I’ve told you this many times. How did I meet Yoko? There was a sort of underground clique in London; John Dunbar, who was married to Marianne Faithful, had an art gallery in London called Indica and I'd been going around to galleries a bit on my off days in between records. I’d been to see a Takis exhibition, I don't know if you know what that means, he does multiple electro-magnetic sculptures, and a few exhibitions in different galleries who showed these sort of unknown artists or underground artists. I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show next week and there was going to be something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was going to be a bit of a happening and all that. So I went down to a preview of the show. I got there the night before it opened. I went in – she didn't know who I was or anything – I was wandering around, there was a couple of artsy type students that had been helping lying around there in the gallery, and I was looking at it and I was astounded. There was an apple on sale there for 200 quid, I thought it was fantastic–I got the humour in her work immediately. I didn’t have to sort of have much knowledge about avant-garde or underground art, but the humour got me straight away. There was a fresh apple on a stand, this was before Apple–and it was 200 quid to watch the apple decompose. But there was another piece which really decided me for-or-against the artist, a ladder which led to a painting which was hung on the ceiling. It looked like a blank canvas with a chain with a spy glass hanging on the end of it. This was near the door when you went in. I climbed the ladder, you look through the spyglass and in tiny little letters it says "yes". So it was positive. I felt relieved. It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say "no" or "f**k you" or something, it said "yes."
However, according to Wikipedia there is a second version. In this one, as told by Paul McCartney, Ono was in London in late 1965 compiling original musical scores for a book John Cage was working on called Notations. McCartney declined to give her any of his own manuscripts, but suggested that Lennon might oblige. When asked, Lennon gave Ono the original handwritten lyrics to "The Word".
Ono began telephoning and calling at Lennon's home, and when his first wife Cynthia asked for an explanation, he explained that Ono was only trying to obtain money for her "avant-garde bullshit". There are those who have claimed Paul and Yoko had an affair at this point but that's pure speculation.
Now, in an interview with the late Reg King, former lead singer of the sixties mod band the Action, I have come across perhaps a third version. In the interview Reg is asked "You knew Yoko Ono early as well, is that right?"
"Yeah, I met Yoko at the Middle Earth in Covent Garden. She said "Reggie, you look very much like John Lennon" – which a few people had said before because I guess I do look a bit like him. "I'd really like to meet John" she said. As we had the same producer as The Beatles she wouldn’t leave me alone. It wasn’t me she wanted, it was John. So I said, "Look, if it helps, John does occasionally go to The Speakeasy. I see him there sometimes on a Tuesday night." The very next Tuesday she was there. Before, she'd had all the flower dresses on, the psychedelic outfit, but in The Speakeasy she had the West End girl look. All smooth and smart. That night Paul and John came in. Paul said hello. And John used to say to me (adopts heavy scouse accent) "Aye, ye Action Man!" That was all he ever used to say, but he spoke to me at least! Yoko stood there dumbfounded, "Wow, you really do know The Beatles." Within fifteen minutes she was in there and the rest is history."
Unfortunately, no date is provided for the meeting, however, it does cast massive doubt on Yoko’s claim that before she met Lennon she had never had of him, or the Beatles, and adds weight to the theory that she arrived in London specifically to snare a Beatle.
The mystery deepens.
beaconfilms2011.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/when-john-met-yoko_6.html
When John met Yoko.
The story of how John Lennon met Yoko Ono is typical of the mis and dis-information that surrounds the Beatles.
The story, as described by John Lennon to Jann Wenner for a 1971 Rolling Stone magazine, tells of the conventional tale that they met on November 9, 1966 and is as follows: WENNER: How did you meet Yoko?
LENNON: I'm sure I’ve told you this many times. How did I meet Yoko? There was a sort of underground clique in London; John Dunbar, who was married to Marianne Faithful, had an art gallery in London called Indica and I'd been going around to galleries a bit on my off days in between records. I’d been to see a Takis exhibition, I don't know if you know what that means, he does multiple electro-magnetic sculptures, and a few exhibitions in different galleries who showed these sort of unknown artists or underground artists. I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show next week and there was going to be something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was going to be a bit of a happening and all that. So I went down to a preview of the show. I got there the night before it opened. I went in – she didn't know who I was or anything – I was wandering around, there was a couple of artsy type students that had been helping lying around there in the gallery, and I was looking at it and I was astounded. There was an apple on sale there for 200 quid, I thought it was fantastic–I got the humour in her work immediately. I didn’t have to sort of have much knowledge about avant-garde or underground art, but the humour got me straight away. There was a fresh apple on a stand, this was before Apple–and it was 200 quid to watch the apple decompose. But there was another piece which really decided me for-or-against the artist, a ladder which led to a painting which was hung on the ceiling. It looked like a blank canvas with a chain with a spy glass hanging on the end of it. This was near the door when you went in. I climbed the ladder, you look through the spyglass and in tiny little letters it says "yes". So it was positive. I felt relieved. It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say "no" or "f**k you" or something, it said "yes."
However, according to Wikipedia there is a second version. In this one, as told by Paul McCartney, Ono was in London in late 1965 compiling original musical scores for a book John Cage was working on called Notations. McCartney declined to give her any of his own manuscripts, but suggested that Lennon might oblige. When asked, Lennon gave Ono the original handwritten lyrics to "The Word".
Ono began telephoning and calling at Lennon's home, and when his first wife Cynthia asked for an explanation, he explained that Ono was only trying to obtain money for her "avant-garde bullshit". There are those who have claimed Paul and Yoko had an affair at this point but that's pure speculation.
Now, in an interview with the late Reg King, former lead singer of the sixties mod band the Action, I have come across perhaps a third version. In the interview Reg is asked "You knew Yoko Ono early as well, is that right?"
"Yeah, I met Yoko at the Middle Earth in Covent Garden. She said "Reggie, you look very much like John Lennon" – which a few people had said before because I guess I do look a bit like him. "I'd really like to meet John" she said. As we had the same producer as The Beatles she wouldn’t leave me alone. It wasn’t me she wanted, it was John. So I said, "Look, if it helps, John does occasionally go to The Speakeasy. I see him there sometimes on a Tuesday night." The very next Tuesday she was there. Before, she'd had all the flower dresses on, the psychedelic outfit, but in The Speakeasy she had the West End girl look. All smooth and smart. That night Paul and John came in. Paul said hello. And John used to say to me (adopts heavy scouse accent) "Aye, ye Action Man!" That was all he ever used to say, but he spoke to me at least! Yoko stood there dumbfounded, "Wow, you really do know The Beatles." Within fifteen minutes she was in there and the rest is history."
Unfortunately, no date is provided for the meeting, however, it does cast massive doubt on Yoko’s claim that before she met Lennon she had never had of him, or the Beatles, and adds weight to the theory that she arrived in London specifically to snare a Beatle.
The mystery deepens.
beaconfilms2011.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/when-john-met-yoko_6.html
