All language subtitles for John.and.Yoko.Above.Us.Only.Sky.2018.BRRip.XviD.MP3-XVID-English

Seven-eight on end.

Oh, and last night,
we had trouble with this one.

'How can I go forward '

'When I don't know
which way I'm facing?'

And then the next one goes...

'I don't know
which way to turn'

And it's a bit longer.

-And then it goes: ”Oh, no... "
-Do that again.

-What? The "how"?
-The "How can /..." first.

'How... How can I go forward'

'When I don't know
which way I'm facing?'

'How can I go forward '

'When I don't know
which way to turn?'

I was aware that John was making
some records.

I had no idea
what he was doing,

whether it was a single,
whether it was an album.

We knew he was in his own studio
doing some recordings.

He'd finished his new album
and he wanted to play it to me

in his bedroom
and he couldn't work out...

He had this big hi-fi thing
and he couldn't make it work.

It was sort of like...
You know?

So he gets out this little
record player that everyone had,

a little Dansette record player,
put it on and put one side on.

I was there ostensibly
to listen to the album,

and I noticed
that he kept putting it off.?

Did you hear what it says about
Self ridges in an American paper?

"John Lennon and his wife,
Yoko Ono,

were chased through Self ridges,

London's largest
department store,

by a gang of screaming fans."

He said, "Let's go
for a walk around the grounds."

We'd go for a walk
around the grounds.

He said,
"Let's have some iced tea."

By this stage,
it's about seven o'clock

and I'm thinking,
"I want to hear the album."

And he put on the vinyl.

It was a white-label vinyl,

but no track listings
or anything on it.

And he said, "Look, I can't bear
to listen to it any more.

I've recorded it. I've mixed it.
I've heard it up and down.

I don't know whether
it's any good or not,

so I'd like you to have a listen

and come back outside
and tell me what you think."

So no pressure, you know?

'No shelf-haired'

'Yellow-bellied
son of Tricky Dicky's'

'Gonna mother hubbard
soft-soap me'

'With just
a pocketful of hope!'

I'm thinking...

'Money for dope!'

...this is just a rant,
you know.

He said, "What do you think?"
I said, "Yeah, very nice, yeah.

Yeah. What's on the other side?"

And he said, "Turn it over,"
and he played 'Imagine'.

OK?

Shall I go?

The first time I heard
the album in the studio,

the first song
I heard was 'Imagine'.

And I just listened to it,

and this was before
the strings were put on it.

And I put the needle on
and out comes 'Imagine'.

But, of course,
it didn't have...

There was no song title.

I didn't know
what this was about.

And I thought,
"Hm, not bad, not bad."

Within about 30 seconds,
I thought, "This is it."

I said, "Surely that
should be the A-side."

And he very coolly said,

"Yoko, Ray thinks 'Imagine'
should be the A-side."

She said,
"Oh, I like that one, too."

And he's like, "Well, what do
you think? Is it any good?"

I'll never forget, he said,
"Is it any good?"

I said to John, "It's a number
one record, John."

He said, "Are you sure?
Are you really sure?"

I said,
"I really like that song,

'Imagine All The People',
whatever it's called."

Cos it didn't have a title.
He said,

"Yeah, I think that's gonna
be... It's called 'Imagine'.

I think it's gonna be the title
of the album."

I said, "I think people are
gonna be still listening to it

in ten years' time."

He said, "Oh, fuck off,
it's just a rock album."

So, which way should we go?

You're just gonna follow us
now, then?

Yeah, we'll follow you.

I'm going over
to look at the, er...

The swans.

The swans
and whatever they are, geese.

Oh, they've come back,
have they?

-They're coming now.
-I'm going round once!

-Dad?
-I'm trying to get round here.

'Dad?
'Yes?

-Can I get off?
-Yeah, do you want to...?

Do you want to get off
on the island?

They wanted to be
away from London,

away from the office
and all the people there.

If you wanted to talk to him,
you had to come out.

When they came down
from the Apple offices,

they shut themselves
off from that.

And I remember them
sending a memo, saying,

"We are now operating from

Tittenhurst Park
as Bag Productions."

They didn't want
any direct contact

with the Apple offices
any more.

When you went to Tittenhurst,
it was this white place.

This huge, huge garden.

I mean, acres
of wonderful trees and things.

And they had donkeys.
They had a lake put in, with...

All the fish died,
unfortunately,

but it was a good idea.

It was this huge place.

I remember it fondly, because...

Dad and Yoko would
do their own thing

and I would sort of run around.

I think it was 99 acres,
Tittenhurst.

I mean, that's an insane
amount of land for...

You know, a child
can get lost in those woods!

The first time
we met with the gardener, Frank,

he was a proper old English
gentleman with, you know,

a tweed coat and little hat,
you know,

and he's standing there
in his wellingtons

to meet them for the first time,

and Yoko said, "We want only
black or white flowers."

And he said, "Pardon?"
"Only black or white flowers."

He said, "Well, I can certainly
do white, but I'm not sure..."

"I'm sure there's some tulips
that are black," Yoko said.

Black and white flowers!

We ended up
with different colours.

John and Yoko spent
a lot of time

in their suite upstairs,
which was huge.

It was an enormous bedroom

with dressing rooms off it, and
they had this balcony outside

and they spent most
of their time up there.

They would be reading letters
and things like that.

They always had plenty of
books and things around.

They'd be listening to music.

I think they had
all the music papers,

so they would go through those.

They liked to kind of
know what was going on.

He liked to sit in bed,
playing his guitar, smoking dope

and watching television.

First of all, he didn't like
getting up and going anywhere

unless he really had a reason
to do it, you know,

because, remember, the world is
coming in all the time at you,

you know, if you're John.

You have to imagine,
this is a man who...

He never sees
another human face

that's not going, like,
"What can I do for you?"

That means that nobody's ever
going to tell you the truth.

You'll never get any,

or very rarely, get useful
feedback that's, the real thing.

And he needed
a refuge from that.

Those are the moments
that we, you know,

enjoyed each other's company

without thinking
about it too much.

I think if either of us thought
about things too much, it was,

you know, the anxiety or other
elements would come into play.

-OK!
-Next tune.

Next.

What shall we do?

They were heavily into
recording 'Imagine'

at that time.

That's why I had
a lot of time on my own.

Because as a kid, also,
I think the studio scenario

was exciting for a minute,
but then, you know,

"You're playing that song
how many times?"

Let me sit there.
Where's my...

John wanted
his own studio.

If I'd looked back
at the period,

it was probably
that John wanted

to get out of town,
he wanted the release,

somewhere that he could work
peacefully and relax.

After some discussion,

John decided that the annexe
would be the best place

for the studio because
it was close to the kitchen,

for all the usual teas
and snacks and stuff,

and sufficiently away
from the house

that it didn't impact
on the domestic scene.

He was very impatient,

cos it takes time
to build these things.

All those connections
have to be soldered.

You have to test things, "Maybe
we should change the carpet?"

You know, you go through
this process of...

It's like tuning an instrument,
making a good studio.

John was then
anxious to start recording,

so I did use John's enthusiasm
to get into the studio,

and say, "Well, if you'd like
to go in the studio

and play the piano or practise,

I'd love to have some sound
coming in

to see if it all works."

So we actually used John

as part of the work
to set the studio up.

John was the guinea pig,
that's right.

Good evening
ladies and gentlemen.

This evening we have
the Plastic Ono Band,

who's gonna play for you
a little rock and roll.

Where's Phillip?

We don't know.

Let's see how George does.

So I'm staying with Eric
and, um...

I get up before Eric because
he slept a lot later than I did.

One morning, the phone rang
for a long time and, finally,

I just picked it up
and it was Spector.

He said he wanted me
to wake up Eric

and I said, "Listen, I can't
wake up Eric."

"I don't want to go into his
bedroom and wake him up."

He said, "OK, well,

we wanted him to come out
and play,"

and he said, "How about you?

You want to come
and play with John?"

And I said, "Yeah, absolutely!"

I got a job
as a freelancer at Sounds,

which was one
of the music papers.

And they said, "You've got to go
to John Lennon's house tomorrow

to photograph him
recording a new album."

And I thought
it was a joke at first.

I go in,
and he hadn't got up yet.

This was about five o'clock
in the afternoon.

So I hung around for half an
hour, and then they suddenly

seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The two of them just were
'phttt' in the room,

looking like
they'd just got out of bed.

"Woke up, got out of bed,
dragged a comb across my head "

No, he hadn't even
dragged a comb across his head.

He looked really scruffy,
actually.

They actually
have eggs on toast, you see.

He likes tinned tomatoes, 'cause
they don't like real ones.

I didn't know
how long I had them for,

ten minutes or, as it turned
out, six or seven hours.

So I said,
"Can I start taking pictures?"

And he said, "Of course,
go for it," you know?

So, there was
a bunch of people there.

There were people arriving.

There was Klaus Voormann,
the bass player.

There was Nicky Hopkins.

There were some other people who
I didn't recognise at the time.

Then George Harrison showed up,
and I was, "Oh, my God."

We all went every day
for, you know,

for the whole period
of making 'Imagine'.

It was a daily trip
in the car in the morning.

We'd get there, have a bit
of breakfast and coffee

and then get into it.

I was living at Friar Park.

I'd got my little cottage there
and it was great.

George had those great cars and
it was nice to drive together.

And I had this little Mini,

which was all painted
in tantra art,

George gave it to me.

But when we drove together,

he had, well, I don't know,
some Mercedes or something.

So I said, "It's great," and it
was fun, and he loved driving.

Phil Spector arrived.

He was dressed in a three-piece
suit and a collar and tie

in the middle of summer
in England in a rock session,

and shades.

And he was
a very heavy presence.

And he just looked menacing.

At a certain point,

Phil stood up and sort of
whispered something like,

"I think we should get started
now," and John shot up,

and said, "Right, everybody,
Phil wants us in the studio."

And he was taking mugs
out of people's hands, you know.

Shall we listen to the
tape or shall we just get on?

-Let's go and do them.
-Let's go and do them, OK.

Let's go. George, are you
coming? Come on, gang.

Come on now, let's go.

How? It's A minor.

It's the same chord,
A minor seventh, is it?

F-

It stays on F a bit long,
I think.

E7.

That's all it is.

Is that a major chord?

Yeah, D7, that is.

Yeah. Let's try and open
the window up a bit.

John comes in the studio,

plays a song and he thinks
everybody knows it already.

That's typical for John,
that he's very impatient.

No, D7, maybe.

He thinks for himself.

But you see, we played
in the studio a few times,

then suddenly everybody
finds his way, you know?

At first, I couldn't
quite hear the lyrics,

because they were going through
the mic into the control room,

and the first line was,

"So Sgt. Pepper took you
by surprise."

And I thought, "Oh,
it's a song about the fans, "

because 'Sgt. Pepper'
took me by surprise.

And then there was the line,

"The only good thing
you did was yesterday".

"And since
you've been gone,

it's been just another day".

And I thought,
"Hang on a minute.

They're two
Paul McCartney song titles."

'Those freaks was right'

'When they said you was dead'

It became clear that

there was a spa! between
John and Paul

which /, as a member of the
public, was not aware of.

I used my resentment
against Paul,

that I have as a kind of
sibling rivalry resentment,

to create a song.

And I was answering
a few little messages

that Paul sent to me
on 'Ram', you see?

Only I publish my lyrics,
you see?

He doesn't, so you have
to listen dead hard.

-Artistically and musically...
-It's a good song.

...if you listen to it,
it's a beautiful song.

'You live with straights
who told you'

Paul personally
doesn't feel

as though I insulted him
or anything,

cos I had dinner
with him last week.

So it's not about Paul,
it's about me.

'Jump when your momma
tell you anything'

Oh. What? What?

The nice thing about
the recording sessions

in those days was that you play
all at the same time.

Hit it!

And that's so important.
It's so much fun.

And for John, it was fun, too.

Even though he was focused on
a song and we tuned into it,

still, it was a fun,
fun situation.

He had the whole of 'Imagine'
in his head.

He had the whole thing.

George, on your break,

will you, just for
the first bit, play the tune?

-Yeah. How does that go?
-Well, just like...

Even the one note will do.
Dah-dah-dah-dah.

That whole album,

he had all the songs.
They weren't written down.

Or there may have been parts
written down.

But he just started.

He would sing the song,
and you would hear him.

Maybe if you look in his eyes,

or whatever,
and we see what he sings.

$0 you got a feeling of
the song just by him playing it,

and you heard the words.

Of course you heard the words,
you know.

I mean,
he's not just saying anything.

Then we got the lyrics,
so we could

be even more aware
of what he's saying.

He would give me, and
everybody involved, the lyrics

and make you study the lyrics
before each and every song.

And then
we'd take it from there.

Well, try that one then.

Yeah, OK. The metal,
it's more, um...

It's more a jangly sound.

See, these are very...

Yeah, right, right.

-So try them both, then. OK.
-It's Elizabethan.

Two, three, four.

If somebody comes up with
a great lick

or a great idea of a riff or a
rhythm, then he would go for it.

That has a...
Elizabethan feeling, you know?

-Has what?
-Has a Elizabethan feeling.

You know, that one?

-So which one is better?
-That's better.

You know,
he'd adapt to all situations.

He was very good
at impromptu decisions

in his head that just worked.

I think we shouldn't ring off,
ring off when George does his...

-And stop the bass?
-Yeah.

So we'll ring off then.
We'll go...

—Ring off? Stop...
—Ring Off!

Ring off.

My first impression
of Yoko was, um...

Well, the first impression
was she was very quiet.

I got her in one
of my photographs,

where John is
singing into the mic

with his white Epiphone

and she's actually sitting
on the floor

writing out the lyrics.

I really got',
"This is a real team effort."

I saw Yoko, and I saw how
the two worked together

and how it happened.

How excited Yoko can be
and how they got on so well.

-You see, in Japanese there's...
-" / want you to... "

-That's it.
-That's too long, you see.

I only want one line.

I know, but, you see,
in Japanese...

"I know that
you've heard it before"

is wrong in Japanese,

because in Japan they haven't...

Yes, they have. Everybody in
the world says that.

The thing is,
you can't say it in one line.

So why can't you say...

-It's a very strong message.
-Well, I'll try it.

There was something
absolutely lovely about her,

which I'm not sure
I can put my finger on,

but she was completely different

to the propaganda
we'd all been led to believe

that she was this devil woman,
a foreigner to boot,

who broke up The Beatles.

Miss Yoko Ono.

What I'm trying
to do is to present

an unfinished situation,

where people can finish it
themselves in their own minds.

She'd come along
from nowhere. Just from nowhere.

We had no idea
about the background

of anything in New York,

so she was really
an interesting person.

What was
the first time, Yoko,

that you made something
like one of these?

What was the very first time
you really invented something?

When I was about four years old,

when I was in Japan,

and one day,
I had a great idea, you know,

that probably the, uh...

if we cut all the seeds
in the world in half...

All the seas?

Seeds, you know, different kinds
of seeds, and glue it together,

different seeds, and plant them,
then the whole world would...

-Oh, "seeds"?
-Seeds, you know.

And then it would be,
sort of like, a whole world,

a completely different world,
all mixed of...

you know, pine trees
with apples, hanging around,

things like that and I thought
it would be beautiful.

The art world was extremely
straight, really, in those days.

It was more of
a sort of slick operation.

You know, proper art galleries.

Whereas, ours was
completely handmade.

Ours was the only place

that Yoko could
possibly show, really.

Because I liked Yoko.
I liked the sort of daffy ideas.

The whole thing,
it just appealed to me.

There was a piece called, uh,
'Ceiling Painting'.

Yeah.

And there's a painting
on the ceiling, you see.

And my idea was for people
to climb up a long, long ladder,

just go on climbing up
like this, and then, finally,

reaching the ceiling
and you look at the painting

and it says "Yes", you know.

It said "Yes".

It made my decision to go and
see the rest of the show.

If it had said "No"
or, you know, "Uh-huh",

I would have left
the gallery then!

But because it was positive,
it said "Yes," I thought, "OK."

It's the first show I've been to
that said something,

you know, warm to me.

So then I decided to see
the rest of the show

and that's when we met.

What John saw in Yoko's work,
whether it was, you know,

the ladder piece with the word
"Yes" on it and that...

...the notion of that kind
of openness to the world.

You know,
just "Yes", that was...

that was the essential
quality of living, was "Yes".

What he saw was
a reflection of himself.

He was an artist, but what
he'd say about Yoko is,

everything about Yoko
is upside-down

from what we understand.

Whatever you hear,
whatever she says,

you've got to look at
the other side, always.

He got it.
I mean, he... Yoko touched him.

You know,
it is as though he was...

He had something missing
that he was looking for.

He had an emptiness.

I met him when they did

the "Strawberry Fields Forever"
video and stuff.

He was really, really
in bad shape.

I was walking with him
in the garden and, er...

he sat there,

kind of gazing
at this bunch of...

at this bush.

And he ripped off
all the leaves, like that.

I said, "Look, John,
that bush can't help it.

You don't have to hurt
the bush, you know."

And, "Klaus, I'm so unhappy."

He was really...

you know, kind of letting go

and he started crying,
you know.

When it really did hit,

when The Beatles really
did take off, I mean...

there was no breathing room.

There was no choice in...

in life choices of what
you could and couldn't do.

I think the whole experience
was fun to start with, but then,

once you realised that,
"Well, this is my life, “ um,

and, in fact,
"It's not actually my life,

it's their life and who am I
any more within this?"

And that's when Yoko
came, that it changed 100%.

She gave him everything
he needed

and he changed completely.

A-one, two,
a-one, two, three, four!

Stop asking us, "Do you
think it's going to work?"

You know,
do something yourself.

The only way we can change it
is by changing it non-violently.

Because they've done the violent
kick for millions of years.

They're on all the time
selling their war

and selling their products.

We must do the same.

No matter how beautiful
a poem is,

if you can't share it
with people,

if you can't reach people,
then it's crap.

The only way to change
the world is change their minds.

We can do that,
we can still do that.

This bed is a platform.

Go away!

Did Yoko's presence, John, did
it lead to tension in the group?

-Was it part of the break-up?
-The tension was already there,

you see.

I said if we talk about
The Beatles,

I want you in the bag.

Are you going to do that?

What do you want me
in the bag for, John?

-Alright, fine.
-He's a sport!

In the interest
of communication, John.

All we're saying is,
give peace a chance.

If the least we can do
is give somebody a laugh,

we're willing to be
the world's clowns.

Well, they thought she was
a fruit-and-nut case,

and they thought that John had
lost his mind by being with her.

I was dismayed and appalled

by what you did,
sending back the MBE.

You used two huge, catastrophic
events of unspeakable horror

as a convenient reason, when you
might just as well have said,

"I got up and had a sinus
headache this morning."

A convenient reason
for what?

For sending back the MBE.

This is my first day at work

and the first thing I had to do
in the Apple offices

was type this letter on a really
ropey old typewriter.

And it said, "Your Majesty,
I'm returning this MBE

in protest against Britain's
involvement

in this Nigeria-Biafra thing,

against our support
of America in Vietnam

and against 'Cold Turkey'
slipping down the charts.

With love, John Lennon of Bag."

Then he rang me immediately
at the Evening Standard

and said what he'd done.

And I said,
"God Almighty, done what?"

I think I said at the time,
"Well, are you sure

that mentioning 'Cold Turkey'
and the war in Biafra...?

You know,
they don't sort of mix well."

I thought, "You're crackers."

If I'm going to get
on the front page,

I might as well get on the front
page with the word "peace".

But you've made
yourself ridiculous!

The medal has nothing
to do with it.

-No, exactly!
-So?

This is why you've got
all the publicity.

But without the medal there
would have been no publicity.

I would have had to think
of something else

to interest
our brothers of the press.

And while they're bothering
about how long my hair is

and the irrelevancy
of 'Cold Turkey'

and "how dare you
insult the Queen"

and "your auntie was upset
by handing it back",

-the main purpose...
-That's a load of garbage!

OK, that's leaving the door open
as far as we're concerned.

I had this idea about
making a band that...

Nobody's really involved in it,
except the people in the band

are just plastic boxes
like this.

I just remember playing
on that show and then,

I was going,
"Where did Yoko go?"

And started looking around,
there was a bag on the floor

with Yoko in it
with a microphone lead in there.

And I was going, "Where's that
sound coming from?"

But it was kind of cool.

It was their own way of
expression at that time.

When we were doing the Toronto
thing, she was suddenly coming

out of her bag and started
screaming and doing things.

And the public couldn't
do anything with it, you know.

You could be happy they don't
throw tomatoes or something.

The fact, of course,
that she was a foreigner

was used nonstop.

I remember being shocked even
before I knew John and Yoko,

by the nastiness of some
of the attacks on her.

False.

Vicious.

Racist.

You have to understand
The Beatles and the relationship

with the English people,
the British people.

They were ours.

The entire country
was in love with them.

I can't tell you,

it was like, there was
the Beatles and the Queen

and that was it, you know.

And then, suddenly, along comes
this strange-looking woman,

you know, with all the hair,
and her hair fell down

so you just sort of see
a little bit of her face.

Mysterious,
in black all the time.

And this woman is stealing
our John,

our John, our Beatle, away.

That's got to be a tough call,

having all that
anger thrown at you.

Because, one minute you're loved
by the world and then,

you know, despised by many.

Having to defend your life
on pretty much every level

is a pretty hard thing
to have to deal with

after what you've just
been through.

I mean, that's a complete
180 on every level.

I knew he wanted
to get away from it.

It was as though he was trapped
by being a Beatle.

He really just
wanted to end it.

He wanted to be an artist.

He wanted to be an artist,
he wanted to be John, you know,

and it says in the song,
"I was," you know...

"And now I'm just John,"
you know.

"So, my friends, you'll
have to carry on," you know.

I like being young,
you see.

I didn't know
you were in drag all the time.

-He is in drag.
-You're just pretending.

-He's a big pretender.
-Oh, shit.

-Come on.
-Just watch out now.

A pretender.
That's terrific.

Oh, wow.
I got it, I got the message.

Now, you got your real
pretender thing going on.

Oh, I got it. I got you.

John---...

Sorry.

This is for love I'm doing this.
You understand? And for art.

-He just wanted to strip.
-The sake of art.

I didn't want to strip.

Yeah, well,
tell us if you need any spaces.

Almost everything Yoko did

was to try to get the audience

or the observer to take part.

And to use their own minds and
to awaken things in their minds

and this is a perfect
example of it.

It is wonderful
to have you here with us today

at the 'Grapefruit'
signing session.

We have Miss Self ridge
and Mr Self ridge

and all the little Self ridges.

Yeah?

'Cloud Piece'.

"Imagine the clouds dripping."

"Dig a hole in your garden
to put them in."

"1963, spring."

It is very funny.

Cos the clouds aren't going to
go in the hole in the garden.

It's just a nice way of saying
let your imagination run.

That's what it means to me.

This is classic Yoko.

It starts
with the word "imagine".

A bit of existential nonsense.

I'm not impressed.

The 'clouds dripping' is that
a good thing or a bad thing?

And do you get rid of them

by putting them in a hole
in the garden?

I imagine myself crying...

and using my tears
to make myself stronger.

The customer's
always right!

Want a drink?

David Bailey's studio.

Two-six-five, take one.

They were a merged unit,

they were more than
a husband and wife.

They were more than
a partnership.

They had completely merged
their sensibilities.

What's this film for,
your grandchildren?

No. For the record.
We've just made a record.

That's great.
Stay like that.

Good.

Don't move a thing,
just point that toe down.

It was just a shoot.

You know,
it wasn't anything special.

I just let them lead me,
in a Way.

Good. Now...

It's really like
Blue Angel, isn't it?

-Yeah. Say "lesbian".
-Lesbian.

Good.

Chin down a bit.
Eyes at me, yeah.

He was an asshole,
so I thought he was great.

I really got on great with him.

He could've been a cockney-.

Cos you were the great
David Bailey,

it was probably life or death

whether you came out
all right or not.

You were one of the
Swinging Englanders.

No, I wasn't.

Come on! As much as we were.

-No. Much less.
-Bullshit!

I've never been down
the King's Road in my life.

Neither did I, till I read
about it in the papers.

He was flirting with her
in a way,

but flirting with her
in front of a camera.

It looked much nicer before.
That hand's a bit forced.

Yeah, right. That's what I say.

Shall we get back in?
It's always cosy.

He was pushing it
to be more sexy.

It seemed almost adolescent,
a bit adolescent to do.

That's what I felt
at the time.

That's great. Good.

Kiss her this way a bit more,
John.

-Yeah.
-That's lovely. Good.

-OK, good.
-I like this bit.

He fancied her so much.

Relax. Don't move.
Stay like that.

He was doing it for us,
in a way.

He was showing his emotions
for her.

He was letting us see it.

'Jealous Guy' was such
a beautiful piece of music.

So typically John Lennon,

intuitive, like,
'nothing to worry about'.

And then Klaus,
the way he hugged the beat.

I love it
because it's very personal, too,

because that was the moment
where I actually got so much

info what he was saying
and the way he was playing,

and I didn't know
what I was playing.

It was like a trance
sort of thing.

I didn't know what key I was in.
It just floated automatically.

I heard him singing
and watched him singing,

and listening to these
beautiful chords and feeling

the groove, so it was like such
a gentle little thing.

We weren't being precious
with it.

It just was accommodating
the lyric.

Would it be fair
to say we're getting away

from the property concept
of relationship?

That's all very well
intellectually,

but when you are in love
with somebody,

you tend to be jealous
and want to own them,

and possess them 100%,
which I do.

But intellectually, before that,
well, I thought, "Right."

I mean,
"Owning a person is rubbish."

But I love Yoko, I want
to possess her completely.

I don't want to stifle her.

I think
we're starting to relax.

And because you have so little
as a child, I think it is.

Once you find it,
you want to hang on to it.

You grab it so much,
you tend to kill it.

I particularly remember
when 'Jealous Guy' was recorded,

and that was, I don't know, five
in the morning or something,

everybody got called in
to listen to this

and it was a very moving song.
Very powerful.

And I think people were
welling up and feeling,

you know,
kind of a real feeling of,

"Wow, this is amazing,
powerful stuff."

Diana said to me
one morning,

we just got this
telegram and it says,

"Hi, I'm coming.

And I'll be there soon,
signed Claudio."

And everybody thought,
"Well, he can't get here,"

and I said,
"I'm not so sure.”

And lo and behold,
he turned up at the gate.

This was a shell-shocked
Vietnam veteran, a young man.

I think he '0' been in a hospital
in San Francisco,

and he was about
to be released.

Don't confuse the songs
with your own life.

I mean, they might have
relevance to your own life,

but a lot of things do.

And we went through
a number of things.

The police wanted to arrest him,
and John said, "Don't..."

You know, "Don '1' hurt' him."

And then I had this guy
called Claudio

saying, "I'm coming,
I'm coming.

And I only have to look in
your eyes and then I'll know."

So last week, he turned
up at the house, you know.

He was obviously
very, very infatuated by John,

and he sent a lot of letters.

And some of the time,
he thought he was John.

But he also wanted to meet him,
desperately wanted to meet him.

So we've met, you know. I'm just
a guy, man, who writes songs.

We can only say hello.
And what else is there?

Yeah.

Yeah,
I figured that if we met,

I'd know, you know,
just by meeting you.

But know what?

You know, if what I was
thinking was true.

-Is it true?
-Well, I guess not.

-Right. I'm just a guy, man.
-Yeah.

But... Yeah.

But it all fits.

Anything fits. If you're
tripping off on some trip,

anything fits, you know.

Remember that one, um...

"You can radiate
everything you are.

You can penetrate
anywhere you go"?

-Yeah.
-"Syndicate any..." Yeah.

That was just having
fun with words.

I thought of
the 'radiate, syndicate'.

'Radiate', she wrote that.
'Radiate and syndicate'.

I was just having fun
with words.

It was literally
a nonsense song.

I wouldn't tell you,
unless...

I mean, Dylan does that,
anybody does it, you know.

They just take words,
you stick them together

and it's like throwing
the 'I Ching' or something.

You just see what happens.

You take a bunch of words,
you throw them out

and see if they have
any meaning.

Some of them do,
some of them don't.

And your "Old Hare
Krishna has nothing on you"?

Yeah. Well, he don't.
You know, I mean, you're it.

See, that last album of mine
was me coming out of my dream.

Seems like
it could've been different.

What could've?

Well, before that last album,
the way it built up...

To me, it was just
a hallucination, a dream.

It is now...
'cause it's over.

Right.

You can last your whole life
on that dream, you know.

And then it's all over.

You weren't thinking of anyone
in particular

when you were singing all that?

How could I be? How could
I be thinking of you, man?

Well, I don't know.
Maybe... I don't care me,

but it's all somebody.

I'm thinking about me, or at
best, Yoko, if it's a love song.

You know, and I maybe think
about an audience in general.

If I'm singing "Old Hare Krishna
got nothing on you",

I'm sort of talking to any old
friends who've been listening

to what we were saying
and I'm saying, "Look, well,

I think it's a lot of bullshit,
now."

You know,
"Let's forget it," you know.

And that,
as far as I'm concerned, and...

But that's it.
I'm basically singing about me.

I'm saying, you know,
"I had a good shit today,"

and, "This is what I thought
this morning,"

and, "I love you, Yoko."

Whatever. I'm singing about me
and my life, you know.

If it's relevant
for other people's lives,

that's all right.

He had great empathy,

which, if you think about it,
can be very painful.

You know, he cared.

Are you hungry?

-Hmm?
-Yeah.

Let's give him
something to eat.

I went there, I think,
about three or four times,

sometimes to do the interview
and sometimes just to hang out.

One day, John rang and said...

"Do you want to come over?

I've got a new song
I want to play it to you.

And it's part of a new album."

Well, there's only
three I've written this year.

All the rest were things
I'd written before

and just polished them off.

There's a nice one called
'Crippled Inside'.

I'll play it you later.

We just chatted.

I have to shave my
moustache off, have my hair cut,

because I went in
under false papers...

Yes, I read it.

We heard it too
because of...

We were talking about
the government,

we were talking about
what was going on in Vietnam,

the Cultural Revolution
in China,

the Japanese student movement.

Did I hear there was
some good news on China?

Well, there's some
good news on Vietnam.

The impression we have is that

if we discussed it more
concretely,

the Vietnamese
would be very pleased.

The things that were
animating them

were the things that were
animating, you know,

a whole generation.

The war in Vietnam,
in particular.

Difficult to explain
now to people

how much that war did
to radicalise us.

And the election
of Richard Nixon

escalated the war further.

I mean, they took it
one whole country further

by wrecking Cambodia,
bombing it indiscriminately

and destroying its government.

The world's largest,
most powerful military nation

bombing what was
essentially a peasant country.

They were deliberately
targeting civilians.

There was a great
revolution taking place

across the globe.

The youth of that time
were saying,

"We don't like the world
we were born into.

We want it to be different.
We want to change it."

Coming of age in the late '60s,

learning about the civil rights
movement,

learning about the war
in Vietnam,

I started to become angry
and upset.

And, to a certain extent,

embarrassed that I was part
of a big lie.

There were riots

outside
the American Embassy.

It didn't go down well with the
Establishment, that's for sure.

And the older generation
didn't appreciate it.

The people are the government,
the people have the power.

Al! we have to do is awaken
the power in the people.

You know, these
impressions never go away.

I can still see them.

And they were hugely
important in radicalising me.

And so, we used
to discuss these things.

And Yoko, of course, knew.

She said, "Yeah, I know,

and you know
what they did to Japan

and the way
they bombed my country."

War was not
an abstraction to her.

She experienced it first-hand.

Yoko came from an
extraordinarily privileged class

from a banking family.

And then the skies opened up
and the bombs fell.

And she spoke to me about
being in the countryside...

looking for food,
looking for shelter...

and looking for some way home
that no longer existed.

In the Second World War,
I was in the middle of it.

All the kids had to evacuate.

And we evacuated
in a country house.

Even now,
I remember how my brother,

who was really always happy...

Like this, you know?

And he sat like that.

Like this.

So I said,
"Kei, what's happening?"

"Well, I'm hungry."

I didn't know what to do,
because we didn't have the food.

So, I said, "OK, let's create
a great menu!"

And I said, "What would
you like most to eat?"

"Ice cream!"

"OK, ice cream."

He started
to get sort of happier.

And I thought, "Oh, my God,
this is great," you know.

And you imagined a meal, then?

'Imagine' made a lot of things
for me.

Give it to Jacqueline!

Yeah, you're the next oldest,
Jacque.

Yeah, well,
I don't like reading, do I?

Yeah, you do.

You got good reports
in your reading.

-No, I didn't.
-Yes, you did.

I didn't.

You didn't exactly get E,
did you?

"Skin 2,000 balloons, fly them
in the air. 1964, spring.

That's 'Fly Piece'."

Well, if you skinned a balloon,

it wouldn't be able to fly,
would it?

Ow!

No, you've got to use
your imagination,

or it doesn't mean anything,
otherwise.

I'm going to put a board on now.
This is A1, head slate.

It probably took no more
than two or three hours

to get the core of 'imagine'
into shape.

Then it was refinement for the
rest of the recording session.

Played over you...

See, I think it would be better
if he just played...

We're not getting any of it.

...either a piano underneath.

It should just be a piano song,
you know.

See, when we tape
I'd go to him...

Nicky, we can try you
an octave higher on the piano,

playing the same as me, almost.

Yeah, OK.

John would do that
sort of thing,

"Come and sit down,
and play with me."

They'd play it together and see
if they could enhance it.

So...

No, do the same as me.

The thought was that
the piano in the white room,

because it was
a far better piano

than the upright in the studio,

that it would give
a better piano sound.

Yoko, why don't you go in there
and listen,

instead of being here?

OK. Let's just try it
with piano, bass and drums.

Yeah, good.
We'll come in on the F now.

I don't think you can stay in,
but just try coming in on the F.

John tried it out, but there was
just too much room content.

The room was too reverberant.

And it wasn't a complementary
reverberation of the piano.

Yes?

The piano
sounds terrible.

Play it on this.. -
And Nicky. ..

And then we'll track it later
or something.

That might be the best answer.

Yeah, OK. Well, look, I'll just
do it and track it myself,

but not in octaves,
the same key, you know.

-Same register?
—Yeah, right, right.

- The problem is in that room.
-OK, let's go, then.

It's spread out like hell.

Well,
I wish they'd told us before.

Phil?

"And the world will be as one!"

So, we'll have to do this some
other day, ladies and gentlemen!

You see? Because they've only
taken an hour, you see,

to tell us that the noise
is spreading in this room,

YOU see?

Just don't forget.

Well, it was
in the afternoon,

and I think it was the first
song we played in that day.

And everybody came in and,

"We're gonna do 'Imagine'
today."

That's the best, I think.

And so, we all stood
around and listened to it.

And it was apparent that that
was going to be a big, big one.

-Vibes.
-Vibes, right.

He played it on the piano
and he gave everybody lyrics,

and he wanted everybody
to read them.

First of all,

I didn't care about
what the drums played

because the lyrics
were so stunning,

so I said,
"I've just got to really cater

to what this song needs."

It was just so simple,
so nice and, still, to this day,

I feel that if he would have
played it just on the piano,

no bass, no drums,
no strings,

no nothing,
it would have been enough.

The song was really finished
already.

The feeling of the vocal
and what the words meant

were really huge, in my mind.

Imagine what it means if we
can get rid of all the labels,

all the categories,
all the things that divide us,

and imagine that.

Because that's
the way to peace.

It's that, at first,
you have to see it,

you have to be able
to imagine it.

And the role of the imagination,
not just in art,

but in being
a complete human being.

He's not shoving it
down people's throats.

I mean, this is what I admire.

And it's not religious,
it's not political.

It's just humanity and life.

To imagine something

is not a passive experience.

That if you want the kind
of world

that's expressed in that song,

you have to do something
about it.

It was a demonstrable call
to action.

A lot of people have said,

"Well, you know,
it's all a bit too dreamy."

Yeah, but we all actually really
want what he's singing about.

We all want that.

And I think that's why,
even today,

the song is still so important.

Because, the sad thing is,
the world is still in a bad Way.

Why is it impossible
to move forward in these dreams

and make them a reality?

He was always saying to me,
"Our appeal, your appeal,

it's too limited, we've got to
get more people involved," etc.

And I think he wanted
'Imagine ' to be. ..

It's almost like
a manifesto for a movement.

A utopian manifesto for
a progressive movement.

And he wanted to appeal to...

the world outside.

"If you agree with these aims,

come with us and we'll create
a new world."

That was the way
he wrote that song.

I hear Yoko, because
those are all her words.

You know?

Those words are...

I love John, but, you know,
those were her words.

She was speaking through him.

You know, I mean, I don't think
the world's got that quite yet,

but all of this...

You know,
the language that you see

from the time they got together,
forward,

is Yoko's language.

She taught him this language.

That should be credited
as a Lennon-Ono song

because a lot of it, the lyric
and the concept, came from Yoko.

But those days, I was a bit
more selfish, a bi! more macho,

and I sort of omitted
to mention her contribution.

But it was right out of
Grapefruit', her book.

There's a whole piece about
imagine this and imagine that,

and give her credit now,
long overdue.

I feel, in the big picture...

the fact that John and I met...

was to do this song.

-283 on the end.
-Excellent.

We have a movie.

-Cut!
-What?

That's the full
output...

I'm going for a piss.

All the photographs...

Yoko said she had this idea of
John with clouds in his eyes.

OK, I can get the glasses
for this tomorrow.

So, we get the glasses
in the morning,

and in the afternoon,
I do this photograph,

this photograph,

and this photograph.

Yeah. OK, so,
the light should be from there

just to above the eyebrows.

Yes, I'm doing it a bit larger,
John, so that we can cut it.

OK.

I had taken a bunch of pictures
of John, blown them up,

and cut the eyes out,
that was the original idea.

And then we took pictures
of clouds and put them in.

-It's not the final version.
-Oh, yes.

Ah!

No, but you see,

and then in the back,
there will be a profile.

-Yes, 'Imagine.'
-'Imagine'.

But the problem was,
it looked weird.

It would be more
delicately done.

How would we do that,
then? Just have a slide...

It's going to be called
'Imagine'.

-Yeah.
-Very, very, good.

Freaky, isn't it?

When we were
at Tittenhurst Park,

John and everybody was running
around with Polaroids

and they found out
this way of exposing it twice.

Just like you took a picture

and then you take a photo
of the sky,

a cloud or something.

He had this Polaroid,
he had a Shoot Polaroid,

it had a long nose.

It was for taking portraits.

And he said, "The wonderful
thing is, I can take a picture

and then I can take
another picture

and I get a double exposure."

And, so, Yoko took
a picture of John

and then took a picture
of the clouds.

And, of course, she got it.

Sorry I'm a little late.

That's all right,
you're just in time in a Way.

We're OK.

Just this intro
I want you on.

Just comes in,
it goes from A to D.

That's it!

I want them hooked on the sax,

so they're waiting for it
all through the record.

You're going to be
in the frame.

Is that camera in the
frame? No.

Just relax, you don't have to be
in or out of the picture.

Just do whatever
you have to do, OK?

It's going to be a clock,
so it's not like a proper movie.

It'll just be like a background.

A! the time, the job was
to take a lot of film

that was shot
in England, in various places.

It was all very experimental

and I don't think we really knew

exactly what we were going
to do.

So fucking hot, isn't it?

We went up to the suite
in the St Regis and met them.

HEY' Que pasa'?

Who's this, please, que pasa?

Karen. I've got news for you.

I don't think
we really knew exactly

what we were going to do,

except take all this footage
and edit it with the songs.

That's how we set out.

We had thousands of feet of film

of just about everything
you can imagine.

There was a lot of stuff
besides Tittenhurst,

there was a recording session.

There was some kind of
political demonstration

through the streets of London.

There was stuff on the lake.

In addition to all the
film that came from Tittenhurst

and other places
in and around London,

we shot quite a bit in New York
City, because we realised that

we wanted to get that part of
their lives into the movie,

and that we didn't really have
anything showing

what they were doing in New York
City and what it was like.

The whisper piece was one of my
favourite things in 'Imagine'.

That was Yoko's concept.

People that Yoko knew
and that had some celebrity,

generally, would come in
to visit with John and Yoko

and the three of them,
would stand side by side

and they would...
"Psst-psst-psst."

“Psst-psst-psst.“

And you don't know what they're
saying, they're just whispering.

To me, what I got out of it, was
that it was people whispering

cos there's a lot of
secrets in life.

And many of which
don't mean anything,

so it doesn't matter
whether you hear it or not.

It was people whispering.

I realised that,
after a few songs,

that there was a sense
to it all.

We were starting to paint
a picture of their life,

of haw they did things
and how they lived their life

and what was going on
in their life.

I think John loved the energy
of New York City,

there's no question about that.

And I think he loved
that it was an opportunity

for him to become an American.

He saw New York as being
kind of a bit like Liverpool,

or the Liverpool 8 area,
where the art college was.

And Yoko was,
in a way, American.

I know she's Japanese,
but she's mainly American.

She wanted to live there.
She felt happy there.

They loved New York,
absolutely loved New York.

It was like, "Wow!"

You know,
"I'm here, this is it."

So, for him, that was it.

He was in the Village, it was
like in the centre of it all,

of the culture.

He was John... Lennon. Yeah.

He wasn't Beatle John.

How did you like
Yoko Ono's show?

Well, it was a little different,
I have to admit.

Can I ask you, did you enjoy
Yoko Ono's show?

-I certainly did.
-Thank you.

-Yoko?
-Ono.

Oh, Yoko Ono, yes.
No, I did see it.

Do you like her work?

I don't know much about her.
She's Japanese, isn't she?

Have you had many enquiries
about Yoko’s show?

I have indeed.

One morning,
I'm sitting in my office

and my secretary comes in

and she said, "You have
to take this phone call."

I said, "Who is it?"

She said, "It's the director
of the Museum of Modern Art.“

He said, "Did you see
the paper, today?"

And sure enough,
there is a one-third page ad

about an art show
at the Museum of Modern Art,

a Yoko Ono art show.

Are you familiar
with Yoko's work?

No. I've never seen anything,
but I've heard of films,

you know, like, she just makes
films of 365 behinds

and I saw her film of the body
with the fly walking on it.

I called Yoko. I said,
"Yoko, I've just gotten a call

from the director of
the Museum of Modern Art.

There's supposed to be
an art show there today."

She said, "Yes."

I said, "What kind of art show?"

She said,
"It's a conceptual art show.“

I said, "What does that mean?"

She said, "It's just in my mind,
it's a concept."

There's no Yoko Ono show here.

I was a little mad about
getting here and not finding it,

but I think it's pretty funny.

Well, I think
it's a bit bonkers.

-Do you know what bonkers is?
-No, what's that mean?

-Crazy, is it?
-Yeah, yeah.

That's good old Liverpudlian,
"bonkers", you know. Yeah, yeah.

I think it's too far out for me,
anyway.

Well, like, maybe
if you look at a picture,

then you can think of a whole
bunch of different things.

You know?

-Exactly.
-Is that what you mean?

Right. Except if you take it
a step further,

if there's no picture to look at

and it's just all in
your head.

It's just what you think.

Then you would have a very good
museum there.

At 3.35pm, Karen called.

What time does that say?
I can't even see it.

Oh, it's time.

Oh!

At quarter to,
he broke the lights.

That's what happens
at quarter to.

But I always wanted
to write something that would be

a Christmas record that would
last forever, you know?

John called me one day,
he said,

"We want to do a record
for Christmas.

We've got to do it really quick,
book the studio."

We don't have
a bass sound at all yet.

Phil was the producer
and it was a beautiful session.

Nicky, you come
in on the D chord, as well.

With the bass drum,
you have to...

You're coming in on
the same place Nicky comes in,

on that D chord,
after the first.

You play the guitar
by themselves,

then you and the bass come in.

John said, "In
conjunction with the song,

I want to get a billboard
in Times Square."

John was thrilled with it,
Yoko loved where it was.

It was a prime location.

Huge billboards, all around,

selling anything you can
imagine.

And all of it was
in brilliant colour

and in the midst of it was
this stark, white billboard

not selling anything,

but letting people know
that war could be over

if enough of you believed it.

It was Yoko's belief
that people,

if they wanted something
strong enough, could achieve it.

WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT

And she believed that if enough
people wanted war to be over,

it would be over.

WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT

"War is over, if you want it."

Well, that's artistic, too,
you see?

"War is over"
is not war is over.

But conceptually, it is over.

Mm-hm.

When you're in a city,
there is stuff going on.

In Tittenhurst,
they were cut off,

they were cut off, artistically,
from what you can get.

Yoko never really fitted in,
into English country life.

And, later, of course,
it was Yoko who said

that this island here
in which they were living

was too small and too big
at the same time for her.

She didn't want it.

And John said to me,
"We're moving to Manhattan.

Yoko can't bear this anymore."

And who could blame him?

There were a lot
of great moments at Tittenhurst

that I do fondly remember,

giggling and laughing
with Dad.

And, er, as they say...

'shooting the shit'.

But it was difficult to know...
You think, "OK, well...

is this going to stay?

Is this what it's going to be,
now?

Can I count on this?
Can I be here next weekend,

or the weekend after?
Is that going to happen?"

That was one of the, obviously,
the hardest pills to swallow,

was the constant change.

You know, you thought things
were going to settle down,

but they just never quite did.

I'm trying to remember when
they actually went to the States

because when they went,

that was actually
the last time I saw them.

And then when
they didn't come back again.

I can't even remember them
actually leaving

or saying goodbye.

I never said goodbye to him,
never did.

Yeah,
I lose a little rhythm here.

Come in, John, because
you may have the opening.

But you can just use
the first bridge

and then the last
"How can we?"

Oh, I see.

-79 on the end.
-I think the 99th clap.

Camera B.