1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about 2 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:21,759 Speaker 1: John Lennon and his foray into politics are insane. The 3 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:26,439 Speaker 1: one time Lovable Beadle aligned himself with violent revolutionaries, was 4 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: suspected of conspiring to disrupt a national political convention, freed 5 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: and unjustly jailed, doped, was alleged to have contributed financially 6 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: to a paramilitary terrorist organization, and he survived a home 7 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:43,840 Speaker 1: invasion that eerily forecast his own shooting. John Lennon's turn 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,880 Speaker 1: as rock's most famous revolutionary was short lived. The highest 9 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: levels of the United States federal government worried about the 10 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: pop star's influence on American youth and combat at as 11 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: radical politics by attempting to deport the ex Beatle. But 12 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: before these events, John Lennon, of course made great music. 13 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 1: Unlike that music I played for you at the top 14 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a 15 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Portly Prowler MK one. 16 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,680 Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the 17 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: rights to Family Affair by Sly and the Family Stone, 18 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of 19 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:27,480 Speaker 1: riot going on cheese? Could I afford it because that 20 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 1: was the number one song in America. On December tenth, 21 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, and that was the day John Lennon 22 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: took the stage with known radical Jerry Rubin in front 23 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:41,040 Speaker 1: of thousands of fans in Detroit, drawing the wrath of 24 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: none other than Richard Nixon, the President of the United States. 25 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: On this episode radical Politics, violent Revolutionaries, a home invasion, 26 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: a riot going on in John Lennon, I'm Jake Brennan, 27 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: and this this disgraceland freaks as far as the eye 28 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: could see, freaks. They filled Pontiac Stadium, fifteen thousand strong 29 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: bombers and balladeers, radicals, all Detroit, Michigan, nineteen seventy one. 30 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: Richard Nixon's silent majority was retreating. The freaks were ascended. 31 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: Turns out violence worked. Martin Luther King Junior was wrong. 32 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 1: Nonviolence was submissive. You want change? Post a panther up 33 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,000 Speaker 1: outside a police station with a couple live rounds ready 34 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: aim revolution. Jerry Ruben's Yippies had grown up from street 35 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: theater grutto Marxist to guerrilla warriors. Detroit in nineteen seventy 36 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: one wasn't like Chicago in nineteen sixty eight. The Democratic 37 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: National Convention was a coming out party for Jerry Rubin 38 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: and his fellow revolutionaries, the New Left. Hello, America, do 39 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,640 Speaker 1: you know who your children are? Fifteen hundred rioting in 40 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,520 Speaker 1: the street, max Zi Giles mockery trial, not guilty for incitement, 41 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:33,040 Speaker 1: guilty of contempt, three years overturned on appeal. Jerry Rubin 42 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: beat the system into John Lennon. That meant something, which 43 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: is why he and his wife Yoko Ono were in 44 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: Detroit that night to free Jerry Rubin's buddy John Sinclair. Sinclair, 45 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: the sort of poet, half assed manager of the MC 46 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: five and founding member of the White Panther Party, the 47 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: anti racist brothers in arms to Bobby Seal's Black Panthers, 48 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: had been railroaded. At least that was the revolutionary rap. 49 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: Busted for dope two joints, Sinclair was given a ten 50 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 1: year sentence. Ten for two went the sloganeering. John Lennon 51 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: cooked up the catchphrase himself, ten years two joints harsh right. 52 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 1: I guess what Jerry Rubin and John Lennon left out 53 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: of the rhetoric was that Sinclair, prior to the busts 54 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: that sent him away for a decade, had already been 55 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: busted numerous times for his flagrant refusal to stop smoking 56 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: pot in public while on probation for previous dope arrests. 57 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: Say what you will about the legality of marijuana, but 58 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:33,359 Speaker 1: stupid as stupid didn't matter. John Sinclair, Jerry Ruben, Bobby Seal. 59 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: The tide was turning in their favor, at least in Detroit. 60 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 1: Despite the arrest of a couple white Panthers for the 61 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: bombing of a Selective Service office, despite the conviction of 62 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: two black Panthers for the murder and torture of an 63 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,679 Speaker 1: informant alleged to have been committed on orders from Bobby Seal, 64 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: and despite the violence encoded in Jerry Ruben's early seventies rhetoric. 65 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy one, the revolutionaries were gaining ground in 66 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:58,839 Speaker 1: the mainstream in Detroit. They flipped the City Council and 67 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,279 Speaker 1: won control of the city's legally constituted government. It was 68 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:04,479 Speaker 1: the coup of all coups for Jerry Rubin, who is 69 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:09,480 Speaker 1: now officially America's most effective revolutionary. Detroit City Councils SAT 70 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: members directly aligned with Reuben's radical New left causes, so 71 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: as far as John Lennon was concerned, he was aligning 72 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,480 Speaker 1: himself for the winner. No matter what the audience in 73 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:25,119 Speaker 1: Potiac Stadium looked like on that night, the imagined counter 74 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: culture utopia was in reality a stone fairweather fan opportunistic dystopia. 75 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,799 Speaker 1: College kids ripped on acid, tucking Johnson Claire blues, predatory 76 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: drug dealers roaming the aisles, relieving suburban wastoids of their allowances, 77 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:43,760 Speaker 1: breaking off bricks of hash and bag bowls of bud, motorheads, 78 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: crushing cold cans of Hams in old style, cruised for 79 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: school night, trimm Vietnam vettes home from a war they 80 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: didn't want to wage in a country they didn't recognize, 81 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 1: Hooked on heroin, a drug they didn't understand, nodding out 82 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: in the cheap seats, all of them forced to sit 83 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: through half assed hippie concert planning, long drawn out breaks 84 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,360 Speaker 1: between musical artists, a stellar undercard to John and Yoko's 85 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,520 Speaker 1: headlining slot, consisting with Stevie Wonder, Bob Seeker, phil Oaks 86 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: and Archie Shep, and bored to tears by the long 87 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: winded speeches and political ramblings of Reuben and the zilk 88 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: Bobby Seal delivered, though Bobby knew that when it came 89 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: to speeches, you needed to hit him where they lived 90 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: with rock and roll soul power. He spit Cassius Clay 91 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: melodies over vi I Lenin chords, entertaining and motivating and 92 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: as such, subversive as fuck. And by the time John 93 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: and Yoko took the stage, self contained on methadone and 94 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: cocaine cocktails, it was past two am. John Sinclair was 95 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:46,159 Speaker 1: sleeping in his cell. Many in the crowd, no doubt 96 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: envious of him by this point, yet the band played 97 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: on showtime. John Lennon beatle John in the flesh in 98 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: a rare concert performance. It was worth the price of admission, 99 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,280 Speaker 1: worth the way wait, worth the coming hangover, worth the flashbacks, 100 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: and well worth of political gobblybook being shouted to the rafters. 101 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: It was even worth enduring John's wife on stage with 102 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: his spine piercing singing style, a real life beatle, except 103 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: John Lennon wasn't a beetle anymore. He was a revolutionary. 104 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: He'd taken up arms for the cause, whatever that actually 105 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: was in his mind. He was fighting the good fight, 106 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: and he and his new brothers and sisters were winning. 107 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: John Lennon didn't bet on losing horses. He learned his 108 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: lesson with that ass grabbing Maurishi a few years earlier. 109 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: False prophets, didn't play pop stard and was overrated. He'd 110 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: been there, He'd done that. Wanted to get him a 111 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 1: mansion in the woods west of London, a tax bill 112 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: larger than the GDP of a small nation, money he 113 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: couldn't spend fast enough. Guilt over his success, alienation, apathy. 114 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,000 Speaker 1: This the cause, Reuben, Bobby Shore, even Saint Clair and 115 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: his two joints. This was the next big thing. John 116 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: was certain. More than primal scream therapy, more than LSD, 117 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: more than chasing birds across America through a haze of 118 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: amphetamines in Zimmerman's grass. Now was the time for real change. 119 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: John could taste it. The future was blinding, which made 120 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 1: the past invisible, which was the point. John Lennon wasn't 121 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: the only one with his sights on the future. In 122 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: the crowd that night, a handful of square white men 123 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: circling their gaze upon the stage through government issued binoculars. 124 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:28,640 Speaker 1: If the crowd wasn't so stoned, they would have made 125 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: the men instantly by their white socks, dark shoes, floods, 126 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 1: and high and tight haircuts squares Hoover's men, government men FBI, 127 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,960 Speaker 1: thereon orders from Bob Pldoman himself, Nixon's chief of staff 128 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: and head ballbuster. John Lennon wasn't some ordinary junkie folk singer. 129 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:48,959 Speaker 1: He was a beetle and one, if not the biggest 130 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: pop stars on the planet. But when it came to 131 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,719 Speaker 1: the youth, a demographic that Richard Nixon had little sway with, 132 00:08:55,160 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: John Lennon's influence was immeasurable. Therefore, John Lennon's political motivation 133 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: was highly suspect. What was he doing exactly? What was 134 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: his angle? He wasn't even American. He was English, a 135 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: foreigner on a visitor visa, granted entry under American soil 136 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: into this great country by the generosity of the federal 137 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: government alone, and here he was protesting that same government 138 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 1: alongside known violent revolutionaries. If John Lennon would go to 139 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:26,320 Speaker 1: this extreme publicly, what could he possibly be up to 140 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:51,920 Speaker 1: in private? It was worse than Nixon stooges could have imagined. 141 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:56,439 Speaker 1: After John Lennon appeared at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, Unbelievably, 142 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: John Sinclair was freed. It worked. John Lennon was just 143 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: as surprised as Richard Nixon. John Sinclair was released from 144 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: jail to appeal his conviction on orders from the Michigan 145 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:13,560 Speaker 1: Supreme Court on the Monday after the freedom rally. John 146 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: Lennon's public appeal, along with the leftists now ensconced inside 147 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,240 Speaker 1: city and state government, had come together to win freedom 148 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: for Sainclair. But it was more than a win for 149 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,680 Speaker 1: a lowly pothead, harshly convicted for smoking a weed that 150 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,960 Speaker 1: did little more than make him lazy and uninteresting. It 151 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: was a symbolic win for the revolution, and it emboldened 152 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: John Lennon. He doubled down on his political activities, appearing 153 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: at the appalled Theater benefit for the Harlem Six as 154 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,800 Speaker 1: well as at another benefit for Attica State victims. He 155 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: marched in the streets of New York for the IRA 156 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: and publicly eskewed his British Welsh heritage in favor of 157 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 1: his Irish roots to better identify with the imperialized people 158 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:56,280 Speaker 1: of his Queen's England, and he marched Bobby Seal and 159 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: Jerry Rubin out in front of a nationally televised audience 160 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,959 Speaker 1: on the Mike Douglas Show, publicly proclaiming his support of 161 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: the Black Panthers anti nationalism, nodding along an agreement to 162 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,319 Speaker 1: Seal's stated goal of using the Black Panthers organized philosophy 163 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:17,400 Speaker 1: of intercommunalism to redistribute American wealth. The irony John Lennon, 164 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:19,680 Speaker 1: one of the richest musicians in the world and a 165 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,559 Speaker 1: white man sitting next to Bobby Seal in support of 166 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 1: wealth distribution, A man whose primary business venture, Apple Core, 167 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,720 Speaker 1: existed for the main purpose of sheltering his multi million 168 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:34,400 Speaker 1: dollar income from tax collectors, taxes that would have paid 169 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:37,560 Speaker 1: for government social services for the underprivileged back home in 170 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,040 Speaker 1: his country had he actually paid them. And of course 171 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 1: here in America, John Lennon paid no taxes either. Yet 172 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: here he was, as far as Nixon was concerned, blasting 173 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,559 Speaker 1: his anti American message out over American broadcast towers built 174 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: with real American labor, performed by hard working Americans who 175 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:57,959 Speaker 1: actually did pay their taxes. The hypocrisy at all was 176 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:00,600 Speaker 1: enough to spend Richard Nixon into a late night Scotch 177 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: fueled rant in the White House. Something had to be done. 178 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:11,120 Speaker 1: John Lennon was paranoid by nature, but this was something else. 179 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:14,280 Speaker 1: The clicks he heard when he picked up the phone. 180 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: Someone was listening, and the squares on the park benches, 181 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: their legs crossed and their white sox showing their bespectacled 182 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,160 Speaker 1: heads peering over the sports page of the Daily News. 183 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 1: Someone was watching the men he saw on inconspicuous sedans 184 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,000 Speaker 1: traveling a safe two cars back from whatever New York 185 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: cab he was riding in. Someone was following him. A 186 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 1: change of scenery was needed. Something less conspicuous than the 187 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 1: five star aristocratic digs at the Saint Regis Hotel would 188 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 1: no longer do so he rented a small apartment in 189 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: the West Village. After all, revolutions never come from the 190 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 1: top down. They come from the bottom, which is where 191 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: John and Yoko seemed to be racing toward. No sooner 192 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: did they arrive at their modest new digs at one 193 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: five five and a half half Bank Street, did they 194 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,640 Speaker 1: renounce their possessions. John wanted to give up his quote 195 00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:09,200 Speaker 1: unquote possessions complex, perhaps sensing the hypocrisy of supporting the 196 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: Black Panthers call for wealth redistribution while living off of 197 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:16,960 Speaker 1: his and his former bandmates, tax sheltered Rockstar Largezz Jerry 198 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,480 Speaker 1: Rubins spread the word John and Yoko had opened their 199 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: checkbook at their new Bank Street apartment, they received the 200 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: great Unwashed Freak community. All were invited to reveal their 201 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 1: cause or their plight and be granted an audience with 202 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: the new king and Queen of the counterculture, John and Yoko, 203 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: who took their meetings as was their famous custom, in bed, 204 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: often naked. Ex cons down on their luck, librarians, black panthers, 205 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: white panthers, Jerry Rubin's next generation of campus warriors, the 206 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,600 Speaker 1: newly christened Zippies. Any and all hard luck cases down 207 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:52,320 Speaker 1: with the cause came palms up, and John and Yoko 208 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 1: did not disappoint. They put their money, or John's money, 209 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: part of it anyway. Where their mouths were, John identified 210 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:07,480 Speaker 1: with all of them in private. As political rhetoric took 211 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: a darker turn, became more violent, even to the point 212 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:12,880 Speaker 1: of shocking Jerry Rubin, who later said that John used 213 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: to joke about his pacifist past and blame it all 214 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:19,200 Speaker 1: on Yoko. According to Ruben, Lennon said she's the one 215 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: who's into the peace and love. John was pissed, particularly 216 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: at the cops. Revolutionary violence was becoming an obsession, and 217 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: they were all out to keep the common man down. 218 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: The cops, the politicians didn't matter. It was the same 219 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:34,680 Speaker 1: as it was back at school. Do this, don't do that. 220 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 1: The man stopped the spirit right out of you, wore 221 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: you down to a nub, molded you into the soul 222 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: as automaton that the lower class you were born into 223 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: demanded and God forbid. You were born in the wrong 224 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: part of the world, in Burma or Vietnam or Ireland, 225 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 1: and then you were royally fucked. Whatever the means, As 226 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: long as the people were free, free from their oppressors, 227 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 1: as long as John was freed free from his past, 228 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: Jerry Rubin was right. Fuck them all. Bobby seeal cinched 229 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: it via brother Malcolm. By any means necessary, John could 230 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: get with that, and he was in a position to 231 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: do so, which is why when an Irish arms dealer 232 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: turned up at his door looking for a place to 233 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,200 Speaker 1: lay off his stash, John allegedly put him in touch 234 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 1: with a contact who connected the arms dealer with the 235 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,360 Speaker 1: IRA front nor then Irish Aid, an organization to which 236 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: John Lennon would eventually assign the royalties for his song 237 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: Luck of the Irish. The Front funded the Provisional IRA, 238 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: the paramilitary division known as one of the most vicious 239 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: violent domestic terrorist organizations on the planet, which is why 240 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: Lenin's biographer alleged that the Smart Beetle gave Jerry Rubin 241 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: zippies two brand in cash to finance the violent disruption 242 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 1: of the Democratic and Republican conventions in Miami that year, 243 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,400 Speaker 1: the exact same type of violent crime Jerry Rubin in 244 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: the Chicago seven cooked up at the Democratic National Convention 245 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:59,400 Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty eight, But Miami in seventy two 246 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: was to be even bigger, batter, more spectacle, more violence guaranteed. 247 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,000 Speaker 1: Violence is what really got the press's attention. Violence is 248 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: what brought the revolution into Middle America's living rooms. Violence 249 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: is what brought legitimate change Miami seventy two, Nixon's newest coronation. 250 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: Jerry Rubin and John Lennon had big plans, but then 251 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: there came a hard knock on the door. John opened it. 252 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: Two squares, dark suits, white sox, ins men Immigration and 253 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: Naturalization Service. They handed John papers. The pros was bleak 254 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 1: and bold faced courier font mister John Lennon, your deportation 255 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 1: from the United States is hereby demanded. We'll be right 256 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:58,040 Speaker 1: back after this word word word. This was exactly what 257 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: the White House feared, thousands of protesters making their way 258 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: from all over the country to the nineteen seventy two 259 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,040 Speaker 1: Republican National Convention in Miami. It's why they were trying 260 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:10,840 Speaker 1: to toss John Lennon out of the country to port him. 261 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: His case dragged on, and that was fine with authorities. 262 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,399 Speaker 1: In court or out of the country. It didn't matter 263 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,679 Speaker 1: either way. John Lennon was neutered, which was what the 264 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,240 Speaker 1: FEDS wanted. Where it was John Lennon and Jerry Rubin, 265 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:26,639 Speaker 1: the rabble rouser who had so successfully disrupted the Democratic 266 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,120 Speaker 1: National Convention in nineteen sixty eight and gotten away with it. 267 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:33,120 Speaker 1: We're planning on hosting a counter convention to be held 268 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: outside the RNC stale affair, attracting all the freaks Vietnam 269 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,840 Speaker 1: War protesters, black panthers, white panthers, hippies, yippies, zippies, and 270 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: whatever other revolutionary rabble could find its way down to 271 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:48,920 Speaker 1: the bottom of the country. That couldn't happen. A counter 272 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: convention would be a disaster. For Dixon, just as he 273 00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:54,719 Speaker 1: took the stage to make his case for four more years, 274 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,199 Speaker 1: the lens of the press would be equally trained on 275 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,320 Speaker 1: the side show across the street, protesting only Nixon's presidency, 276 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,639 Speaker 1: but demonstrating in support of the charges that Richard Nixon 277 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,560 Speaker 1: was nothing more than a war criminal. John Lennon Jerry Rubin. 278 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 1: Any success in Miami for the two of them meant 279 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: failure for Nixon. It was zero sum. So the federal 280 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,480 Speaker 1: hounds were unleashed, unto John Lennon in the form of 281 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: a trumped up deportation case. What did John Lennon expect? 282 00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: Did he really expect to go up against the President 283 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,760 Speaker 1: of the United States and his goons Bob Haldman and g. 284 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:32,159 Speaker 1: Gordon Lyddy with questionable immigrant status, a convicted doper, a 285 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: known junkie. Did he expect to call Nixon in the 286 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 1: establishment out on a repeated basis in public and to 287 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:42,200 Speaker 1: fund black panthers, white panthers IRA fronts and still be 288 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,840 Speaker 1: allowed to stay in this country and continue to do so. 289 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: Say what you will about the righteousness of John Lennon's actions, 290 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,720 Speaker 1: but his hubris was monumental. The fact that the aggressive 291 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,720 Speaker 1: move by the Fed surprised him. Speaks to just how 292 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,560 Speaker 1: far he had his head up his own ass. In 293 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:02,040 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, the federal government's gambit did what it 294 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: was supposed to do, tied John up in court, effectively 295 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: sidelining him from the revolution. He wouldn't dare fuck with 296 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,239 Speaker 1: Nixon in Miami while on trial over his status as 297 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: a legal immigrant. Except it didn't matter whether without John 298 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:20,320 Speaker 1: Lennon the revolution was on Jerry Rubin was determined. Whether 299 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,960 Speaker 1: or not an actual counter political convention would still take 300 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,199 Speaker 1: place remained to be seen. That required planning, even if 301 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:28,160 Speaker 1: you were just going to nominate a real live pig 302 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:30,760 Speaker 1: to run against Richard Nixon, which was the rumor, and 303 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: planning was in a strong suit of the cause regardless 304 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: though the revolution had arrived in Miami and shit was 305 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: about to go off. August twenty second, nineteen seventy two, 306 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:49,399 Speaker 1: Richard Nixon's nomination day a second term. John Wayne on 307 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,640 Speaker 1: hand to welcome Tricky Dick, Hanoi, Jane and Flamingo park 308 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: around the corner from the Miami Beach Convention Center on 309 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 1: a small makeshift stage under the dank stank of grass, 310 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: speaking to anti war demonstrators all quiet on the Southern 311 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: Front for the moment, peaceful protest, and then a protester 312 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:11,960 Speaker 1: launched a brick at marching delegates. The delegates ram not 313 00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:14,080 Speaker 1: so fast and riddy and av was now the official 314 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:17,360 Speaker 1: Piggywalk of shame. Protesters were going to force the delegates 315 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: to walk the gauntlet. Demonstrators, a ghostly white death mass 316 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 1: taunted the delegates, screaming there's blood on your hands and murderers. 317 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: All other protesters and Richard Nixon mass smeared with red 318 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,679 Speaker 1: paint blood clashed violently with police and photographers, and the 319 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,720 Speaker 1: cops worried. The plan they heard was for the demonstrators 320 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,320 Speaker 1: to take the convention hall at the exact moment Nixon 321 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 1: was taking the nomination, disrupt the whole fucking thing right 322 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,240 Speaker 1: there on National TV, and the cops moved in and 323 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: riot gear. There were now three thousand protesters flooding the streets. 324 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,879 Speaker 1: Miami Dade's Findest strategically positioned school buses six deep in 325 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:54,840 Speaker 1: front of the convention center's entrance. The protesters advanced, launching 326 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: rocks and bricks at cops and more arriving delegates. They 327 00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:01,480 Speaker 1: pounced on dignitaries, their limits scenes and cop cars an 328 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: escaping room. They ran over a Vietnam vet more chance, fuck, no, 329 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: we won't go cops. Worse, there's the door. Bobby Seal, 330 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,600 Speaker 1: undeterred by being jailed after the sixty eight riot, took 331 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,879 Speaker 1: to the street with more of that cassious clay flow, 332 00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: leading a chant of one, two, three, four, we don't 333 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,840 Speaker 1: want your fucking walk. Delegates were horrified, clutching pearls and 334 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,040 Speaker 1: pissing pants. Pencil neck young Republicans fired back with bricks 335 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,560 Speaker 1: of their own. The protesters set American flags of flame 336 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: and smashed windows of neighboring businesses. And then the cooty 337 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 1: gross Jerry Rubins grouto Marxist protest theory come to life. 338 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,160 Speaker 1: There in the middle of Meridian Avenue, a circus elephant 339 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:44,040 Speaker 1: marching surrounded by protesters, walking in step and pulling a 340 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,199 Speaker 1: coffin toward the convention center. It was great theater, but 341 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: it didn't little to physically advance the rioters, cause the 342 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,600 Speaker 1: cops held the rioters back from entering the convention center. 343 00:21:55,040 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 1: Nixon was nominated without anterruption. Still, the national press covered 344 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 1: at mouths a gape and blasted the images back all 345 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,040 Speaker 1: over the country across the nightly news. At the end 346 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,680 Speaker 1: of the day, more than two hundred demonstrators were arrested. 347 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: One news report closed with this item, as police packed 348 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: a group of violent demonstrators into a yellow police van. 349 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,199 Speaker 1: The demonstrators were said to break into song, singing the 350 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:25,439 Speaker 1: Beatles we all live in a yellow submarine. Watching the 351 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: report back home in New York on his prize possession 352 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: his color television, John Lennon thought, for Fock's sake, this 353 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,240 Speaker 1: was a bloody mess, and if his hands were seen 354 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,520 Speaker 1: as being all over it, he'd be tossed from the 355 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,480 Speaker 1: country for sure. The timing for him couldn't have been worse. 356 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:50,240 Speaker 1: His deportation case was shockingly going well better than his 357 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: music career at the moment. Like his ex songwriting partner 358 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:57,200 Speaker 1: Paul McCartney, nineteen seventy two was not a good year 359 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 1: for John Lennon musically. His newest record, a strictly political 360 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,440 Speaker 1: Affair entitled Sometime in New York City with the aforementioned 361 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,440 Speaker 1: luck of the Irish, The rallying cry for John Sinclair 362 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: entitled John Sinclair and a string of other protest knockoffs 363 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: was savaged by critics. Rolling Stone called the album quote 364 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: incipient artistic suicide, and went on to further denounce it 365 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: by saying, quote, the songs are awful, shallow and derivative, 366 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 1: sloppy nursery rhymes that patronize the issues and individuals they 367 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,240 Speaker 1: seek to exalt. Only a monomaniacal smugness could allow the 368 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,679 Speaker 1: Lenins to think that this witless doggerel wouldn't insult the 369 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:41,480 Speaker 1: intelligence and feelings of any audience unquote ouch. Calling John 370 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:45,040 Speaker 1: Lennon witless was like calling Richard Nixon a liberal DEM's 371 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:49,000 Speaker 1: fighting words, except John Knewitt who is he kidding? They 372 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,000 Speaker 1: could knock off a good protest song with the best 373 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 1: of them, but an album full of them. This was 374 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, and he wasn't Bob Dylan. He 375 00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,280 Speaker 1: was John Lennon, and what he did best was interpret 376 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: this fucked up world through his own experiences with visceral, 377 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: subjective simplicity and soul cold turkey, How do You Sleep, 378 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,200 Speaker 1: jealous guy, instant karma. Those were the types of solo 379 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,240 Speaker 1: efforts from John Lennon that nobody could touch, not his 380 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:18,200 Speaker 1: ex Beatle bandmates, not Bob Dylan, not anybody. John, commenting 381 00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:20,359 Speaker 1: on the world from within it, as opposed to taking 382 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,119 Speaker 1: a folky, subjective journalistic approach, was the side of the 383 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: street he was meant to work. Sure, the occasional swipe 384 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,760 Speaker 1: and angry folk music like give Me Some Truth worked out, 385 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,680 Speaker 1: but that was because it was entirely subjective, and John 386 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,800 Speaker 1: could be grant too. To great effect. His song Imagine 387 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:37,199 Speaker 1: proved that, and the rest of the songs on the 388 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: same album, along with the album that preceded it, John 389 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 1: Lennon Plastic Gono Band, proved that John Lennon as a songwriter, 390 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,160 Speaker 1: despite as many flaws and contradictions, was at the top 391 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: of his game upon exiting the Beatles, which was more 392 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: than the critics could say for Paul McCartney, whose solo 393 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 1: records to that point had all critically flopped. But Paul 394 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,480 Speaker 1: would be back. John knew it, just as he knew 395 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,119 Speaker 1: he would be too if he were only allowed to 396 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,360 Speaker 1: stay in the US. He couldn't bear going back to England. 397 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: It would be seen as a defeat, a humiliation of rejection, 398 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 1: the same rejection he'd known his whole life. First his 399 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,399 Speaker 1: dad did want him, then his mom. It singed him 400 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,560 Speaker 1: as a boy, and the pain never left. It drove 401 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: him freeing himself from this pain, the pain of being 402 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:24,440 Speaker 1: John or worse, beetle John. All those expectations, No amount 403 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 1: of drugs or pussy or politics would loosen him from 404 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 1: its grip. And now this case, this fucking case, was 405 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 1: throwing it all back into his face. And there was 406 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,760 Speaker 1: no running from himself in England, at least in the States. 407 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:38,480 Speaker 1: In New York City he could hide, he could blend in. 408 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,159 Speaker 1: In New York, New Yorker's largely left him alone, and 409 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,240 Speaker 1: that was something akin to letting him be himself, and 410 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: that was freedom. He'd felt that freedom nowhere else in 411 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: the world, not since he was a star anyway, maybe 412 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,360 Speaker 1: in the early days back in Hamburg or Liverpool, but 413 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,520 Speaker 1: not in a long long time. Losing that feeling was horrifying, 414 00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,680 Speaker 1: and thus losing the case was horrifying, but not as 415 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: horrifying as what was about to happen. Next, the doorbell 416 00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,920 Speaker 1: to John Lennon's Bank Street apartment rang. John, no doubt 417 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: stoned and used to a revolving door of revolutionaries by 418 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,640 Speaker 1: now opened the door without checking first to see who 419 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:23,200 Speaker 1: was there. Two men burst in, and they were clearly wasted. 420 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:27,160 Speaker 1: They were there as they mumbled to collect collect what 421 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,160 Speaker 1: John asked, your debt came the response John took from 422 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: the tone in their voices that they meant to make 423 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,359 Speaker 1: him pay for being rich, for not truly being down 424 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:40,040 Speaker 1: with the cause, and the revolution was eating its own. 425 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: The two Stone roughnecks set about tossing John's apartment looking 426 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,960 Speaker 1: for cash. John begged them to stop, and they took 427 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: what they found, which wasn't much. Annoyed, they positioned themselves 428 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 1: around John's color television, the one thing the linguorss Lenin 429 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:57,119 Speaker 1: could not do without. He loved that fucking television. It 430 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: was all he did most of the day, sit in bed, 431 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,320 Speaker 1: get stone, watch TV, try to fuck Yoka. Sex was 432 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: a non starter lately, so the TV was all I had. 433 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 1: He begged the two men please they could care less. 434 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: Out went the television. They stole the Salvador Dolly lithograph 435 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: on the wall on their way out, too, for good measure. 436 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,919 Speaker 1: Fuck John Lennon was pissed. This this is what he 437 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,600 Speaker 1: got for his contribution to the cause, All the money, 438 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: the dope, everything he shared. His name is fucking reputation, 439 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,160 Speaker 1: and this is how he's repaid with a goddamn home invasion, 440 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,600 Speaker 1: a robbery. His television is fucking television stolen right out 441 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:33,119 Speaker 1: from under room, and there was nothing he could do 442 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: about it. Everyone knew where he was, where he lived. Literally, 443 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,200 Speaker 1: if he wasn't safe in his home, where then was 444 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:43,080 Speaker 1: he sick? Beatlemania was bad, but this was now somehow worse. 445 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 1: There was one big prison all over again, his own attica. 446 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,880 Speaker 1: He was helpless, scared, angry, and about to make some changes. 447 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,200 Speaker 1: The letter set off a chain of events later revealed 448 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: in court upon discovery South Carolina Senator Strom Thurman that 449 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,399 Speaker 1: old Dixie Bull Thurman was born into white supremacy, rabble 450 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 1: rousing legal immigrant pop singers didn't play. Before setting his 451 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: sights on John Lennon, Senator Thurman took aim at the 452 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,600 Speaker 1: civil rights movement, blocking bills that would have granted equal 453 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 1: rights to blacks, voting against Hawaii's statehood because the islands 454 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: weren't white enough, and of course, famously switching parties from 455 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: Democrat to Republican and leading Southern whites who shared his 456 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: attitudes towards race with him. By the time the early 457 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:53,720 Speaker 1: seventies rolled around, Thurman's racist attitude had started to thaw. 458 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,320 Speaker 1: Maybe it had something to do with the secret he 459 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: Harvard that back in the nineteen twenties he'd fathered in 460 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,640 Speaker 1: nil legitimate child with a black lover. By nineteen seventy, 461 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,400 Speaker 1: Senator Thurman had voted in favor of Martin Luther King 462 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,040 Speaker 1: Junior's birthday becoming a national holiday, and had hired numerous 463 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,920 Speaker 1: black men and women to his staff. Such was his 464 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,920 Speaker 1: turnaround on race that when he died six months after 465 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,520 Speaker 1: giving up his Senate seat in two thousand and three, 466 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 1: at the age of one hundred, fellow senator at the time, 467 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: Democrat Joe Biden, spoke at his memorial service, but I 468 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 1: digress Nonetheless. In nineteen seventy two, Republican Strom Thurman was 469 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: still seen as a patriot above all else, so when 470 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,160 Speaker 1: certain actions came to light involving John Lennon's role in 471 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 1: freeing John Sinclair from prison, Senator Thurman sat down to 472 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,360 Speaker 1: write a letter to his boss, Richard M. Nixon. In 473 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: the letter, Thurmann claims that Lennon's involvement with and support 474 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: of radicals will quote pour tremendous amounts of money into 475 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,560 Speaker 1: the coffers of the new Left. It can only inevitably 476 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,520 Speaker 1: lead to a clash between a controlled mob organized by 477 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: this group in law enforcement officials, the letter had the 478 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 1: desired effect. J Edgar Hoover's FBI launched a surveillance and 479 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,440 Speaker 1: harassment campaign against the Lenins throughout the nineteen seventy two 480 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,880 Speaker 1: election season. Years later, it was this very harassment campaign 481 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,000 Speaker 1: that would form the backbone of Lenin's defense and sink 482 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,280 Speaker 1: the government's case to have him deported. In true Nixon 483 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,480 Speaker 1: era irony. Of course, a series of status reports from 484 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,120 Speaker 1: Hoover to Nixon's right hand man H. R. Haldeman was 485 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,800 Speaker 1: a smoking gun that, once discovered, proved the immigration case 486 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 1: against John Lennon was nothing more than an illegitimate political 487 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:36,720 Speaker 1: hit job. But on election night, November seventh, nineteen seventy two, 488 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: John Lennon did not yet know what good fortune was 489 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 1: coming his way. He would be spared deportation. No, Instead, 490 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: he was faced with the gloom of four more years 491 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,200 Speaker 1: of Richard Millhouse Nixon in office, an outcome of which 492 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,040 Speaker 1: he was certain spelled instant doom for him, for it 493 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:59,280 Speaker 1: would seal his deportation. Upon that night, he was in 494 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,200 Speaker 1: the ConTroll room at the Record Plan listening to Yoko 495 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 1: trying to screech her way through something barely passing as 496 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,640 Speaker 1: a melody. The news of the returns favoring Nixon only 497 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: made him to test Yoko's performance more. He sucked on 498 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:14,760 Speaker 1: a bottle of Sequila and grew angrier by the second, 499 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: making disparaging remarks about Yoko's lack of talent to the 500 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:22,120 Speaker 1: studio's engineer behind his wife's back. Yoko, if she was 501 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,960 Speaker 1: aware to her credits, soldered on in the vocal booth, 502 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,120 Speaker 1: which was more than could be said of her husband, 503 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,680 Speaker 1: who was wearing his defeatism on his double wild lapel 504 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 1: like a hungover sailor proudly sporting a fresh herpies outbreak. Mercifully, 505 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: the session wrapped around four am, and mister and missus 506 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:41,160 Speaker 1: John Lennon headed downtown to Jerry Ruben's apartment to take 507 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,760 Speaker 1: in the rest of the election night returns and commiserate 508 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: with their fellow revolutionaries. Ruben nearly shat himself when he 509 00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 1: heard the screaming outside his door. It was John pissed, pissed, drunk, 510 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,480 Speaker 1: and pissed off, and reverting back to his primal scream therapy, 511 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,000 Speaker 1: he barged into the relatively calm apartment gathering Like an 512 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,080 Speaker 1: and inmate freshly escaped from the sanitarium, Zelda Fitzgerald had 513 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,720 Speaker 1: nothing on him. He grabbed the first woman he saw 514 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,479 Speaker 1: with two hands on her cheeks, pulled her face into his, 515 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 1: and smacked a big, wet one on her. Yoko brought 516 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: up the rear, nonplussed. This wasn't her first rodeo. John 517 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,400 Speaker 1: went at Ruben, Revolution, Revolution. How the fuck are you 518 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: gonna have a fucking revolution when you can't even get 519 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: McGovern elected. Jerry Rubin was crestfallen. John wasn't wrong. Yoko 520 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,160 Speaker 1: sat down calmly between a couple on the couch, pulled 521 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 1: out a small bag of cocaine, and dutifully began cutting 522 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,520 Speaker 1: it up into lines. John left Reuben to his guest 523 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,720 Speaker 1: and turned his wild eyes to the door. An exit 524 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 1: was needed fast. Fucked these people, Charlatan's ineffective middle class 525 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:50,000 Speaker 1: bourgeois roots. What could they actually do? Nothing? If you 526 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:52,840 Speaker 1: want to accomplish anything, leave it to the working man. 527 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 1: That's who he was. Something to be free. Fuck all 528 00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 1: of you, he yelled, swiping a bottle of vodka off 529 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: the table. As he made his way to the door. 530 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,520 Speaker 1: He pulled from the bottle of vodka and screamed to 531 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: no one and everyone at the same time, I'm going 532 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,080 Speaker 1: to join the weatherman. I'm going to shoot a policeman, 533 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: and with that, John Lennon's revolution was lost years later, 534 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,840 Speaker 1: after splitting from Yoko, after heading to Los Angeles to 535 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,240 Speaker 1: drink away his pain, to fuck his way to freedom, 536 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:27,760 Speaker 1: to run from his own abandonment issues, and from the 537 00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: guilt of abandoning his first wife Cynthia and his son Julian. 538 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: After white knuckling it through Hollywood self destruction with a 539 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: gun toting phil Spector and a double milkshake swinging Harry Nilsen, 540 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:40,840 Speaker 1: after finding his way back to New York, back to 541 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 1: Yoko remarkably in one piece, after finding out she was 542 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: pregnant and that at last there would be no miscarriage, 543 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 1: after giving birth to their beautiful boy Sean, after freeing 544 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,400 Speaker 1: himself from whatever the next big thing was, from LSD, 545 00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:57,440 Speaker 1: from the Mahrishi, from primal scream therapy, from politics, after 546 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:01,160 Speaker 1: doubling down on the fantasy of Yoko and shot on family. 547 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:06,000 Speaker 1: After all that, in nineteen eighty, John Lennon described his 548 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: years as a radical by saying, quote, I dabbled in 549 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:12,680 Speaker 1: so called politics in the late sixties and seventies, more 550 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,839 Speaker 1: out of guilt than anything else. Guilt for being rich, 551 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: and guilt for thinking peace and love isn't enough and 552 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:20,480 Speaker 1: you have to go out and get shot or get 553 00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:22,800 Speaker 1: punched in the face to prove I'm one of the people. 554 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:27,320 Speaker 1: I was doing it against my instincts. The irony, of course, 555 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 1: was that when John Lennon finally did let go of 556 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,920 Speaker 1: politics and let go of wanting to be as he 557 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,680 Speaker 1: said shot, he found himself outside his luxury Dakota apartment 558 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:45,200 Speaker 1: staring down a gunman, and then I'm shot. John Lennon 559 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: was right. He was shot, hit four times, and it 560 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,160 Speaker 1: was bad. The police were on the scene quickly. John 561 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,239 Speaker 1: was carried into the back of a patrol car by 562 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,280 Speaker 1: two cops to take him with the quickness to Roosevelt Hospital. 563 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,319 Speaker 1: The dying man and the with his head in the 564 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,800 Speaker 1: CoP's slot, gurgling blood. The cop looked into the dying 565 00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:08,880 Speaker 1: man's eyes, couldn't believe what he was seeing. Fuck. The 566 00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,160 Speaker 1: cop looked down at the man and asked, do you 567 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,960 Speaker 1: know who you are? John Lennon looked up at the 568 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:18,840 Speaker 1: officer gave him some truth whispering yeah, and then he 569 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:28,280 Speaker 1: died on December eighth, nineteen eighty. He was free, finally 570 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,399 Speaker 1: free from the trap of being John Lennon, Sir winston O'Boogie, 571 00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,759 Speaker 1: Harry Nilsson's hustle, Phil Spector's hostage, Jerry Rubins Stick, Paul 572 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:41,439 Speaker 1: McCartney's partner, George and Ringo's leader, the World's beatle, Cynthia's ex, 573 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: Julian's absent father, Mimi's embarrassment, his mom's anxiety, his dad's abandonment. 574 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:52,440 Speaker 1: He was just John Yoko's husband, Sean's father, free but 575 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:58,000 Speaker 1: gone just when he'd found himself. And that's a disgrace. 576 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:18,760 Speaker 1: I'm Jay Brennan in this this Disgraceland. All right, thanks 577 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,920 Speaker 1: for checking out this episode of Disgraceland. On John Lennon's 578 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,680 Speaker 1: early solo days, the question of the week is, and 579 00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,919 Speaker 1: this is one of my favorite questions, which beatle had 580 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: the better solo career and why was it? John, Paul, George, Ringo, 581 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: Ringos making a country album right now? Let me know, 582 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,359 Speaker 1: and let me know your favee solo Beatles albums as well. 583 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,719 Speaker 1: Six one seven, nine oh six, six six three eight, 584 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,719 Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail, Send me a text let me know. 585 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,399 Speaker 1: You can also reach me at disgracelam pod as well 586 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,400 Speaker 1: as on Instagram, x and Facebook. Leave a review for 587 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,000 Speaker 1: the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and wins free 588 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,560 Speaker 1: merch All right, here comes some credits. Disgracelamd was created 589 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,759 Speaker 1: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. 590 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:00,960 Speaker 1: Credits for this episod so it can be found on 591 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,560 Speaker 1: the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're 592 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,600 Speaker 1: listening as a disgracelan All Access member, thank you for 593 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and if not, 594 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,759 Speaker 1: you can become a member right now by going to 595 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:17,680 Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com slash Membership. Members can listen to every 596 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,600 Speaker 1: episode of disgracelan ad free, plus you'll get one brand 597 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:26,240 Speaker 1: new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special 598 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit 599 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com slash membership for details, rate and review 600 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,440 Speaker 1: the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and 601 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:41,600 Speaker 1: Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com 602 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:50,680 Speaker 1: slash at disgracelampod rock a roll. He Thedann