Listen to John Lennon’s vision of heaven
Dec 3 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post
John Lennon and Yoko Ono with their children, Julian and Sean, on holiday at Durness, in Sutherland, Scotland _220
Those were among the words delivered to Ken, a window-cleaner’s son, as he sat on the same bed as John and Yoko, tape-recording the scoop of his life.
Now a three-minute extract from that interview can be heard for the first time on earphones at the Lennon section of the Beat Goes On exhibition at the World Museum, Liverpool.
Ken, 70, offered it for sale through Christie’s, the auctioneers, and the museum bought it for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Ken had been freelancing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As the conversation with the couple developed over three tape-changes and a cup of coffee, Ken hoped that he had the material for a full-length documentary. He had. But, in the whirl of daily news, only a few minutes of it was used in a bulletin.
In time, Ken put the tapes away and forgot about them. The moment had gone, as it does in a life dedicated to bulletins and deadlines, the comings and goings of people.
But let’s go back to 1969 – the height of the hippie era. John Lennon had accepted the role as the spokesman for a new generation, breaking away from the old values. At 29, he was already a venerated figure.
Ken was roaming around Montreal, where he was living, looking for stories and contacts. At about midnight, he received an anonymous tip that John and Yoko had booked in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. At the time, they couldn’t enter the USA because of his drug convictions in Britain.
“As soon as I got up the next morning, I went straight round there,” recalls Ken, now from Saltash, Cornwall, during a visit to the museum. “I asked to see them and eventually talked to Derek Taylor (then The Beatles’ publicity officer). I think he remembered me from coverage of Ringo’s honeymoon in Hove, Sussex. He said that they’d give me five minutes, so I went in. I did the five minutes, but we struck it off so well. It was flowing beautifully.”
Ken said that was all he needed for the news bulletin, but he invited them to continue the interview for a possible documentary about their “bed-in”. They agreed.
“John was wearing pyjamas and Yoko was in a nightdress,” says Ken. “They were preparing to do the bed-in, but hadn’t yet started it.
“In the tape, John admits that he and Yoko had fights, but he said he was addicted to her. He said that they were both very shy people, timid really, it had taken a few meetings to break the ice.”
