One to One: John & Yoko: As They Really Were

My wife and I just finished watching One to One: John and Yoko, the 2024 documentary, 141 minutes, comprised of never-seen-before and newly restored footage, of John and Yoko and others, singing and talking, now on HBO.  It takes place mostly in New York City, in the early 1970s.   For all kinds of reasons, I thought it was one of most powerful, effective documentaries I've ever seen.

Here are some of the reasons, in no particular order:

• Yoko has a beautiful singing voice.  I don't know why, but just about everything I've heard her sing up until One to One has Yoko wailing, often off-key.  But that obviously was a deliberate performance.   In fact, she was a fine, sensitive singer.
• Speaking of performances, I always thought John and Yoko's interlacing campaigns for peace, justice, women's rights, and just plain decency were some combination of real commitment and performative art.  I thought the real commitment was most of it, but after seeing One to One, I think it was all of it.  John Lennon may have wanted to have hit records in the 1970s, but they were all on behalf of deeply worthy causes.
• And Lennon's singing sounded better than ever.  His performance at the One to One Concert put on to help kids at Willowbrook and kids with other disabilities was dynamite magic, at least as good as what he sounded like with The Beatles, with songs ranging from "Mother" to "Give Peace a Chance" and of course "Imagine" with lyrics that were more profound and important than anything The Beatles sang (as brilliant as so many of their songs are).
• The documentary makes John and Yoko's love for New York palpable. It pulsates through the screen.

But that brings me to the end of the movie, which rolls with the joy that Lennon felt when he beat the deportation charges that Nixon brought against him (Nixon, the worst American President until he was usurped by the current holder of that office).  But we who lived past the end of 1980 know that this celebration of a happy ending was tragically premature.  The bullets that One to One showed crippling George Wallace in his Presidential campaign in 1972 would go on in 1980 to take the life of John Lennon.  The same bullets, in as much as they shouldn't have gotten into the guns that got in the hands of the sicko psychos who pulled the triggers.  This was America.  It still is.

But that's another true story.  For tonight, my advice is see this documentary, and learn who John Lennon and Yoko Ono really were.

Further reading:

• “A Vote for McCartney” my first published article (1971, in The Village Voice)

• my review of Rob Sheffield’s book Dreaming the Beatles (I review every chapter!)

• my review of Billy J. Kramer’s book Do You Wanna Know a Secret?

• my thoughts about The Beatles’ Now and Then

• “The Beatles and Podcasts” my essay in the Journal of Beatles Studies

• my review of John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial

• my review of Beatles: 64

• my review of Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back (I review all three parts)

• my 2024 novel, It’s Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles

Audio:

• “It’s Real Life” radio adaptation of the first chapter of the novel … here’s the radioplay on Killerwatt Radio … here’s the audiobook

• my appearance on the Rock Is Lit podcast

• check out the Rock Talk Studio podcast

Videos:

John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial: Short in a Variety of Ways, But Still Worthwile

Today is the 43rd anniversary of John Lennon's assassination.  The older I get, the more clear I am that Lennon's murder, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, are the two most deforming events of the history that has taken place in my life.  And of the two, Lennon's was the worst, since he was one of the most wondrous singer-songwriters who ever lived, which I think is more rare that even a great President.

Given all of that, how I could I not watch this short documentary that went up two days ago on Apple TV+.   Short -- three episodes, that added up to less than three hours.  I would have much rather spent that time re-watching any part of Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back.  But I felt I had no choice.

Was it worth it?  Well, here are the highlights of what most struck me about this documentary:

1. MKUltra, the CIA operation 1953-1973 that drugged, hypnotized, and otherwise abused subjects without their knowledge to do its bidding, may have played a role in Lennon's assassination.  More specifically, it's implied/suggested that  John Lennon's assassin may have been hypnotized and more by the CIA.  This is the second time MK-Ultra has come up in documentaries I've watched/listened to in the past few weeks.  The excellent Who Killed JFK? podcast with Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien is exploring the role that MK-Ultra may have had in that assassination.  And unlike John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, the JFK podcast goes beyond mere suggestions and offers some evidence.

2.  The assassin of John Lennon said he killed him to get more people to read The Catcher in the Rye.  The documentary tells us the shooter who attempted to kill Ronald Reagan under four months later had a copy of that very novel in his hotel room.  But the documentary gives that no further consideration. Was the novel figuring in the life of one assassin and the life of a would-be assassin just a coincidence?  I'd say, probably not.  So does that novel have some kind of monstrous effect on vulnerable minds, on the psyches of people who are mentally ill?  I'd say, also probably not.  The most the likely explanation for Catcher in the Rye being in the lives of the two shooters is that the second was sickly inspired by the first.  But that's just logical -- the documentary provides no evidence of that.

3. If you're interested in alternate history -- which I very much am -- Lennon's record producer, Jack Douglas, provides an exquisitely heartbreaking example.  He tells us that he'd usually go back with John and Yoko from the recording studio to the Dakota, I guess to talk over what they'd done that night, or were planning to do the next night, or whatever.  On that night, the night that Lennon was murdered, Douglas did not go back to the Dakota. He's sure that if he'd seen the assassin lurking, Douglas would have done something, "tackle" that "nutcase," anything, to prevent the beyond obscenity that occurred.  A day hasn't gone by since then that Douglas hasn't raked himself over the coals for not being in the limo that night with John and Yoko.

4. Yoko Ono correctly points out that John likely wouldn't have been killed by an assailant with just a knife, and says point blank that John's death was due to a lack of gun control in the United States.  The insane, mounting number of shootings in the United States with every passing year couldn't make Yoko's message any more timely.  Just yesterday, three people were shot to death at a university in Las Vegas.  These shootings which seem to be happening now almost weekly or more often are the fault not only of the person who pulled the trigger but every US Senator and Representative who has steadfastly stopped sensible gun control, over and over again.

Indeed, though Kiefer Sutherland's voice as narrator was very effective as it always is, and  the lawyers and the police and the other people who played a role in the aftermath of John Lennon's assassination were interesting and sometimes crucial to see and hear from, the five or so minutes that Yoko was on the screen is what most made John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial worth watching.  Most of that comes near the end.  Will that make it worthwhile viewing for you?   I guess that depends, more than anything, on how much tolerance you have for another dose of horror and grim understanding that cuts through your soul.

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Here's an alternate history story about The Beatles that might make you feel a little better.

Review of Rob Sheffield’s Dreaming the Beatles 23 of X: Near the Science Fiction Shop

It’s been more than two months since I’ve read a chapter and posted a review (really more my commentary than proper review, whatever exactly that is) of Rob Sheffield’s wonderful Dreaming the Beatles. The main reason, as I’ve said here before, is that I don’t want the dream to ever end. But you can’t put off the inevitable forever, and The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM Radio with DJs like Peter Asher, Dennis Elsas, Laura Cantrell, and Meg Griffin is pretty good consolation.  I listen to the channel every day, still manage to hear a song I haven’t heard in decades once or twice a week, and am still learning new things about fame and music.  (For some reason having nothing to do with this review, “Honey Pie” which I heard yesterday is still in my head today.  So is “It’s Only Love,” but I know the reason for that, it’s one of the best love songs ever written and sung, even though Lennon said otherwise.)

And that’s as good a segue as I’ll give you for the first of the last three chapters in Dreaming the Beatles, this one about the immediate aftermath of John Lennon’s murder.  Sheffield explores this by looking at the effect of that beyond-tragedy on Yoko and Paul, and relating this to his own experience as a widower, and how it immediately gave him a kinship with Yoko.  Here we get another facet of Sheffield’s peerless writing - quiet and deeply effective and intensely personal when it needs to be.

Sheffield once passed Yoko on the street - not far from where the Science Fiction Shop used to be, which,  as fate would have it,  I just had occasion to write about a few weeks ago.  Meetings like this have a science fictional aspect wherever they happen to occur.  Rob and Yoko exchanged big smiles, even though he wasn’t sure at the time she was Yoko.

I said a few months ago on Twitter that I get tears in my eyes every time I hear John sing “Oh Yoko,” which I had just heard then on The Beatles Channel. There is a magic in New York City, and I’ll always love living here, but there is pain here, too, and always will be, because of what happened to John at The Dakota.  I’ve tried to change that reality in my science fiction - but, after all, that’s just fiction.

But Rob crossed paths with Yoko in reality, and that will live forever, too - like The Beatles, The Beatles Channel, and this book.

See also Review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles 1 of X: The Love Affair ... 2 of X: The Heroine with a Thousand Faces ... 3 of X: Dear Beatles ... 4 of X: Paradox George ... 5 of X: The Power of Yeah ... 6 of X: The Case for Ringo ... 7 of X: Anatomy of a Ride ... 8 of X: Rubber Soul on July 4 ... 9 of X: Covers ... 10 of X: I. A. Richards ... 11 of X: Underrated Revolver ... 12 of X: Sgt. Pepper ... 13 of X: Beatles vs. Stones ... 14 of X: Unending 60s ... 15 of x: Voting for McCartney, Again ... 16 of x: "I'm in Love, with Marsha Cup" ... 17 of X: The Split ... 18 of X: "Absolute Elsewhere" ... 19 of X: (Unnecessary but Brilliant) Defense of McCartney ... 20 of X: "All Things Must Pass" ... 21 of X: Resistance ... 22: The 70s Till the End ... 24 of 24: The Last Two

And here's "It's Real Life" -- free alternate history short story about The Beatles, made into a radio play and audiobook and winner of The Mary Shelley Award 2023

"Ian, Isaac, and John" and "Saving Lennon" in this antho

Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko

Well, the best line in Fringe 3.16 came from Walter, early in the show, when he tells us that he slept with Yoko Ono back in the 1970s.  Second best line was also from Walter, who briefly mentions "powdered water" (but no credit given to comedian Stephen Wright, who as far as I know came up with the idea - "I bought some powdered water," Wright used to laconically say, "but I didn't know what to add".)

As for the story tonight, it didn't have much relevance to our central stories, until the very end.  A scientist has developed a way to make people float in the air.  He thinks it's because he discovered what happens when you mix together two rare elements.   A pretty good classic-style science fiction tale.   But Walter brings it back to the central predicament - the impending war between the realities - when he realizes that the floating effect is not the result of the two elements, but of the disintegration of our reality due to the tear Walter made between the two realities, when he kidnapped Peter.

Peter and Olivia now seem happy enough together, but the support of their relationship by Walter and now Nina is a little much.   I was almost sensing something between Walter and Nina, but then remembered that Nina had and maybe has something going on with Broyles.   What's going on with that?

As for Olivia, she's taken over, in the end, by William Bell, whose soul is summoned here like ringing a bell - in this case, by Walter, literally ringing one in Nina's office.   I hope this bell is ringing in a series of Fringe episodes that concentrate more on the deeper, underlying stories.   These make the show really fly.

See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee  ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia

See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ...  New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22:  Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best

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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Remembering John Lennon

I just heard John Lennon's "Woman" on the radio, and, as always, it brought a tear to my eyes and soul.

It's impossible, on one level, to compare assassinations, the murders of public figures. They are all horrendous. But the murder of John Lennon on this date in 1980 is in some ways the worst for me, and I can't speak for my generation.

John was a singer, a songwriter, for God's sake, not a President or someone running for office. His murder was fueled by a sick thirst for fame, pure and simple. That's why I never mention the sicko monster's name.

But this day - and public murders in the quest for fame - also makes me think about gun control. The killer in Omaha this week was looking for fame, too.

I know about the Second Amendment. And as an absolutist on the First Amendment, which I think should be followed literally, with no government restrictions on speech or press, all of the time, I want to do the same for Second Amendment.

But I can't help thinking that John Lennon might have survived a knife attack, and fewer people might have succumbed to the killer in Omaha had he been armed with only a knife.

I'll think more about those issues tomorrow.

Today, let me just say, John, I always loved your music and always will. It brings me joy to this day to hear anything you wrote or sang - from "Dr. Robert" to "Jealous Guy," just two of my all-time favorites.

And Yoko - thank you, too, for being so strong and dignified and unswerving in your commitment to peace all of these years. John would have been very proud of you.

I write about time travel in my fiction. If only it were real, and I could employ it, I think the first thing I would do is go back and save John, and warn him not to go into that alley....

I can't do that, but at least his music doesn't need saving. It will be here forever on CDs and MP3s and whatever new forms of music media invented by our species.