John Lennon and Yoko Ono had been pivotal figures within the counterculture motion of the Nineteen Seventies. Their music not solely embraced the avant-garde, however additionally they pulled varied publicity stunts, equivalent to the bedridden anti-war protest. Lennon and Ono had been seen as controversial figures on sure sides of the political aisle, with many not pleased when the pair “hijacked” an American tv present in 1972.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono appeared in a number of episodes of ‘The Mike Douglas Present’ in 1972
After The Beatles resulted in 1970, Lennon totally dedicated to expressing his politics in his music. Whereas he had extra delicate and calm songs like “Think about,” he additionally had extra provocative and uncompromising songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” and “Energy to the Individuals”.
This made Lennon a not-so-popular determine amongst sure politicians, who didn’t need their countercultural model to rub off on the youth. Nonetheless, audiences obtained a wholesome dose of Lennon and Ono’s politics once they co-hosted 5 episodes of The Mike Douglas Present. Whereas organizing, they spoke on points like police brutality, the setting, and ladies’s empowerment.
In addition they introduced a number of important figures of the counterculture motion, equivalent to Chuck Berry musicianBlack Panther president Bobby Seale and comic George Carlin.
“We wished to do the applications to point out that we’re working for peace and love and in addition to vary the world, not with violence, however with love,” Ono defined in 1972. “And everybody we choose is collaborating in efforts to vary the world.”
Lennon and Ono’s co-hosting concert events are explored in a brand new documentary titled daytime revolution. Director Erik Nelson informed Selection that when the pair “hijacked the airwaves,” it turned a pivotal second within the Nineteen Seventies counterculture motion.
“It has develop into a cliché that Woodstock was the defining second of the counterculture,” Nelson shared. “After I watched these broadcasts of their entirety, I spotted that truly this week in 1972, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono primarily hijacked the airwaves and introduced the most effective minds and goals of their technology to the widest potential mass viewers in what was then known as ‘Central America,’ was so far as the counterculture might go. Not simply music, however a prophetic plan for the longer term we now reside in.”
The Nixon administration didn’t need Lennon to look on tv
It is protected to say that John Lennon and Yoko Ono weren’t followers of President Richard Nixon and vice versa. The previous Beatle and his spouse had been staunch anti-war activists, and Nixon did not need the American public to show in opposition to the Vietnam Struggle any greater than it already was. Nixon discovered in regards to the duo’s co-hosting duties and was strongly against them doing so.
“We heard that on February 4, simply 10 days earlier than these reveals had been to air, Senator Strom Thurmond went to Lawyer Basic John Mitchell and wished to warn the Nixon administration that John and Yoko had been about to take sides,” recalled EV Di Massa, affiliate producer for The Mike Douglas Present in 1972.
Nonetheless, Lennon and Ono co-hosted the present with none authorities interference, and it is fascinating to see simply how impactful one of many world’s largest music stars was on American politics.