I Met the Walrus_ How One Day With John Lennon Changed My Life Forever - Jerry Levitan [22]
JERRY: Do you know anything about [Canadian prime minister Pierre] Trudeau? Are you pleased with him?
JOHN: Trudeau seems okay. I don’t really know about him. I don’t know if he’s just another one of them. You can’t really tell you know. But his image seems better than the others. His image in Britain was okay. He was swinging and he wore a leather coat, that kind of thing, so I don’t know whether that’s just an image. He said on the air that he’d like to meet us, but he doesn’t know about his schedule. Now that’s either games that he’s playing or he means it. Well, we’ll find out and you’ll know by the time we’ve left here whether we saw him or not. If we saw him there’s a chance he’s okay, and if we don’t see him, you’ll know what games he’s playing.
JERRY: I’m not sure what he said. I think he said that you wanted to give him acorns to plant. And he said, “I’d like to meet him but I’m not sure about planting the acorns,” or something like that.
JOHN: Well, I just heard that, too, and he said he might not have time to plant the acorns. I don’t know what that means, Mr. Trudeau. How much time does it take to stick your finger in the soil? You know and if he’ll see us, we’ll explain to him how easy it is to plant acorns.
JERRY: You know if you see him, I’ve met him twice personally, and ever since then I started liking him, etc., and I like him. I think if you see him and talk to him, I think maybe then you probably could work out some answers.
JOHN: Yeah.
A collage of rare and never before seen photos taken by me and the Toronto Star photographer. I remember being struck by how attentive they were to each other. Jeff Goode/Toronto Star.
JERRY: Are you planning to stay in your bed-in for seven days in Montreal?
YOKO: Yes.
JERRY: What about Paul, Ringo, and what’s his name…
JOHN: George.
JERRY: George [laughing], what about them, are they peaceniks also?
JOHN: Yeah, they’re peaceniks also, like, we’re all four individuals, and George was saying to me just before I left on this that he’s with me all the way but he says he was feeling a bit guilty ’cause he wasn’t coming out shouting too. He says, “I’m different from you and you’ve always been the loudmouth and the talker.” And that’s my gig. George is doing it in his own way with the musicians and the people he meets and the way he goes about his life. It’s like that, you know. It’s no good shouting in the street corner “I want peace,” and then beating up your mate, you know. You’ve got to try to work your own head out and get nonviolent. It’s bloody hard because we’re all violent inside. We’re all Hitler inside and we’re all Christ inside, and it’s just to try and work on the good bit of you. It’s just convenient to live in peace, you know.
JERRY: Both of you produced a film called The Rape. Is it coming to Canada?
JOHN: We’ll show it as soon as we can. If we could get some kind of visa we might show it while we’re here.
JERRY: I saw when Magical Mystery Tour came to the O’Keefe, I was pretty much impressed and I was wondering if all four of you are planning on making any more films.
JOHN: We are. We just did a sort of documentary on the Beatles making an album, and it’s amazing to see what the hell we go through [laughter]. I don’t know how all this language is going to get through your school board. But it’s amazing to see all the stress and strain we go through to make an album. That’s a movie in itself. But to find a vehicle for four apes like us without making another Help! or A Hard Day’s Night is pretty tough going. So if we come up with something we’ll do it and if we don