I Met the Walrus_ How One Day With John Lennon Changed My Life Forever - Jerry Levitan [36]
John sang two more rock and roll classics, “Money” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” his “Yer Blues” from the Beatles’ White Album, and then premiered “Cold Turkey,” which would be released at the end of October 1969. For the second time I heard a John Lennon song for the first time, in his presence. He ended that set with “Give Peace a Chance.” “This is what we came here for,” he said, and got the audience to join in. Yoko was at his side throughout holding a microphone and adding sounds not found in the original recordings or anywhere else.
When John finished his set, everyone left the stage except for him and Yoko. He positioned himself behind her and did odd things with his guitar to the amplifier. It was as if he was stabbing it. It was Two Virgins/Life With the Lions experimental music. As one of the few in the audience who had listened to those albums, I was familiar with what they were doing. Not everyone was happy. The first song, “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand In the Snow)” clocked in at four minutes and forty-eight seconds and was the longest song performed. She topped it with “John, John Let’s Hope For Peace” that went on for twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds. In those days, concerts had nursing stations for people getting sick and having bad reactions to drugs. Throughout the concert an announcer would warn people about “some bad shit that was going around.” When Yoko did her thing, a guy next to me held his head in his hands and repeated, “Bummer, bummer.” I was ready to strangle him. He was ruining my concentration. I motioned for a policeman who was standing guard. He took one look at him and took him away to larger and more repeated yelps of “bummer, bummer.” I was relieved.
I had brought my brother’s Super 8 camera with me again. Though it was night, I was so close to the stage that I managed to get shots of John that I spliced together with a rudimentary editing machine (film was cut and then you used glue) and created one of the most unusual pop culture home movies of all time—John and Yoko interspersed with scenes of flowers from my mother’s garden, a roman candle going off, and a kitchen light being zoomed in and out became my personal documentary of the experience.
At one point John laid his guitar against the amplifier to a sustained feedback and they left the stage. Most of the crowd did not know what to do. They were stunned and had witnessed rock and roll history. John and Yoko treated the audience to rock and roll classics, a Beatles tune, “Give Peace a Chance,” and “Cold Turkey,” and then turned their performance upside down.
Sensing they were not coming back, I bolted for the press area inside the stadium. I had my pass and walked right in. The Capitol man told me that John was going to give a brief press conference in the locker room and took me there. A crowd of reporters was waiting for the Beatle as I climbed on top of a locker so I could have a good view. John and Yoko came in. He looked terrible. There was a greenish hue to his skin, and he looked frightened. Years later he would say that he was sick to his stomach from nerves at performing without the Beatles. At one point in the middle of a reporter’s question, he looked up at me. There was recognition on his face and he smiled. My heart skipped a beat as he whispered something to Yoko. He remembered me.
John left the Rock and Roll Revival exhilarated. He had performed his favorite songs, and some of his own songs, at a concert with his musical heroes. And he had done so without Paul, George, and Ringo. It gave him confidence to shake the burden the Beatles had become to him,