A fresh documentary offering an insight into the life of the late musician John Lennon features a phone call he made eight years before his tragic murder, which is eerily poignant in retrospect.
John Lennon remains an influential and groundbreaking figure from the 60s and 70s, and this new documentary revisits the highs and lows of his life.
While his music with The Beatles is widely known, fewer people are aware of the extent of his political activism during the 70s.
Titled One to One: John & Yoko, the documentary focusing on Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono’s relocation to New York, delves into the turbulent political atmosphere of the 1970s, showcasing previously unseen footage and phone conversations.
The film highlights the Free the People Tour, which Lennon had planned with activist Jerry Rubin, combining music and politics in a unique way.
However, you might not have heard about this tour because it was ultimately canceled.
The tour was designed to culminate at the Republican Convention in August 1972, with Lennon aiming to raise funds to bail out individuals who couldn’t afford it themselves.
One particularly haunting scene features a phone call between Lennon and drummer Jim Keltner, which is especially poignant considering Lennon’s subsequent fate.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a former security guard and YMCA employee, fatally shot Lennon as he and Yoko Ono were returning to their New York City apartment.
During the phone call, Lennon acknowledged the potential for violence due to his outspoken views.
Keltner asked him if he had ‘any paranoia’ about people attending the event, to which Lennon responded: “What people?.. You mean people trying to kill us or something like that? I’m not about to get myself shot.
“It’ll cause excitement in its own way. But, er, you know, I’m still an artist, but a revolutionary artist, right?”
Lennon later confessed to a journalist that he had become paranoid about being followed and had even started recording his own phone calls.
The documentary includes a conversation where he mentions: “We started noticing people hanging outside the apartment. And I have a driver, he’s an ex-cop. But we’re getting followed by this car, all the time.
“So we’re all very nervous.”