Another Modern Moron Book Review

The music is in your mind, the mind is what we share, like sunshine and water. ("Who are the Plastic Ono Band? John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band") 

This gem of a picture book was acquired from the downtown Santa Rosa library and radiates wisdom from both John Lennon and Yoko Ono, among others. 

"As we look back on the 20th century, I think the legend of John and Yoko will stand out as something great. I think millions of people are going to benefit from what they did," Timothy Leary said. 

The Beatles were only together for ten years, and their music has embedded itself into the very heart of time. All four Beatles did it all in the realms of music, each member sang, wrote and played multiple instruments. 

Above picture is Paul and John in the Beatles last stadium concert at Candlestick Park, August 1966.

Some blame the breakup of the Beatles on John Lennon's lover Yoko Ono, and that she brain washed him, which is utter nonsense. Listen to his music, both from the Beatles and his solo works, and read about him to get the facts.

"Yoko taught me a lot about women, I was used to being served, like Elvis and a lot of the stars were. Yoko didn't buy that. What the fuck are the Beatles? I'm Yoko Ono, treat me as me...from the day I met her, she demanded equal time, equal space, equal rights. What do you want, a contract? I said. Don't impede my space. You can have anything you want, but don't expect anything from me, or change in anyway... She tells me the truth and its still painful," Lennon said. We simply thought the same way about things, love won, Yoko Ono said. People attacked her all the time, just for being with me, Lennon said.   

Above, John and Yoko in Bed-In for peace at Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, May, 1969. 

The Beatles gave the world everything they had (music) for ten years, what more do the people want from the f*****g Beatles, Lennon said in this book. 

"Performing as a Beatle is much harder than performing as John Lennon and Yoko Ono Plastic Band. My life with the Beatles had become a trap. If I hadn't said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas," Lennon said.

The two pictures above are John and Yoko performing as the Plastic Ono band, December, 1969 in London. 

To this very day, two of the surviving former Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Star are still doing live shows and putting out new music. John Lennon and George Harrison were also doing incredibly well before their lives were cut much too short. 

"John loved the Beatles. They were all such close friends and they all had strong individual personalities, that's why they made it so big, but by 1970, their egos and lives were all pointing in different directions," bassist and friend of the Fab Four, Klaus Voormann said. 

Both Lennon and Ono were strong advocates for peace, and their words in this book resonated extremely well to me in this book. You have to have peace, just give it a chance, Lennon said. Short, simple and true. 

Above photos, John and Yoko in their home in 1968. 

Everybody's talking about revolution, evolution, mass inflation, flagellation, regulations, integration, meditation, United Nations, congratulations! All we are saying is give peace a chance. ("Give Peace a Chance," 1969, John Lennon) 

There are ones who don't follow their instincts and went to Vietnam and got crippled or deformed and only woke up afterwards. They are the responsibility of the people who sent them there under an illusion, Lennon said in "Who are the Plastic Ono Band?" 

The establishment irritates you, pulls your beard, flicks your face to make you want to fight, because once they've got you violent, they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is nonviolence and humor, Lennon said. 

"No power outside can destroy you. You can destroy you by agreeing with them...nobody can destroy yourself, but you," Yoko Ono said.

 

Above, Yoko Ono. 

I merely scratched the edges of this captivating book and it's revealing words and cool pictures of John and Yoko from the 1960s and late 1970s, if not the very early 1980s, before John was slain by a sub-moronic sadistic idiot fuck. 

According to my math, John Lennon has done approximately 889 more hits of acid then myself, but some would claim we're both legally insane because we've dropped LSD more than seven times on seven different occasions. John was very candid about his drug use in this book, and it's clear, he was not a drug addict, but a drug user.

Lennon's humanity really shines in this book, he was not perfect, nor did he claim to be so in this book, and he was very open about his feelings of depression. 

"The so-called pain of the artist was always paid for by the freedom of the artist, John Lennon said. 

Four and a half stars easy for "Who are the Plastic Ono Band? John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band." 

Mark Izzy Schurr