Latest / DISGRACELAND / John Lennon (Pt. 1): “John Lennon, I’m going to kill you, you phony bastard.”

Transcript

John Lennon (Pt. 1): “John Lennon, I’m going to kill you, you phony bastard.” · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. John Lennon is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: celebrated as a defiant icon of the peace and love generation.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: The smart beetle, a dedicated husband and doting father to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: his young son, whose life was tragically cut short by
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a bullet from a deranged fan. All of that is true,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and all of that is also untrue. John Lennon was
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a violent, philandering, absentee dad and drug and alcohol abusing,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: insecure mess of a man, whose life he left in
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the manipulative hands of his Machiavellian witch of a wife,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yoko Ono. A woman he truly loved, and who truly
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: loved him back. Throughout his life, he'd been fiercely independent,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But by the 70s, he would hardly make any move
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of consequence without first having his wife consult the complicated
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: cosmic algorithm of horoscopes, numerology, real-life oracles, and tarot cards.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: He was a longtime critic of the trappings of the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: material world, yet he empowered his wife to build a
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: financial empire through real estate, Egyptian art, and prized cattle,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and was prone to lavish $ 100, 000 shopping sprees on a whim.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He was one of the greatest musicians to ever record,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: yet after the Beatles, his records were marred by creative inconsistency,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and he'd ceded his place atop the charts to his
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: former bandmate, Paul McCartney. A thing that bothered him so
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: much that he avoided the radio for fear of hearing
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the cute Beatle blanketing the airwaves with silly love songs.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: He was a walking contradiction, complicated, simple, completely full of shit,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and totally true to himself all at the same time.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: But by 1980, John Lennon was reclaiming the better parts
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of himself and starting over, making great music again. That
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: music you heard at the top of the show, that
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from a
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Mellotron called Tango Moving Piano MK2. I played you that
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the license for Lady by
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Kenny Rogers. And why would I play you that specific
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: slice of sad sack country-politan cheese could I afford it?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: December 8th, 1980. And that was the day that a different, violent,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and insecure mess of a man emerged from the shadows
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: outside the Dakota apartments on West 72nd Street and shot
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: John Lennon down, ending the complex and wildly entertaining musician's life.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: On this episode, messy men, country-politan cheese, walking contradictions, and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a deadbeat I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Mr.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And Mrs.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Mark David Chapman, newlyweds residing on the 21st floor of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Honolulu's luxury Kukui Plaza apartment building, didn't do much socializing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And even less hosting.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Mark was intense, a big man, smart, articulate, at times compassionate,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but lately prone to sudden fits of rage filled with
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: bizarre proclamations picked up from trips down the John Lennon
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: rabbit hole he'd recently discovered. Hosting for the Chapmans was
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: an attempt at normal. Spam, musubi, appetizers, and Mai Tais
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: were on the menu, so Gloria Chapman concerned herself with
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: being a good hostess. But what was most on her
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: mind was her husband's behavior. It was a small group.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Two of their friends, a couple, were on their way over,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: and Gloria Chapman prayed that her husband would keep it
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: together and not embarrass her. It was early October 1980,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and Mark David Chapman was spiraling into madness and toward
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: an uncertain fate. But in the last few weeks, he'd
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: at least found a purpose. John Lennon is full of shit,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and he hasn't made anything worth a listen since The Beatles.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Now listen to that. That's music. Todd Rundgren's latest long player,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Defaced the Music, by his band Utopia, blared from Chapman's
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: new Pioneer XL turntable. The record player, like the record,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: was brand new. Mark had destroyed the old one a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: couple months back in a fit of rage. This was
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a superior record player anyway, and to Mark David Chapman,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Rundgren's satirical send-up of John Lennon on Defaced the Music
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: was superior to anything Lennon had released since the Beatles.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Todd Rundgren was the anti-Lennon. Rundgren had taken it upon
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: himself to speak truth to pop culture power. Todd Rundgren,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the immensely talented American musician and producer, had made a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: career out of pushing the limits of pop songs as
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: well as the limits of pop stardom. And to him,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: John Lennon had turned out to be a fraud, a fake,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: a fugazi. In the 60s, Lennon's songs and devil-may-care swing
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: at pop stardom had broken the mold. But in the 70s,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Lennon had proved to be ordinary, contented by his cult
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of personality, his limousine liberalism, and uneven post-Beatles creative output.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Rundgren believed that John Lennon had sold out the musical
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: promise of the Beatles for middle-age economic stability. He'd become
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: exactly what he'd once railed against as a young, angry,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: counterculture activist with a sharp wit and intoxicating primal scream.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Holed up in Manhattan's prestigious Dakota apartments with his army
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of servants and Macrobiotic dinners, champagne cocktails and cocaine appetizers,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: addicted to daytime television, and lording over a real estate
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: empire that included much of upstate New York and a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: good portion of southern Florida. For a Lennon fan like Rundgren,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: this all seemed a touch too passive, a touch too
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: safe for a one-time revolutionary and musical renegade. But hey,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: whatever gets you through the night. And Todd Rundgren hit
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the lethargic John Lennon where it hurt with The Face
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of the Music. The album was the latest haymaker in
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: a public round of spatting between Rundgren and Lennon. The
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: two had been going at it since the mid-70s, verbally
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: slapping each other back and forth in the pages of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Melody Maker. Lennon going so far as to contribute a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: historical op-ed entitled An Open Letter to Saad Runtelstuntel. But
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Rundgren got the best of Lennon. He deployed his favorite
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: weapons of choice against the ex-Beatle, music and satire. To
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: face the music, is incredibly witty and a pitch-perfect mockery
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of well-known Lennon-McCartney tropes meant to take the piss out
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of the sacred cow beetles. It is so expertly written
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and produced that it sounds like something the old John
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Lennon would have produced to take the piss out of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the new John Lennon. And because of this, it drove
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: John Lennon mad. Here was this little runt in upstate
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: New York doing John Lennon better than John Lennon. And
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: what the fuck? It was powerful stuff, and it fueled
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Mark David Chapman, who was in the market for a mark.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: So he locked into the anger and found his own
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: manic utopia in To Face the Music, and focused all
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: of his pent-up self-loathing on the former Beatle, whom he once,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: like Rundgren, idolized. Chapman had been following the Lennon-Rundgren beef
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: in the press, and despite his childhood love of the Beatles,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: he'd chosen to ride for Rundgren. Todd is God! Mark
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: closed his eyes and took in the music. It calmed him.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: It made him believe in something. Something real. It quieted
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the army of voices in his head. The voices that
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: told him he was nothing. A nobody. The voices that
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: told him this world was nothing more than a living
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: hell filled with phonies and charlatans. The voices that told
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: him to do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Do it. Gloria Chapman was on pins and needles. They'd
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: run out of rum and thus no more Mai Tais,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and probably just as well. But Mark was visibly growing
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: more and more agitated, pacing in front of his new
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: hi-fi that was pumping out Rundgren at high volume. Now
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: pulling off of a brown bagged can of Fosters, sweat
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: visible on his forehead, his nerdy glasses sliding down his
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: pasty white nose, his greasy bangs partially obscuring the manic
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: look in his eyes. I'm telling you, Todd Rundgren's music
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: is where it's at. Listen to that. Seriously, listen to that.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Mark was working himself into a lather. His friends, if
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: you could call them that, and they were more like acquaintances,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: looked on with mild amusement. Gloria was dying inside. She
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: knew where this routine was going, and it wasn't going
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: anywhere good. For the past few months, she'd been on
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the receiving end of her husband's rants against John Lennon,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and they nearly always ended with Mark erupting into violence
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and Gloria questioning his wellness. Mark rode the volume on
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the hi-fi. Listen to that! Can you feel it? Todd, man! Todd!
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Todd is God! The Chapman's guests were seated next to
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: each other on the loveseat, staring up at Mark, mild,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: slightly agape. The looks on their faces, a mix of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: shock and amusement. The volume of the music was now deafening.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Mark had stopped pacing for the moment and now stood
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: in front of the record player. He closed his eyes
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and brought his clap hands to his chest. His left
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: foot rooted firmly in the living room shag carpeting. He
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: attempted to raise his right foot to his inner thigh.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: The result was a sort of half-assed tree pose. The
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: music blared and now the Chapman's guests were openly laughing
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: at him. Mark was oblivious. a zenned-out nerd who'd finally
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: achieved class clown status, albeit from the comfort of his
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: own home, and with his audience laughing for all the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: wrong reasons. Mark Chapman kept his eyes closed in the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: vision to see a little people celebrating him, giving him
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a parade. Him, Mark David Chapman from Decatur, Georgia, now Oahu, Hawaii.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: He then felt a wave of happiness wash over him
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: with his next vision, a warm gun in the palm
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: of his hand. It was too much. He lost his
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: balance and teetered over into the hi-fi, knocking the needle
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: off the record. When the music stopped, Mark was jarred
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: back to reality by the sounds of his two guests
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: laughing at him and to the sight of his wife
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: staring at him. Not just embarrassed, scared. Mark lost it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The little people in his head erupted into a chorus
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of disapproval. The voices were non-stop now, deafening. The world
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: went black. He felt it moving just beyond his thoughts
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: but saw nothing. Blackness. He heard familiar voices on the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: other side, but couldn't make out what they were saying,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and they quickly trailed off into the distance. Then, a
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: high-pitched ringing sound pierced through him, bringing with it a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: torrent of rage. He felt it well up in his chest.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: His ears burned. Loud thuds penetrated the piercing ring and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the chattering voices in his head. He could feel himself spinning. Faster. Faster.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Loud thuds continuing to break through. He felt his hands.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: They were wet with something. Blood. The thudding sounds came
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: into focus. They sounded familiar now, like flesh smacking up
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: against something unforgiving. The sound of each new thud brought
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: fresh pain, not emotional pain, physical pain. And as the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: pain grew, the blackness faded. Mark noticed a pinprick of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: light and held focus on it. The spinning started to stop,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and the pinprick expanded, and Mark followed the light, and
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the thuds continued until it was all he could hear.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: No more voices. No more darkness. Blood was all he
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: could see. He followed the sight of the blood out
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: of the darkness, and it covered the wall of his bathroom.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: He felt throbbing pain in his hands and looked down
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: at them. They looked more like two country hams than
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: they did hands, bloodied and beaten to a pulp from
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: repeated blows to his bathroom wall. The sight of them
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: sickened Mark with shame. He closed his eyes and again
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: saw the gun in his hand, felt that warm feeling
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: of happiness, and promptly passed out cold on his bathroom floor.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: When Mark David Chapman came to, he found himself sitting
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: alone on his bedroom floor in the lotus position. He'd
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: quieted the voices in his head and crawled out of
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the blackness. Hell, he even managed to somehow bandage his hands.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And now, now his world was calm. The record player
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in his room, this one was one of those portable
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: suitcase numbers with the built-in speaker, was playing the Beatles' Sgt.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But not at the normal speed.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Mark had sped it up to 45 RPM, and at
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: this increased speed, the record sounded less like the Beatles
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and more like the voices in Mark's head. Manic, intense, insane.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Mark closed his eyes, took it all in, and began
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: chanting his new mantra. John Lennon, I'm going to kill you,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you phony bastard. John Lennon, I'm going to kill you,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you phony bastard. John Lennon, I'm going to kill you,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you phony bastard. John Lennon, I'm going to kill you,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you phony bastard. We'll be right back after this word, word, word.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: John Lennon started to come unhinged in 1965. Unlike his bandmates,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the consummate professional and people pleaser Paul McCartney, or the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: soulful George Harrison, or the comical Ringo Starr, John Lennon
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: had deep, dark, Demons. Beatles fans got their first peek
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: at these demons with the release of the song Help
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: in 1965. The song, from Lennon's perspective, was a literal
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: cry for help. Fame had driven the young star into
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a corner of self-doubt and alienation, and he was searching
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: for a way out through his music. And luckily for
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Lennon's fans, this search would continue throughout his tenure in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the Beatles, and the result would be some of the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: greatest music ever made. But before Lennon called out the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: walrus or Lucy in the sky, he called out Jesus Christ.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: In an interview with the London Evening Standard, John Lennon,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: in an offhand remark, said, quote, Christianity will go. We're
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: more popular than Jesus. I don't know which will go first,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: his disciples were thick and ordinary. The blowback was intense,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: especially in America. Fans burned Beatles records. American DJs organized
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: boycotts and protests at the band's concerts. Lennon didn't understand
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: what all the fuss was about and did his best
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: to explain himself, but the damage was done. The word
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: was out. These weren't just four lovable mob tops singing
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: about teenage innocence anymore. And the outrage over Lennon's Christ
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: comments proved to be child's play compared to the backlash
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: over Lennon's involvement with Yoko, the witch. John Lennon left
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: his wife, Cynthia, and their young son Julian for avant-garde
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: artist Yoko Ono in 1968. Yoko had designed her hostile
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: takeover of the Lennons in order to climb through the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: ranks of the international pop world. Being seen on the
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: arm of John Lennon meant prestige, power, and instant fame.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Ono was heavy with ambition and light and talent. In 1965,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Andy Warhol commented to filmmaker Paul Morrissey that the shameless
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: self-promoter Yoko Ono was, to his great annoyance, quote, always around,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: always copying someone else's art. But by 1968, it didn't matter.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Yoko had cast John Lennon under her spell completely, and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: he was hopeless. Andy Warhol in his 15 minutes could
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: go pound sand. Ono had herself a real-life Beatle and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a lifetime of fame and fortune on the horizon. The
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: tabloids eventually got wind of their affair, And for fans,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: news of their favorite Beatle leaving his perfect family for
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: someone they saw as a no-talent gold digger did not
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: sit well. John and Yoko didn't care. They submerged themselves
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: into the gooey haze of new love, lived on a
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: diet of champagne, caviar, and heroin, and moved in together
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: into Jimi Hendrix's old flat at Montague Square. Almost immediately,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: things went south. In the early morning hours of October 18th, 1968,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: John Lennon received a call from a Beatles fan employed
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: by London's corrupt drug squad. The inside man tipped John
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: off that his flat was about to be raided by
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the notorious detective Norman Pilcher. John, naked and in a
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: haze from the previous night's party, sprung from bed, threw
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: on a robe, and immediately freaked the fuck out. He
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: began rummaging through the house to find and dispose of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: any and all dope and paraphernalia. The place previously being
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: lived in by Hendricks had John particularly nervous. Who knew
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: which nook or which cranny Jimmy had squirreled his stash
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: away in? Heroin, LSD, cocaine, hashish, marijuana, morphine, phenmetrazine, benzadrine,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: all the amphetamines were eventually rounded up by John while
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Yoko barked out orders from Ben. Then, at 11.55 a.m.,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the doorbell. John was midway through furiously flushing his stash
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: down the toilet. His anxiety spiked. Yoko went for the door.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: John hovered above the toilet, shaking a bag of heroin away.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Called out in his best old lady voice, Who is it?
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Yoko did the same, but with considerably less humor. And
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a female voice from the other side of the front
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: door said it was the postal service with a package.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Yoko opened the door a crack, peeked through, realized the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: woman was no postal worker, and immediately slammed the door
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: shut and took off back toward John in the bathroom.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Yoko was screaming, John, the police! John, the police! John
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: was shouting to Yoko, call the solicitor. Cops were now everywhere,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: leering in through the windows, yelling to John and Yoko
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to let them in. John stalled by yelling out that
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: he demanded to see a warrant, all the while continuing
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to flush more and more drugs down the toilet. Eventually,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: after John was satisfied that all the drugs were disposed
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of and a warrant was produced, and he was able
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to take the piss out of the situation by pantomiming
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: a read-through of the document, John allowed the police to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: search the flat. But despite his best efforts, authorities were
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: still able to turn up hashish, weed, amphetamines, and a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: half gram of morphine. John and Yoko were busted. London's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: favorite son had fallen from grace, first over Jesus, now
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: over this witch. It got worse. Following the arrest, John
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and Yoko decided they were to get married in Gibraltar,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: near Spain. They drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: talked in their beds for a week. The newspaper said
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the witch had gone to his head. On April 10th, 1970,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: approximately 11 months after John and Yoko's bed-in honeymoon, the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Beatles broke up. For Londoners, this was the final nail
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in Yoko's coffin. Breaking up a family? Oh well, rock
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: stars can be so fickle. It comes with the territory.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Drug bus? That's just part of the game, ain't it? Bagism?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: The fuck was bagism about anyway? It doesn't matter. But
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: breaking up the Beatles? That was an unforgivable offense. London
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: had grown hostile to Yoko, so the couple moved to America.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: And for Lennon, thus began an epic, years-long creative stumble
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: marred by semi-inspired, inconsistent musical releases that, despite their near misses,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: did more for his fame than for his artistry. The
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Ono Lenins loved America, particularly New York City, and New
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: York City loved them right back. A virtual cavalcade of healers, seekers, revolutionaries,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: drug dealers, prophets, and fools all lined up to welcome
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: John and Yoko and to milk them of their celebrity
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to promote their own pet causes. And the Ono Lenins
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: allowed themselves to get swept up in the hippy-dippy madness
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: out on the fringes. They donated their time to freeing
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the revolutionary and MC5 manager John Sinclair from prison, who
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was unfairly sentenced to 10 years for selling two joints
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to an undercover cop. They became enamored of the violent
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: revolutionary group, the Weather Underground, and of course, they partied,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: took lots of drugs, and made music. And eventually, the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: relationship morphed from 24-7 love-in to a more traditional partnership.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Yoko took control of the finances, and strategically plotted all
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: professional moves, creative and otherwise, and John did, well, whatever
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the hell he wanted, provided Yoko said it was okay.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But by 1973, the relationship was hitting the skids. Yoko
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: was restless and eager to ignite an affair with either
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: one or both of her gay interior decorators, or possibly
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: her new guitar player. But Yoko wasn't looking for anything serious,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: just a dalliance, a break from her husband, who despite
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: being the biggest rock star on the planet, was super needy,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and required Yoko to be more of a mother than
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a lover. Hold up for a second. I know the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: rock star needing to be mothered thing is exactly the
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: same as the Sid and Nancy dynamic from episode 2
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of Disgraceland, but I swear, it's 100% true with John
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and Yoko, and totally freaky, and look it up for yourself.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: In any event, the mothering took its toll on Yoko.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: She didn't want to leave John. She couldn't leave John.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Going out on her own and starting over, financially and creatively,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: was out of the question. But she needed a break.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: So she decided to send John away. Out of her
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: hair and away from New York City to Los Angeles.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: But setting a man like John Lennon loose into the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: wilds of 1973 LA was a bad idea. He needed
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: a minder. Someone to keep him tethered to his life
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: back with Yoko in Manhattan. So, Yoko, the good wife,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: decided to give her husband, John, a going-away present. A girlfriend.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Mei Pang, the Lennon's 23-year-old assistant, in Yoko's mind would
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: make for the perfect pawn. She was young, attractive, scrappy,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and easily manipulated. Plus, Yoko knew John was eager to
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: jump in the sack with her. Yoko saw the way
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: John ogled her. Mei Pang, a woman of Chinese descent
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: from Spanish Harlem, was like the bizarro world Yoko. She
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: was funny, lacking in airs, unrefined, and came with a
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: thick outer borough accent and sexy downtown look. Compared to Yoko,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: she wasn't so heavy. To John, Yoko was the anvil,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Mae was the feather. Plus, the young impressionable music fanatic
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: was in love with John the Beatle. However, at first,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Mae didn't take to the idea of accompanying John to L.A.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: for an undetermined amount of time. She may have been
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: secretly in love with her hero, but she had a conscience.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: The dude was married, and two were boss. But Yoko's
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: pitch was delicate, and despite being kind of icky, it
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: was convincing. Eventually, May caved, and when her and John
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: consummated their new relationship, the sex, clumsy and forced at first,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: quickly became quite the opposite. John and Yoko's sex life
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: had gone cold years ago, but now, with May, John
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: was insatiable, and May, for her part, genuinely cared for John,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and thus, the sex was dynamite. So John Lennon and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: May Pang decided to get lost together. And for a weekend, anyway.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: A weekend in the City of Angels. A weekend that
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: would be filled with sex, drugs, rock and roll, and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: lots of violence. A weekend that would last approximately one
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: year and six months. A Lost Weekend. Thanks for checking
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: out part one of John Lennon in Disgraceland. Part two
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: is available now in your feeds. Disgraceland was created by
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership. Members
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad-free. Plus, you'll
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: get one brand new exclusive episode every month.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: to merchandise and events. Visit DisgracelandPod.com slash membership for details.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: and Facebook at DisgracelandPod. And on YouTube at YouTube.com slash
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: at DisgracelandPod.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Rock and roll up. He's a bad, bad man. All right.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: This goes, what'd you think of this John Lennon episode?
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Let me know. Give us a call. 617-906-6638. Voicemail and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: text at DisgracelandPod on the socials. Coming up next in Disgraceland,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: part two of our John Lennon story. Right now. Don't
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: go anywhere.