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Today John and Yoko were interviewed at the Apple offices by journalist David Wigg, who sat down with all The Beatles at one time or another. The interview was later broadcast on the BBC Radio 1 show Scene and Heard.
Beatlesinterviews.org has a transcript here. In general it follows the standard pattern of Lennon/Ono interviews during this period, in which some established media figure adopts an attitude of smug superiority toward the nutty Beatle and his weird foreign wife. The Bed-In, in particular, seemed to infuriate people, as if the very idea of achieving something by lying down were an assault on civil society.
Wigg is less overtly hostile than some, but his skepticism is palpable:
David Wigg: But do you feel that growing your hair and lying in bed is a positive enough reaction? Don’t you think it’d be better if people went out and did something more positive.
John Lennon: That is a positive thing. (To Yoko) You tell him.
Yoko Ono: It’s very very positive. I mean, the fact that it stimulated other people to say that, like you said that, you know, this is the result of us doing it. You know, in other words, well, alright, let’s do something positive for peace. So we started that, you see. So in that sense it’s very very…
John: So you go out and do it. If we inspired you to do something positive, we say we’ve done something positive. You know, you say, “Well I can do better than that.” Do it. That’s the point.
Wigg: A lot of people also feel that if everyone goes to bed and stays in bed for a week or a few days for peace, as a protest for peace, the whole country will come to a standstill.
Lennon’s avowed pacifism was also a favorite target. Wigg asks,
If there was enough trouble and there was obviously going to be a war and you were asked to fight, John. Would you fight for your country?
And John answers:
I wouldn’t attack, no. I’d defend meself, probably, in a situation. But I wouldn’t attack. I’m a pacifist, you know.
After that the interview becomes more friendly, with Wigg quizzing J&Y about their relationship, drugs, India, and even corporal punishment (“The Beatles are treated like Britain’s children, you know,” says John). Things conclude on a philosophical note:
Wigg: What does life mean to you, John. Will it matter to you if it finished tomorrow or do you want to live to an old age?
John: I’d like to live to a ripe old age, with Yoko only, you know. And I’m not afraid of dying. I don’t know how it’d feel at the moment. But I’m prepared for death because I don’t believe in it. I think it’s just getting out of one car and getting into another.
Wigg: Do you ever go to church?
John: No, I don’t need to go to church, because church… I respect churches because of the sacredness that’s been put on them over the years by people who do believe. I think a lot of bad things have happened in the name of the church and in the name of Christ and therefore I shy away from church. And as Donovan once said, I go to my own church and my own temple once a day, you know. And I think people who need a church should go, and the others who know the church is in your own head should visit that temple, ’cuz that’s where the source is.
Preach, brother, preach.