An interview by Steve Turner 1971 We came together to talk about Grapefruit, Yoko's book of poems, and ended up talking about Jesus. Somewhere in between, we mentioned the Beatles. John and Yoko are currently facing the plight of 'super-stardom'. Within two weeks they had become the third set of artists I had met who were complaining of being sold as people rather then for their art or for their music. James Taylor was the first, complaining of being used only as a headline or a photograph to sell more newspapers, and Pete Townsend was equally determined that "he won't get fooled again" into being a "superstar". "Being misunderstood", John explained, "is being treated as if I'd won the pools and married an Hawaiian dancer. In any other country we're treated with respect as artists, which we are. If I hadn't bought a house in Ascot I'd leave because I'm sick of it. It's only because it's such a nice house that I'm staying. I'm a fantastic patriot for Britain. Ask Yoko - I never stop selling it! But she finds it hard to love England when they never stop shitting on her." Yoko feels very much the same way and is waiting rather apprehensively for the response to the paperback edition of Grapefruit. She's been feeling misunderstood for the past fifteen years and has come to the conclusion that she must be the supreme optimist to ever carry on. "I just get this feeling that it's going to be the same thing again, but I have to go on knocking on the door." John says: "An artist is not usually respected in his own village, so he has to go to the next town. It's a bit of that with us really. I think it's also like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan - they both died of drink. Artists always die of drugs, drink and all that. Like Jimi and Janis -it's just that they're so misunderstood and tortured that they kill themselves. I refuse to do that. I've found the way out. You are here, live for the day, minute by minute. That's the essential way." "You are here", meaning that this is all we can know of life's purpose, is the pervading message behind the art of both John and Yoko, The message is short but conclusive. In his song God, John lists fifteen people and philosophies that he no longer believes in and claims that he has now arrived at a position where he only believes in, "Yoko and me/that's reality". When I asked him what he considered reality to be, he answered, "Reality is living, breathing, eating and dying". So, outside of the undeniable fact of our own existence they claim that there is no need for questions or answers. As far as any ultimate reason, purpose or meaning to this life is concerned, John states, "There isn't an end product to life or a reason for it, it just is, It's not a game, though," he assured me, "it's very serious." "You are here", is the statement they offer, and "what you can do while you are here" seems to be the message behind Yoko's poetry. They all take the form of a simple instruction, often of a single line and are divided into sections titled Painting, Event, Dance, Film, Object etc. When life itself has no meaning, there is no reason why the activities we perform during that life should have any ultimate meaning either. This would seem to be the philosophy behind the poem Line Piece, which says "Draw a line/Erase a line" or Map Piece - "Draw a map to get lost". Probably the best poem in this line, once you have an understanding of the underlying philosophy, is the one line ‘Lighting Piece‘. Here it is important to see both the meaninglessness inherent and the allegory between the match and our lives. The poem says simply "Light a match and watch till it goes out" Without purpose we seem to have been brought down to the level of a matchstick, and our lives are as a flame which burns awhile and then extinguishes. The matchstick is then discarded. Yoko of course, is no newcomer to the art world having been associated with such avant-garde artists and musicians as Andy Warhol and John Cage. Warhol has explained his own art as being, "to stop you thinking about things". Francis Bacon, another contemporary artist who shares the same philosophy, has said, "Man now realises that he is an accident, a completely futile being and that he can only attempt to beguile himself for a time. Art has become a game by which man distracts himself." In these cases, art has lost its power of Man communicating ideas and emotions to Man. It merely becomes a game to amuse ourselves with while in death's absurd waiting rooms. I feel that it is absolutely necessary to understand the thoughts of John and Yoko before their art becomes understandable. "People seem to be scared of being put on", says John, commenting on a recent review of Grapefruit."I don't understand people who say they don't understand it

British postcard , nr. 174. Photo: Capitol Films. British actor Ralph Lynn (1882-1962) was a tweedy, dark-haired comedian who made a stage career out of playing monocled silly ass twits. He was a veteran performer of London's highly popular Aldwych Repertory Theatre farces, and he and fellow members Tom Walls and Robertson Hare successfully took many of their stylized productions to the big screen in the 1930’s. Ralph (pronounced as Rafe) Lynn was born in Manchester, England, in 1882. His elder brother, Gordon James (born Sydney Lynn), would also become an actor and appear in several films with him. Ralph began his acting career in Wigan in 1900 in King of Terrors. After years spent touring regional theatres and a spell in America he made his West End debut in 1915 at the Empire theatre in By Jingo. He joined the popular London Aldwych Theatre, which specialized between 1925 and 1933 in a series of light social comedies. Lynn always played the monocled silly ass. Most of these farces were produced by Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn and written by Ben Travers. They were always performed in the Aldwyn Theatre in London's the Strand, and became immensely popular. The three regular main players - Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn and J. Robertson Hare – became popular stars. During the 1930’s Ralph Lynn, Walls and Robertson Hare successfully took their very English productions to the cinema. The first of the Aldwych Theater farces to hit the screen was the frantically hilarious Rookery Nook/One Embarrassing Night (1930, Tom Walls). The title refers to a country house where Gerald Popkiss (Ralph Lynn) heads for a good long rest, but then the complications and the fun begin… Hall Erickson notes in All Movie Guide: “Best bits include the lifeboat drill presided over by the scatterbrained Poppy Dickey (Doreen Bendix) and such dialogue exchanges as ‘I'm a man of peace’/ ‘You'll be a man of pieces in a minute’. Filmed exactly like a photographed stage play, Rookery Nook is hardly an advance in the art of the cinema, but that doesn't stop it from being unbearably funny.” For the rest of the decade, nearly all of Travers' classic farces were filmed. Lynn appeared in such farces as A Chance of the Night-Time (1931, Herbert Wilcox, Ralph Lynn) opposite Winifred Shotter. Hal Erickson reviews A Chance of the Night-Time thus: “It's Ralph Lynn's show all the way, and he makes the most of every comic opportunity. It would be nice to say that the film's production values were on the same level as the star's performance -- nice, and untrue.” Lynn sometimes also co-wrote the scripts or co-directed. For instance, he co-wrote the script of Tons of Money (1931, Tom Walls), in which he played an eccentric inventor opposite Walls and Robertson Hare. Producer Michael Balcon wooed Tom Walls away from rival Herbert Wilcox to sign a contract with Gaumont-British. The three Aldwych Theatre farceurs combined forces again in The Cuckoo in the Nest (1933, Tom Walls), and Fighting Stock (1935, Tom Walls). Janet Moat describes on BFI Screenonline how director Walls worked: “Walls was a major theatrical figure and insisted not only on directing the films himself but also on having the choice and approval of both story and cast. This led to disputes with Balcon for a number of reasons, not least the fact that Walls was a poor film director and didn't always cast the most able players in the lesser roles. There was little attempt to make the films much more than photographed stage plays, and their rhythm and momentum remain theatrical rather than cinematic. The photography is mainly composed of medium and long shots and the close-up is hardly used, certainly in Cuckoo in the Nest (1933), and where a close-up does occur it rarely has the right impact. The action is seen as it would be from a good seat in the theatre stalls. What the film does do is to record three farceurs at the height of their popularity and abilities - the playing is immaculate and still raises the laughs in all the right places, even when the direction is often clumsy and unhelpful.” Ralph Lynn appeared again with Walls and Robertson Hare in Foreign Affairs (1935, Tom Walls), which was set on the French Riviera where two upper-class but broke British scroungers (Walls and Lynn) cause havoc in the high society. Pot Luck (1936, Tom Walls) was about a retired Scotland Yard detective (Walls), who harbors a deep resentment for his pompous successor Reggie Bathbrick (Lynn), and returns to take one final case. Hal Erickson writes about the latter: “As usual, Ben Travers' dialogue is chock full of familiar catch phrases, cleaned-up expletives and hilariously atrocious puns.” Cast as Lynn's pretty daughter was Diana Churchill, in one of her first important screen roles. Lynn’s last film was For Valour (1937, Tom Walls) for Capitol Film. Ralph Lynn died in 1962, in London. He,was married to actress Gladys Miles who originally appeared with him in the 1915 production of By Jingo. Th