{"id":419833,"date":"2026-05-01T09:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/419833\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:02:12","slug":"lennon-at-his-best-imagine-how-good-it-would-be-without-yoko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/419833\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennon at his best \u2014 imagine how good it would be without Yoko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always compelling, occasionally frustrating and deeply moving. That\u2019s what you get from this gorgeous documentary that pings you into a front row seat at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972. There John Lennon and Yoko Ono, with the backing band Elephant\u2019s Memory, performed two knockout charity gigs, matinee and evening, in aid of children with special needs. It was the ostensible launchpad for a national tour that never materialised and now, revitalised via modern restoration technology, arrives as vivid testament to the unbridled power of Lennon in his only post-Beatles gig.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, there\u2019s Ono. The concerts \u2014 presented here by the producer Sean Lennon<\/a>, her son with John \u2014 unfold as a dialogue, sometimes an aesthetic battle, between Mr and Mrs Lennon. We begin with a thundering rendition of New York City, with Lennon grabbing the mic and roaring out the opening lyric, \u201cStandin\u2019 on the corner\/ Just me and Yoko Ono!\u201d He follows it with the bluesy and smutty It\u2019s So Hard and then introduces Ono\u2019s first solo track with the telling, \u201cThis is a song that Yoko wrote to fool us.\u201d Then she utterly murders Move on Fast like a caterwauling banshee or a bag of tortured chipmunks.<\/p>\n

On it goes \u2014 one for her, one for him. Lennon thankfully joins the chorus of Ono\u2019s Born in a Prison, which dampens down the earache. Then, bang, he delivers Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) and it\u2019s like sunlight and warmth and hugs for the soul.<\/p>\n

It almost feels deliberate, like good cop, bad cop. Ono roughs you up with some agonising nonsense such as We\u2019re All Water, with its \u201cprovocative\u201d lyrics: \u201cThere may not be much difference between Richard Nixon and Hitler\u201d (really?), after which Lennon suddenly sits down at the piano and, in glorious close up, so close you can see the wide pupils of his eyes, aces a pitch-perfect Imagine and the heart swells.<\/p>\n

\"CollageThe helmets worn by Lennon and Ono at the concert<\/p>\n

\"JohnThe couple at the Statue of LibertyBOB FRIES<\/p>\n

He does a roof-raising version of Hound Dog that would have put Elvis to shame, and then the whole thing degenerates into a fabulously chaotic 12-minute version of Give Peace a Chance featuring stage-crashers Stevie Wonder and Allen Ginsberg. And all the way through Lennon is chewing gum, comfortable as can be, with the high-definition restoration picking up a single drip of sweat on the tip of his nose. It\u2019s an exquisite portrait of a musical genius at work. And Yoko Ono.
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606
12A, 80min
In cinemas<\/p>\n

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Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit\u00a0thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a>\u00a0to find out more.<\/p>\n

Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Always compelling, occasionally frustrating and deeply moving. That\u2019s what you get from this gorgeous documentary that pings you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-419833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}