This fan was drawn in 1979 by John Lennon in Tokyo, Japan at the world famous Copa Cabana Club. Local studio musician and songwriter, Dan Bates, was playing in Tokyo in '79 at the Copa. One evening, John Lennon walked in with Yoko Ono, Yoko's brother and a friend. They were seated directly in front of the band and right in front of Dan Bates.
The club manager came over to Bates and told him to talk to and be friendly to John Lennon and his party.
One hostess was selected just to cater to that table (which is part of how this high-end club handles it service). During the course of the evening, John took the hostess' fan and began drawing on it - painstakingly-slow. Carefully, John drew each line from (fan) hole to hole — almost as if it were some sort of a dot-to-do picture puzzle. John held the fan up very close to his face to try to view it ever so carefully.
This period (in John's life) was supposedly one of the happiest of times for him in a long time. John's behavior was "spacey" almost as if he were on a perpetual acid trip.
When Lennon finished drawing on the fan, he gave it to their hostess. The hostess was a good friend of Dan Bates and the photograph above was taken and brought back to Fresno over twenty-five years ago.
During the evening, Dan, at one point, turned directly to John Lennon and said, "would you like to hear Twist and Shout?" Lennon replied (in his thick Liverpool accent), "nooo... not particuuuulllarly." That song was a huge hit in Japan and the club manager insisted Bates and his band played it anyway — which they did. Lennon applauded louder than anyone for the bands work and nodded with great approval.
John told Dan Bates, during one of the breaks that, "all musicians are my friend."
Lennon loved music passionately and truly respected other players and artists simply for that fact that they were indeed musicians as well.
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