John Plays for Time (1973)

 

A Day in the Life:  John Plays for Time

By Kenneth Gross

Newsday (Sulfolk Edition)

April 3, 1973\

New York 

    Once, everyone was "up" for the Beatles. The press conferences were glittering. High comedy were held in crystal ballrooms. 

     Yesterday, as indifferent technicians chatted in the background, John Lennon sat behind a sober conference table at the American Bar Association. And as he flayed ineffectually at his own deportation order, he wrote a note to himself. Instead of sheet music, John Lennon's lyric was scratched in four-inch block letters on a yellow legal pad. "I am up." 

     But there was no mistaking the gloom, the result of last week's decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Because of a 1968 conviction in England for possession of hashish, Lennon has been ordered to leave this country as an undesirable. Lennon's attorney, Leon Wildes, began the press conference by stating that he had filed an appeal that would stay the deportation.

     Lennon, 32, wearing a button from the National Surrealist People's Party, which declared him not insane, was biting his lip. His arm was folded protectively around his wife, Yoko Ono, 40.

     "We announced the birth of a conceptual country, Nutopia," Lennon said, reading from a prepared text in which the name was spelled in capital letters. The idle cameras came to life. "Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of Nutopia," he continued, "Nutopia has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people."

     Yoko Ono read along with Lennon as John Hendrix, head of the National Committee for John and Yoko, passed out printed copies of the document. "As two ambassadors, we asked for diplomatic immunity," they continued. But the high-spirited intentions landed lifeless. Some reporters began to ask serious questions about it. How many people did they expect to live in Nutopia? Where would the citizens come from?

     And Lennon tried to revive the humor. He brought out two Kleenex tissues that he described as the flag of Nutopia. "This is the flag of our country," he said. "Now we surrender." Handed one Kleenex to Yoko. "It's a sign of surrender and submission, and you can blow your nose on it." He demonstrated.

     Her tiny voice, almost lost in the large room, Yoko Ono said the decision to deport her husband was cruel. It meant that she would have to choose between her husband and her daughter. The couple originally had come to the United States to search for her daughter by a previous marriage, Kyoko, age nine. They are still looking for her former husband, Anthony Cox and the child. 

    The immigration ruling would allow Yoko to stay, but John must leave. "It's a complicated situation," she said. "She's going to be 10 years old. I see children five and six years old, and they remind me of her. I haven't seen her since she was that age. I can't picture her 10 years old."

     She would not, she insisted, be separated from her husband. "We'll always be together," they agreed. The reporters persisted, asking why the government was pursuing the case. "It's very strange," Lennon said. "There doesn't seem to be any rational reason. I don't understand it."  Was it, he was asked, people who were out to get you for your anti-war stands? "I don't think it's anyone identifiable," he said, "It's just the way bureaucracies work. The government is probably not even aware of us. They just see someone who makes a noise and doesn't seem to fit. They figure they've got enough of them."

     Someone asked if Lennon regretted speaking out against the war, supporting the Indians at Wounded Knee, and doing all the things that possibly annoyed the government." That would mean being someone else," he said. "I couldn't do that."

     It was as a Beatle that John Lennon first came to New York. "I found," he said "that it's a place to be be, rather than somewhere you scoot in and leave with the loot. It's very inspiring artistically. There's no point being elsewhere. We love this place."

     When the press conference was over, they stood around for a few moments, then Lennon stroked Yoko Ono's hair and said it was time to go.