Bed-In

Bed-In

During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace.

Amsterdam bed-in

Knowing their March 20 1969 marriage would be a huge press event, John and Yoko decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. They spent their honeymoon in Room 702 at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for a week between March 25 and 31, inviting the world's press into their hotel room every day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. After their other stunts, such as the nude cover of the "Two Virgins" album, the press were expecting them to be having sex, but instead the couple were sitting in bed—in John's words "like Angels"—talking about peace with signs over their bed reading "Hair Peace" and "Bed Peace". After seven days, they flew to Vienna, Austria, where they held a Bagism press conference.

During April 1969, John and Yoko sent acorns to the heads of state in various countries around the world in hopes that they would plant them as a symbol of peace. For eight months, the couple was not granted a single visit with any world leader. Their marriage ("You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain"), the first Bed-In ("Talking in our beds for a week"), the Vienna press conference ("Made a lightning trip to Vienna...The newspapers said..."), and the acorns ("Fifty acorns tied in a sack") were all mentioned in the song "The Ballad of John and Yoko".1967-1970 lyric booklet]

Montreal Bed-in

Their second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the country because of his 1968 cannabis conviction. Instead they held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Montreal, Canada.

Eventually, they flew to Montreal on May 26 where they stayed in Room 1738 and 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During their seven day stay, they invited Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, and Al Capp and all but Capp sang on the peace anthem "Give Peace a Chance", recorded in the hotel room on June 1. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation conducted interviews from the hotel room.

In December 1969, they spread their message with a billboard reading "War is Over! If You Want It - Happy Christmas From John and Yoko". The billboards went up in eleven cities.

Aftermath

On December 23 1969, the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was the first world leader to grant the couple a visit. They spoke for 50 minutes about world peace. Afterwards Lennon said that Trudeau was "a beautiful person".

Their peace campaign was met mostly with derision, and most journalists simply dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Lennon, who was accused of doing this for money or attention, countered by saying that he could write a song in an hour and make more money than he could spending seven days in bed talking about peace.

In popular culture and later bed-ins

The Bed-in performance has since been re-interpreted and re-used in protests by a number of artists since 1969, most notably Marijke van Warmerdam with her gallerist Kees van Gelder at the same Amsterdam Hilton in 1992 and the Centre of Attention in 2005 in Miami. A fictional Bed-In protest was also featured in a 2006 Viva Voce music video.

The event was referenced in the Oasis song, "Don't look back in anger", in which leader singer Noel Gallagher sings "I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed / 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head ". The latter lyric was supposedly said by Lennon during a taped conversation he had at his room at the Dakota Hotel. It should also be noted that the piano intro at beginning of the song is reminiscent to the piano notes in Lennon's "Imagine", thus establishing a clear tribute to the artist.

In the music video for the Marcy Playground song, "It's Saturday", the group finds their way to the bed of John Lenon and Yoko during their bed in.

In late 2006, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Californian pop band Green Day, and his wife, Adrienne Armstrong, did a similar bed-in, featuring Billie Joe and Adrienne lying on the bed, with a poster above their heads saying "Make Love Not War" in Spanish.

On Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, comedian Andy Daly exhibits a video clip showing that he has also attempted a bed in to protest the War in Iraq. Trying to mimick Lennon and Yoko's original bed in, he climbs into the bed of an Asian woman, who sprays Daly with pepper spray.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • bed — bed …   The Old English to English

  • bed — bed …   English to the Old English

  • bed — bed; bed·da; bed·ded; bed·der; bed·e·guar; bed·er·al; bed·fel·low·ship; bed·ford; bed·ford·shire; bed·lam·er; bed·less; bed·ling·ton; bed·man; bed·ral; bed·rid·den; bed·stead; bed·ward; crab·bed; crab·bed·ly; crab·bed·ness; em·bed; em·bed·ment;… …   English syllables

  • Bed — Bed, n. [AS. bed, bedd; akin to OS. bed, D. bed, bedde, Icel. be?r, Dan. bed, Sw. b[ a]dd, Goth. badi, OHG. betti, G. bett, bette, bed, beet a plat of ground; all of uncertain origin.] 1. An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bed — [bed] n. [ME & OE < IE base * bhedh , to dig > Ger bett, L fossa, ditch, W bedd, Bret béz, a grave; orig. sense “a sleeping hollow in the ground”] 1. a thing for sleeping or resting on; specif., a piece of furniture consisting usually of a… …   English World dictionary

  • Bed-In — for Peace Enregistrement de Give Peace a Chance lors du bed in de Montréal. Les Bed Ins for Peace[1] (au lit pour la paix) sont les deux événements médiatiques tenus par le fondateur des Beatles …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bed-in — for Peace Enregistrement de Give Peace a Chance lors du bed in de Montréal. Les Bed Ins for Peace[1] (au lit pour la paix) sont les deux événements médiatiques tenus par le fondateur des Beatles …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bed — Bed, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bedded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Bedding}.] 1. To place in a bed. [Obs.] Bacon. [1913 Webster] 2. To make partaker of one s bed; to cohabit with. [1913 Webster] I ll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. Shak. [1913 Webster] 3 …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bed — ► NOUN 1) a piece of furniture incorporating a mattress or other surface for sleeping or resting on. 2) informal a bed as a place for sexual activity. 3) an area of ground where flowers and plants are grown. 4) a flat base or foundation. 5) a… …   English terms dictionary

  • Bed — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. {{{image}}}   Sigles d une seule lettre   Sigles de deux lettres > Sigles de trois lettres …   Wikipédia en Français

  • bed*/*/*/ — [bed] noun 1) [C/U] a piece of furniture that you sleep on The room had two beds in it.[/ex] It s midnight – why aren t you in bed?[/ex] I never get out of bed before 10 am.[/ex] I got home at 11 pm and went straight to bed.[/ex] 2) [C] the… …   Dictionary for writing and speaking English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”