John Lennon: Violence, Protests, Provoking the FBI, and Pissing off the President
DISGRACELAND
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 13.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the early 1970s, John Lennon was suspected of conspiring to disrupt an American political convention and contributing to a paramilitary terrorist organization. Authorities took notice. So much so that the President of the United States took action to have the so-called “smart Beatle” deported. Lennon’s politics were way more violent and revolutionary than simply imagining all the people living life in peace and harmony.
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This episode was originally published on June 29, 2021.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. |
| 0:15.9 | The stories about John Lennon and his foray into politics are insane. |
| 0:21.6 | The one-time lovable beetle aligned himself with violent revolutionaries, |
| 0:26.2 | was suspected of conspiring to disrupt a national political convention. |
| 0:30.8 | Freed and unjustly jailed dopehead was alleged to have contributed financially to a paramilitary terrorist organization, |
| 0:37.9 | and he survived a home invasion that eerily forecast his own shooting. |
| 0:42.8 | John Lennon's turn, as Rock's most famous revolutionary, was short-lived. |
| 0:47.3 | The highest levels of the United States federal government worried about the pop star's influence |
| 0:51.7 | on American youth and combated his radical politics by |
| 0:55.7 | attempting to deport the ex-Beatle. But before these events, John Lennon, of course, made great music. |
| 1:03.3 | Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset |
| 1:09.2 | loop from my Melotron called Portly Prouler, MK1. I played you |
| 1:14.8 | that loop because I can't afford the rights to Family Affair by Sly and the Family Stone. |
| 1:20.5 | And why would I play you that specific slice of riot going on cheese could I afford it? |
| 1:26.6 | Because that was the number one song in America on |
| 1:30.0 | December 10th, 1971. And that was the day John Lennon took the stage with known radical Jerry |
| 1:36.7 | Rubin in front of thousands of fans in Detroit, drawing the wrath of none other than Richard |
| 1:42.0 | Nixon, the president of the United States. |
| 1:45.7 | On this episode, radical politics, violent revolutionaries, |
| 1:50.6 | a home invasion, a riot going on in John London. |
| 1:55.0 | I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. |
| 2:33.3 | Thank you. And this is disgrace land. Freaks. As far as the eye could see. Freaks. They filled Pontiac Stadium. 15,000 strong. |
... |
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