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Lennon, John (1940 – 1980) & Ono, Yoko (1933 –    )

‘How would you like to die?’ ‘With Yoko’

An extraordinary interview conducted with John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their famed “bed-in” at the Amsterdam Hilton, March 25th to 31st, 1969. The typed one-page interview is configured around the so-called ‘Proust Questionnaire’, a simple interview format intended to get personal confessions, based on a nineteenth century parlour game, and popularized by the French writer Marcel Proust. This interview was handed to the couple by Emily Ledel-Huf on behalf of the journalist Ineke Jungschleger, who published a weekly column for the radio and television magazine KRO Studio. The interview was subsequently published in the magazine in April 1969.

Lennon and Ono have handwritten answers, in ballpoint pen, to the thirty-seven questions posed to them — originally on another sheet of paper, later neatly cut around one edge and laid onto the original question page so that the answers line up directly next to the questions. At the top of the page, Lennon and Ono have each added their birth dates, and times of birth (John’s: ‘9/10/40, 6.30pm’; Ono’s: ‘Feb 18th/1933, 8.20pm’). Lennon answers the first question, ‘What is the utmost misery for you?’ with ‘Jealousy’. Ono adds the same answer beside him.

Lennon then answers almost all of the questions with ‘Yoko’ or ‘Yoko and me’; similarly, Ono answers nearly all of the questions with ‘John’ or ‘John and me’. This leads to rather comic effect, with questions ranging from ‘Who is your favourite historical personality?’ (‘Yoko’, ‘John’) to ‘What characteristics to you appreciate in a woman?’ (‘Yoko’, ‘John(!)’) to ‘Who would you have liked to be?’ (‘Yoko’, ‘John’). When asked, ‘What would be your greatest disaster?’, John replies ‘No Yoko’ and Ono replies ‘No John’. When asked ‘What do you dislike most?’ Lennon quips ‘No Yoko’ and Ono writes, ‘No John’.

Lennon goes off track momentarily on questions 31 (‘Which historical personality do you detest most?’) and 32 (‘What military event do you admire most?’), to which he answers, in each case, ‘Sam Smith’, this apparently being a reference to Samuel Smith’s Brewery, Yorkshire’s oldest brewery [Ono answer’s ‘nobody’ and ‘none’ to the same questions.] Ono has her own off-script moment on question 17, ‘What do you appreciate most in your girlfriend?’; where Lennon answer’s ‘Yoko’, Ono writes, ‘to keep off John.’ Towards the end of the interview, Lennon answers the question ‘How would you like to die?’, ‘With Yoko’, a strange foreshadowing of the events of December 8th 1980…

At the end of the interview, the pair are asked for their motto. Lennon writes, ‘Yoko + John = BAGISM’, Bagism being a term created by the couple meant to refer to the wearing of a bag over one’s entire person as a way of satirizing external judgment and stereotyping. To the same question, Ono answers, ‘Yoko and John forever.’ Both sign boldly at the bottom of the page, Ono signing with her new name, ‘Yoko Ono Lennon’, having married Lennon just five days prior to the bed-in. Lennon has also added a head and shoulders caricature of himself and Ono.

Some age-toning, particularly to the right edge, otherwise in fine condition.

An extraordinary, highly desirable memento of a highly publicised moment in the couple’s lives, peppered with the humour, surreal comedy, single-mindedness and obstinacy that characterised their week-long stay in bed. During the last month of March in 1969, Lennon and Ono entertained the world’s press each day between 9am and 9pm with a view to promoting their view of the world, and advancing world peace.