A dose of John Lennon

The new enormous biography "John Lennon: The Life" by Philip Norman is, books editor David L. Ulin writes, "a panoramic effort, exhaustively detailed and researched." But despite its scope and size, it doesn't quite deliver the goods. What it does do is send us to YouTube, where we found this clip of the ever-wonderful Dick Cavett interviewing John Lennon (who says he's nervous) and Yoko Ono (who is pretty sweet for someone who was called, in the introduction, "maybe one of the most controversial ladies since the Duchess of Windsor").

It's surprising to see Lennon and Ono smoking on a talk show; less surprising is how charming they are together. 

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[China]

That's a funny clip, back when Rolling Stone magazine was considered "underground" (as Cavett calls it) and guests could smoke during TV talk shows. The best moment is when John makes a sarcastic joke but nobody really laughs so he asks pointedly: "do you get it?"