In 1969 a 14-year old snuck into John Lennon's hotel room and interviewed him [audio]

[Music Calgary]

One of the most interesting animations I've ever seen and a neat little interview with John Lennon...

 

 

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message.

 

 

 

[rasputin1963]

Kewl. Amazing animation!

 

I'd say Lennon should've given that little boy a whopping dose of LSD, so they'd both be on the same wavelength.

[russrags]

Hey thanks for that clip, very cool.

 

Here's another one with great animation:

 

 

 

 

 

Russ

Nashville

[boosh]

Here's Jerry telling the story himself :

[YOUTUBE]_tmvVPCLSQY[/YOUTUBE]

[Lee Knight]

I love it. I actually loved everything Lennon said too. He may have been tripping or high but, wow. "You can't blame the government, we've got to blame ourselves." It was nice to hear him speak freely but without "Media John" going over the top to make a point. Nice.

[Super 8]

This is just so right.

[Magpel]

My favorite part is where Lennon says, "I don't know where the key to to the big box is...[unintelligible]...yes, last night's white jacket."

 

This must have been when the live in Toronto album was being recorded with Allan White and Clapton and Klaus Voorman.

 

What a piece of history! And what a piece of Gilliam-inspired animation!

 

Loved this. Sent it to all my friends.

 

Sean Lennon once said something to the effect of: Dad was an asshole, but he was still lovable because he knew he was an asshole.

 

I mean, I try not to get caught up in biography, but I've always made an exception for this guy, 'cause he was my first (and last?) favorite rock star, and if ever there was a guy who had reason to be dark screwy and complicated, it was Lennon. And while, in restrtospect, many people think his revolutionary peace stuff was just posturing, fashion, and, worse, Yoko-inspired mass media free play, I've always, or at least since my late teens, felt that there was a subtext of "it's too late for me, but not for the world" in it.