On this day in 1972, John Lennon made his second appearance on The Dick Cavett Show

Lennon had appeared on the show in September of the previous year alongside Yoko Ono, in an explosive interview that shed light on his marriage and the disbanding of the Beatles. Yoko also spoke on meeting the Beatle and being blamed for the bands breakup. 

Lennon’s next appearance on the show would be just as turbulent. He and Yoko defend one of their more controversial song titles, before launching into the topic of Lennon’s impending deportation. The pair state they believe they are being targeted due to their peace campaign and activism. Lennon goes on to claim that he and Yoko are even being surveilled by the FBI. This is met with disbelief from the audience and is brushed past by Cavett.

Though many at the time thought Lennon to be paranoid or delusional, the statement was later proven correct after a lengthy Freedom of Information lawsuit undertaken by journalist Jon Wiener in 1983 forced the government to release their files in 1997. The files show some interest in Lennon’s peace activities and activist friends but the investigation is ultimately closed later in 1972 and Lennon is allowed to stay, receiving his US citizenship in 1976.

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On this day in 1973, Led Zeppelin set out on a concert tour in support of their new album, Houses of the Holy

The band had released their fifth album in March with great commercial success, and a tour was quickly planned. Manager Peter Grant hired a PR consultant to promote the shows and booked the biggest stadium venues he could. 

Also hired for the trip was “The Starship”, a former United Airlines Boeing 720B passenger jet to carry the band and their equipment between cities. A smaller private jet was originally used, but the upgrade was decided upon after experiencing bad turbulence on a flight between San Francisco and LA. This would not be the only new expense for the band, as the shows themselves featured newly purchased  effects such as dry ice, lasers, mirrors and a variety of flamboyant outfits.

Several shows at Madison Square Garden were recorded for the film, The Song Remains the Same which would be delayed until 1976. The film largely covers the infamous theft of around $200,000 of the band’s money from a safety deposit box at their New York hotel, a crime that was never solved. Despite this loss, the band  would continue to smash attendance records for the tour and pull in a total of over $4 million (equivalent to over $24 million today) in the process.

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On this day in 1970, John Lennon’s confiscated Bag One Lithographs were returned

 After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, Lennon drew a series of lithographs depicting his wedding ceremony, honeymoon and one of the bed-ins for peace. These drawings remained unused however, until 1970 when an exhibition was held in January at the London Arts Gallery in Mayfair as a means to display the artworks.

The exhibition would be short-lived though, as the Obscene Publications Squad of the British police raided the gallery two days after its opening and removed eight of the drawings on the grounds of indecent material, namely erotic imagery. Members of the art world and fans of Lennon argued that the raid was unnecessary censorship and shouldn’t be pursued further. Despite this support, the case was brought before the courts in April.

 A 160 years old law was used in the summons, which alleged the gallery had “exhibited eight indecent prints to the annoyance of passengers.” This outdated law was difficult to prove, and the defence simply put forward that the audience of the prints had not been annoyed in any way by them. By the time the judge made his verdict, much of the court was laughing and the case was promptly dismissed, and the drawings returned to the gallery.

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On this day in 1976, George Harrison appears on stage with Monty Python

Harrison had been a fan of the comedy group since the premier of their first show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, even reportedly sending a fan letter through the BBC.

As their friendship grew, the ex-Beatle asked if he could appear on stage with the group at one of their live shows in New York and perform the “Lumberjack Song” with them. They quickly accepted, and decided to dress Harrison as one of the “mounties”, a Royal Canadian Mounted Guard. The costume, in combination with a lack of promotion meant that nearly no-one in the audience noticed Harrison joining the show.

Fellow musician Harry Nilsson heard of Harrison’s performance and asked if he could play the same role the following night, with far more disastrous results. Drunk and waving to the audience, Nilsson missed the cue to step back for the curtain close and fell into the audience, breaking his wrist in the process.

This would not be the last time Harrison made a cameo in a Monty Python production. When funding for their second film, The Life of Brian, was pulled the group contacted Harrison, who agreed to fund the production and made another appearance.

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On this day in 1965, The Beatles received their first Grammy Awards.

After a massive year in 1964 that saw the release of their third and fourth album  and a massive world tour, the band were in the midst of recording another album when they received their nominations for the 7th Annual Grammy Awards.  

The four nominations included Record of the Year for I Want to Hold Your Hand, Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Song and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for A Hard Day’s Night. The ceremony would be held at the Beverley Hilton Hotel in Beverley Hills, though at the time was a much smaller event that went untelevised.

Of their four nominations The Beatles would win the award for Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for their work on A Hard Day’s Night, though they were too busy recording to attend the ceremony. They would go on to win a further 7 Grammys from 23 nominations throughout their career. As a result they have since had multiple entries into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well as receiving the Grammy Trustee Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to recorded music.

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On this day in 1966, the Beatles began recording their seventh studio album, Revolver

The band had originally planned to try a different studio from the usual Abbey Road, and they looked into recording at Stax Studio in Memphis. This plan had to be scrapped due to locals descending on the building hoping to catch a glimpse of the band, and they headed back to Abbey Road.

Work on the album began with Tomorrow Never Knows, written by Lennon, though the arrangement was changed significantly before the final release. The first recording for the song wouldn’t appear until 1996, when it was released as part of the Anthology 2 compilation. The band recorded 14 songs over the following months, with work wrapping up in June, ahead of an August release.

Revolver was released to immediate success, with the album topping charts in the US for six weeks and the UK for seven. UK critics praised the album highly, though in the US many reviews were more mixed as the press were uneasy with the bands speaking out  about contemporary issues. Today, Revolver is regarded as a highly influential album within many genres, and is often credited with opening up more possibilities in pop music, leading to more creative and conceptual works by other musicians. 

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On this day in 1967, the cover photo for The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was taken

The idea for the photo came from Paul McCartney, who then approached pop artists Jann Haworth and Peter Blake, providing  them with a list of famous names chosen by the band to appear on the cover. This list included fellow musicians like Bob Dylan, writers such as H.G. Wells and William Burroughs, as well as actors, artists, comedians, scientists, friends and even some religious figures. 

Several ideas from the list were deemed too controversial and were cut, but Haworth and Blake still had to hand paint close to sixty cardboard cutouts for the background celebrities. A number of props such as plants, several statues and a candlestick also had to be purchased for the shoot.

On the afternoon of the 30th the band arrived at Chelsea Manor Studios in London to shoot the cover, with the rest of the collage having been assembled in the previous eight days. Director Robert Fraser and photographer Michael Cooper guided the band through the poses for the cover photograph as well as several shots that would appear on the back and inner sleeve.

All of this work did not come cheap, with the total cost coming to around £3,000 (equivalent to £53,000 in 2023). This earned it the title of the most expensive record cover at the time, with the average cost for a cover in 1967 being around £50.

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On this day in 1964, John Lennon’s first book was published

In His Own Write is a collection of short stories, poems and illustrations penned by Lennon in the literary nonsense genre. Literary nonsense is characterised by an absurd and illogical writing style, and often subverts standard language conventions. Author Lewis Carroll is often described as a literary nonsense author and his writing style clearly inspired Lennon’s own.

In His Own Write was popular amongst critics, with reviewers praising Lennon’s wordplay and humour. Many drew comparisons to Irish writer James Joyce, though Lennon was unfamiliar with his work when writing the  book. Commentators would later point out that the writing was very different from his contemporary lyrics, but more closely aligns with later songs like “I Am the Walrus” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

The book sold around 300,000 copies in Britain in its first year, a success that soon carried over to the US. Copies of In His Own Write first appeared in the States a couple of months after the band’s infamous first visit, while Beatlemania was on the rise around the country. This helped the book become a best-seller in the US, and prompted Lennon to write several more books, with his next book releasing in June of 1965. In His Own Write remains popular enough to continue printing and selling around the world today.

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On this day in 1987, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Songwriters Hall of Fame was founded in 1969 by songwriters Johnny Mercer and Abe Olman and publisher and executive Howie Richmond as a way to honour those songwriters  whose work represent and maintain the heritage and legacy of the most beloved English songs in popular music.

The songwriters Hall of Fame has featured a significant number of musical partnerships since its inception, with its inaugural year featuring collaborators like Rodgers and Hammerstein and Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Lennon and McCartney had written nearly 200 songs together during their time in the band, and with the majority of The Beatles most popular songs being credited to the pair, inducting both was the obvious decision.

The pair were inducted in a small, untelevised ceremony alongside peers like Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, with Yoko Ono appearing to accept the award on behalf of her late husband. The Hall of Fame itself has no permanent place of residence but an exhibit has resided inside the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live in Los Angeles since 2010.

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On this day in 1964, The Beatles began work on their first film

As the bands popularity surged and Beatlemania took hold, a film was planned to capitalise on the hype and grow their audience. A Hard Day’s Night was scheduled for release in July, giving the crew a timeline of around 16 weeks and a budget of £189,000 to make the movie.

The plot of the musical comedy featured an exaggerated portrayal of the bands lives for the 36 hours in the lead up to a television performance. Filming began with a scene on the train from Paddington Station to Minehead, England and back. During this scene George Harrison met a young actress named Pattie Boyd, who he married the following year. A young Phil Collins also made an uncredited appearance in the film as an extra during a concert scene.

The film performed as well as expected, with thousands of fans rushing to the cinema for the film, and  to the record store afterwards to buy the soundtrack album, which earned a record at the London Pavilion by grossing over $20,000 in its first week. Reviews of the film were mostly positive, and critics have later said the film likely inspired a number of the popular British films and television of the later 1960s.

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