I had no one to share my grief with. Sitting aboard my boat in an isolated coastal town in northern BC, CBC’s evening concert was interrupted by a news flash: John Lennon had just been shot in New York city and pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Typically, the first reaction to such news is to immediately share the grief with someone, a loved one, but my grief was more terrible since I was alone, a stranger in a strange place, with no means of contacting the outside world. I thought I’d have to carry this burden myself, but as news reports emerged, I learned that crowds were gathering in Central Park and heaping flowers, lighting candles, and singing. I was not alone; the world was sharing my grief.
Years before, I had looked into John’s and Yoko’s eyes and saw their love. I had laughed with them and shared their joy. My mind now travelled back 11 years to June 1, 1969, where in suite 1742 of Montréal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, I participated in, and photographed, the controlled chaos of the Bed-In for Peace. John, with dark, shoulder-length hair and full beard looked like Jesus in white pajamas, while Yoko, her long tresses draped over her shoulder, wore a long, white nightgown. For a week, they had received visitors as they lay in bed; hundreds of people had been through the room: politicians and celebrities, journalists and reporters, photographers, poets, artists, and hundreds of young people who’d waited hours in a hot, stuffy hallway to bring gifts and perhaps even have a word with John and Yoko.
The event marked the beginning of Lennon’s ascension from rock star to the leader of a worldwide peace movement. “We’re not against anything,” he’d told an interviewer. “We are for peace.”
Earlier that week, John and Yoko had received a phone call from Berkeley, California, where a serious confrontation was shaping up between police and hundreds of people who had been camping in People’s Park. The conflict had been going on for days, and the obviously frightened caller told John and Yoko that the riot squad was preparing to move in. He asked what message he should pass along to the people. John urged them not to resist physically, but to try and minimize the violence instead. Yoko then picked up the phone and spoke these famous words: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
Several days later, John scrawled those words on a poster board and expanded upon them. That evening, a recording studio was set up in the suite and about 40 people, including TV star Tom Smothers and LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary, surrounded the bed and sang those words in chorus, as John called out the lyrics. In the 36 years since they were recorded, these words have become the root of the first truly global peace anthem, sung in every language, and in every land, where people oppose tyranny and war.
John had outgrown his Beatles persona; with Yoko, he continued his work for world peace and justice until he was assassinated. His example, along with the now famous words, became his legacy to the world.
The events subsequent to September 11, 2001 made me realize that, more than ever, the world needed to hear John and Yoko’s message of peace, compassion, and understanding. I could feel John’s presence at my side, giving me his energy and urging me to help him in his campaign. I also realized that the photographs I took during those eight days in Montréal were my own legacy.
For the past five years, I have shown the photos and talked about their message in art galleries, movie houses, museums, coffee shops, and music festivals in the US and Canada. They have also previously appeared on the pages of Common Ground. To help remind people that this December 8 marks 25 years since John’s physical voice was silenced, my images will appear at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria as a complementary exhibit to the photo exhibit Linda McCartney’s Sixties. I feel privileged to help bring John’s message to the world.


Gerry Deiter’s Bed-In for Peace photos will be shown as a complement to Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, December 1 to January 30. Deiter presents a talk about the Bed-In photos on both December 3 and December 8, the anniversary of John’s death. For more information, visit www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca. To view a collection of Bed-In photographs, visit www.elliottlouis.com