John Lennon and Yoko Ono Record 1969 Peace Anthem in a Montreal Hotel Room Bed
Give Peace a Chance
In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long bed-ins to protest Vietnam. The first bed-in was at Amsterdam’s Hilton, and the second at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The events were nonviolent “experimental” protests against the war.
In Montreal’s downtown core, rooms 1738, 1740, 1742, and 1743 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel became the creative space where John and Yoko penned the now famous peace anthem, ‘Give Peace a Chance.’
With Yoko Ono and a small group of friends the classic anti-war song was recorded and produced by André Perry in hotel room 1742 on June 1, 1969, and released on July 7, 1969.
“If a billion people thought about Peace, there would be Peace in our world.”
John Lennon
Masturbation to Mastication and All the Name Shouts-out
Yes, the third verse indeed contains a reference to masturbation, but on the official lyric sheet, Lennon modified this to “mastication.” He later acknowledged this was a “cop-out” but wanted to avoid unnecessary controversy.
Suppose you’re wondering about all the name shout-out on the last verse of the original recording. In that case, they refer to “John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Hare Krishna.”
Lennon’s Remorse
Although Paul McCartney was not involved with the song, it was initially credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon subsequently ascertained that his wife Yoko Ono was his co-writer. Later, the song was credited to the Plastic Ono Band and became the ensemble’s first single
According to author Norman Philip’s 2008 biography John Lennon, The Life, Lennon expressed his regrets about being “guilty enough to give McCartney credit as co-writer on my first independent single instead of giving it to Yoko, who had actually written it with me.”
Writer Ian MacDonald explained, “the credit was Lennon’s way of thanking McCartney for helping him record “The Ballad of John and Yoko” at short notice.
Give Peace a Chance was Lennon’s debut solo single, released while he was still a member of the Beatles. Throughout the 1970s, the song became a popular anti-war hymn, peaking at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the UK singles chart.
