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Page 8 The Daily Cougar/FORMER BEATLE John Lennon and Yoko Ono havemade several recent trips to Houston in an effort tosecure visiting rights to Yoko's eight-year-old daughter, Kyoko.Tuesday, January 18, 1972By JAMES GIBBONS Amusements WriterOscar Wilde facetiously said life imitates art. The week before Christmas I encountered a case quite the opposite.Artists John and Yoko Ono Lennon let go their schedules, projects and their art in New York to pursue a desire strictly in the realm of life.With the whereabouts of Kyoko Cox, Yoko's daughter, unknown, the Lennons are still fighting an inconclusive court battle for fulfillment of previously granted visitation rights and eventual custody of Kyoko.The day after the Lennons’ arrival in Houston, I called Apple Corp.’s Dan Richter and arranged an interview.We knew things were going badly when we arrived at the airport,” Lennon said when I got to his room at the Warwick Hotel. 'Hiey (Attys. Ralph and Sybil Balasco and Ed Murr) werethere; they wouldn’t meet Yoko’seyes.”I asked about the Lennons’ plans after their failure to see Kyoko.Right now we’re reduced to begging for mercy,” Lennon said. We are so desperate to communicate with Kyoko and make her feel all right that we’ve put out a Top 40 single called Happy Christmas’. At the start of the record we whisper ’Happy Christmas, Julian’ (my son in England) and ’Happy Christmas, Kyoko’, in the hope that somehow she will hear it on the radio.”The Lennons had already posted a $20,000 bond to secure thevisitation privileges.And where could we go if we decided to run away?” Lennon said. “Everyone knows who we are; it’s ridiculous. All we’re asking for is what the court has granted us--the right to visit Kyoko.”After the Lennons had stated their predicament I asked questions about their art.There’s really not much I can say,” Lennon said. It’s impossible for me to interpret or judge my own work. Only the critics have time for that. The artists are too busy doing it.” “Frank Zappa once said don’t judge his work by a single song or record, but in its entirety. In a way that’s true,” he said.You have to look at the whole media. If Yoko and I are anything, we’re media artists. If someone asks us to do a television show, we try to do the best one we know how. If someone askes me to draw some lithographs, I draw the best ones I can,” Lennon said.‘‘Some reviewers of your lithograph showing in New York implied the intent was to shock, and concluded since the lithographs were not shocking, they were not good,” I said. How do you react to this sort of criticism?”All I can say is that Picasso bought a set, and Dali bought a set. They are respected artists. After all, I was an art student for five years, and should know something about drawing,” Lennon said.‘‘Some critics said the lithographs were obscene,” Yoko said, but the prints depicted perfectly natural acts, and if theyare obscene then we are all obscene.”I asked the Lennons if their music made a particular life statement.Just listen to it,” Lennon said. And don’t intellectualize it. As an artist... I never plan or schedule anything. All my work is on thefeeling level.”‘‘Many listeners interpreted your album ‘Imagine’ as a slap at Paul McCartney,” I said. Just where does your music diverge from McCartney’s?”Again, you will just have to listen,” Lennon said. What McCartney has done is ‘Ram’, and what I’ve done is mine. . . I’venever done an album with just one idea in mind,” he said.Lennon went on to say he had always enjoyed country music, but never planned changes in instrumentation and genre, just let it happen.”After two days of waiting in their hotel room, the Lennons returned to New York to resume their work (Lennon has a new album underway; Yoko is exhibiting paintings in Buffalo, N. Y.). They were still anxious to visit Kyoko, still hopeful of gaining eventual custody.The morning after theirdeparture, Donn Fullenweider,attorney for Kyoko’s father, Anthony Cox, filed a petition asking no longer to represent Cox.After the interview I thanked the Lennons and gave way to another reporter.‘‘That’s civilization,” Lester Pieniazek, mathematics senior, said as we walked back to the car. “You’ve got to expect things like that in civilized society.”
Newspaper Details
Houston Daily Cougar
Houston, Texas, US
Tue, Jan 18, 1972
Page 10
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TN, USA 03 Nov 2022
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