John Lennon - 1972-09-04 - Las Vegas, NV (TV SBD)

John Lennon
1972-09-04
Jerry Lewis Telethon
The Sahara
Las Vegas, NV
Soundboard Recordings
320 Kbps
Artwork Included

01. Imagine
02. Now Or Never
03. Give Peace A Chance

John Lennon - 1972-09-04 - Las Vegas, NV (TV SBD)

Old folks like me will remember when every Labor Day Weekend, a local TV station would broadcast the Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise money to find a cure for Muscular Dystrophy. Children with the disease were often shown during the telethon, with announcers imploring folks to donate for Jerry's Kids. Of course, Dead Heads would later co-opt that phrase, to highlight their devotion to the the Dead's leader, Jerry Garcia. The telethon usually featured your typical for the era Las Vegas style entertainers, but occasionally, a rock superstar would appear. One such moment happened on September 4, 1972, 46 years ago today, as captured in this TV soundboard recording, when John Lennon & Yoko Ono joined Lewis on stage. In 1972, Lennon was the target of the Nixon administration, who hoped to deport the ex-Beatle for his association with extreme radical Yippie activists like Jerry Rubin and Angela Davis. Hardly the best company for Lennon to keep when petitioning for a Green Card. In an effort to show the U.S. government that he was wasn't a radical extremist, Lennon made a number of public appearances supporting various charities, including an appearance on Jerry's Telethon:  By the way, you can see video of that historic moment here.