Time That Was So Hard To Find

"A shoe-less Lennon opened the door and ushered me into a large sitting room.  He was on the telephone to his son Julian and gestured for me to sit on the sofa alongside. After telling Julian he had to go since "there's a fella here come to take me picture," he asked if I didn't mind if we watched the telly for a bit first. The program John was most interested in was a live transmission of Queen Elizabeth's daughter Anne's marriage to Captain Mark Phillips at Westminster Cathedral in London. Sitting alongside John Lennon with our feet up on the coffee table watching the then shaky live pictures on the TV it was a far cry from the madness of Beatlemania. After about ten minutes he said, "come on, do you fancy a cup of real English tea?" after an enthusiastic yes on my part he said "then we can get these daft 'happy-snaps' out of the way."  What a joy."

Letter from John Lennon to Elliot Mintz | June 1973

Rare photos of John Lennon, 1973. © May Pang.

NEW contact sheets of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in California, 1973. — From "MIND GAMES: Thames & Hudson", 2024.

Never-before-seen pictures of John Lennon eating cornflakes in Cambridge for the first International Feminist Conference, June, 1973. — From the book "MIND GAMES: Thames & Hudson"

John Lennon interviewed by Elliott Mintz on Malibu Beach, 1st November 1973 - part 1

PAUL and LINDA McCARTNEY. 1973. Photos taken by FRANK HERRMANN.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Ms. Magazine's first birthday aboard the Circle line tour boat "Ms. Liberty", New York City, June 26, 1973. — From the "Mind Games Standard Box Deluxe" book, 2024.

NEW PHOTO! John Lennon in Los Angeles Times, taken by 📸 Tony Barnard, December 16, 1973.

Simon Albury of BBC 24 Hours told me yesterday that when he was making a film of John for the BBC, he became increasingly frightened by the growing awareness that John's only concern was for Yoko and no one else. I realised, he said, that if John heard that everyone at Apple had been killed in a fire, his mind would turn immediately to the inconvenience of replacing them. He said that this feeling was the more bizarre because John was such a kind man, very courteous and thoughtful in little ways and so he is and so too would he not give two pennies if everyone on earth vanished into the oceans leaving himself and Yoko in peace, however imperfect. Aunt Mimi taught him his manners well and there is in all of that family, whom I met, a gracefulness that has passed to John, but sentimental he isn't, never; neither is Paul and I don't think George and Ringo are, but is anyone really that concerned about anyone else, I mean really worried about their fellow humans? I don't mean Shelter and Oxfam and Bangladesh, but what about the rest? John himself and George, and Paul and Ringo too, in differing ways, have given away stacks of money to cases good and unproven, always given it quietly. But they are very tough, too, and working for them has made all of us very uneasy - I think because they are four very hard tight men, not callous, but calloused. Us Beatles' aides, we come and go and we are mostly unmourned when we have gone.

NEVER SEEN BEFORE PHOTOS OF JOHN LENNON AND RINGO STARR released by John Lennon Estate. At Capitol Studio, March 9, 1973.

John Lennon interview for the Weekend World, April 8, 1973.