Yoko, Don’t Stop The Rain! We want John!

This writer was never a gung-ho Beatles aficionado, although she had a classmate who was so into Paul McCartney that she had picture of the man all over her date book and inside her locker. Even so, this journalist is part of that group of fans that while we didn’t experience first-hand the hysteria over the Beatles coming to America, we heard a lot of songs by the Fab Four on the radio. “Eleanor Rigby” still resonates with the scribe. Anyhow, news that John Lennon‘s widow, Yoko Ono, has stopped the premiere of a film on her late husband is alarming. Apparently Ono’s legal eagles warned the film-makers that Ono hadn’t given her stamp of approval for the documentary’s public viewing.

Ray Thomas, the fims’s executive producer, culled raw footage that was shot inside Lennon’s apartment over a three-day period in February 1970, two months before the Beatles broke up.

However, Thomas and his partner, John Fallon, were unable to obtain aan artist release from Ono, whose lawyers maintain has a copyright interest in the film. So Thomas and Fallon elected to do free screenings at high schools and colleges, starting with the premiere at Berwick Academy in southern Maine.

We certainly hope that Ono, Thomas and Fallon can work things out. You see the documentary shows Lennon composing and rehearsing for a BBC show, among other things. The next generation needs to learn about the post-Beatles John Lennon even if only to copy his hair cut.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.