Could you imagine John Lennon being a fan of Fox News?

John Lennon (Courtesy Wikimedia
commons)

By Steve Marinucci
June 6, 2013

The recent headlines that John Lennon may have been a "closet conservative" and a fan of Ronald Reagan have singled out phrases to get attention, but the truth is likely somewhere else.

The stories originated in interviews with Seth Swirsky, who has made a film called "Beatle Stories" with first-hand accounts of stories about the Beatles from both celebrities and fans.  Swirsky, the author of three books that feature letters from baseball players about their sport, told us in an interview he did it to get stories on the record about the Beatles.

"And so I'm having drinks with some Liverpudlians and they're telling me some stories. And I thought, 'You know what?' I did this with baseball in a way with asking players about some intimate details about their lives in and out of baseball. I'm going to maybe film some people that have these stories. They could be famous or not famous."

One of the stories -- and the one that's gotten a lot of attention -- is from Fred Seaman, former personal assistant to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Swirsky says that, according to Seaman's in the film, ""The John of 1979 was not the John of 1971. He would have been embarrassed by 'Imagine."

"Fred Seaman goes into a whole thing how John would have voted for Reagan and not Carter in 1980 if he could have. And that he was espousing true conservative beliefs," Swirsky says.

Swirsky says there are several reasons. "John was 40. He had a kid and he was married. And he was kind of living the family life. He didn't care about being the Beatles any more or putting out 'All You Need Is Love.'"

The filmmaker says former football player Frank Gifford introduced Lennon to Ronald Reagan. Gifford told him, "I'm the one who introduced Lennon to Reagan. And I remember like it was yesterday. And I remember looking up and there was Reagan with his arm around Lennon. They're laughing together, having a great time."

May Pang was there when Lennon and Reagan met. As she posted on her Facebook page and also told us by email, "When John and I met Ronald Reagan back in 1974 on the 'Monday Night Football' program, he found him to be a nice down-to-earth guy. He was intrigued that an actor actually became governor of the State of California, but even more excited that evening upon meeting his favorite comedian, Jonathan Winters. Depending on who he was with, John liked to stir the pot. That was his nature. As far as radicalism is concerned, as he matured he took a more mellow approach towards life."

Swirsky recounting of Seaman's comments adds to the "stir the pot" idea. According to Swirsky and Seaman, "John could have been trying to take the p--- out of people when he was saying that because there were people in the room and he was arguing with my Marxist uncle, Norman Seaman, he said. So he could have been just trying to play,"  ... which gives the left an out. They can say to themselves, he was just being John and all that stuff."

We made a couple of attempts to get comments from Yoko Ono, but there's been no reply to our requests. Maybe she'll have something to say in her Friday weekly Twitter comments.

If John Lennon mellowed his political views in later years, he's not alone. It happened to many people, including many of Lennon's associates in his radical days, such as Jerry Rubin.

But given his feelings on war and with all the causes he and Yoko Ono championed during their years together, it doesn't make a lot of sense that if he were alive now he'd be watching Glenn Beck every night.

 

 

 

On the other hand,