Episode 59 – Beatles ’72 pt4

Though only living in New York City for about a year, John and Yoko had became synonymous with their adopted home by the Spring of 1972. The Nixon administration, however, had other ideas. Basing their case on John’s 1968 Cannabis conviction, the US Government set their sights on deporting the politically outspoken Lennon from the United States in advance of the 1972 Presidential Election. John’s growing contacts in the radical community drew the watchful eye of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and the Nixon White House, both anxious to avoid a repeat of the 1968 “Chicago 7” protests outside the Democratic National Convention. Complicating matters further was the continued disappearance of Anthony Cox, Yoko Ono’s ex-husband who went into hiding with their daughter Kyoko somewhere in America. Were the Lennons to be deported, a reunion between mother and daughter would be rendered impossible, and the fight to remain in America began. Meanwhile, in England, Paul McCartney and Wings had also found themselves in political hot water after their single Give Ireland Back To The Irish was banned by the BBC. In response to this, or in spite of it, the band’s next single was decided more innocuous, the sunshine nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb. With a children’s opus on the charts, Wings rehearsed for their first major tour of Europe. But Paul and Linda’s scrappy new band wouldn’t be the only former Beatle to be banned in ‘72...