Our Ideas

Forty years ago this week, John Lennon & Yoko Ono made camp in suite 1742 of Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. What began as a quiet protest against the Vietnam war became known as their ‘Bed In for Peace.’

The suite, which today is marked with a commemorative plaque, was visited by many other New York celebrities that week, including Timothy Leary, Petula Clark and others. More than 200 Beatles fans loitered in the lobby for days, once Lennon & Ono’s whereabouts was known.

Explaining their ‘bed in’ to the press, Lennon simply repeated, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.” And on June 1, 1969, they recorded the soon-to-be-famous song:

Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(C’mon)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Minister, Sinister, Banisters and Canisters,
Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye, Bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(Let me tell you now)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
(Repeat ’til the tape runs out)

The names mentioned in the last verse is the list of friends who sang with John & Yoko to record the song.