Tag: May Pang

Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head – Extracts Featuring Marx & Mao! (18.4.2023) 

Imperial Japan initiated military violence against the people of China between 1931-1945. This was a fascist expansion that spread throughout Asia and even threatened the US! I am told that around 60 million men, women and children were killed and wounded during these terrible years throughout China – a number that includes Europeans. A fact often ignored is the part that Yoko Ono’s family played in this era. Her family were ardent ultra-nationalists who supported this racist war. Yoko Ono defied the ‘racist’ attitudes of her family by entering into a relationship with a ‘White’ foreigner. Indeed, when touring Japan during 1966 (and before meeting Yoko Oni) – The Beatles would encounter this evil face of Japanese racism when they played the Budokan! Ultra-Nationalists in Japan threatened the life of The Beatles if they played in a sacred arena – as their ‘Whiteness’ threatened to spiritually ‘pollute’ the arena usually reserved for the devout practice of Japanese martial arts! Yoko Ono may have defied her parent’s anti-Western racism – but she definitely retained their attitudes pertaining to anti-China racism! All the evidence points to Yoko Ono attempting to ‘cure’ John Lennon of his infatuation with ‘Maoism’ (and of course, ‘May Pang’)!

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Philippines: Why the Vatican Ordered Attacks on The Beatles! (7.4.2023) 

In many ways this story of The Beatles exemplifies the era (and contradictions) inherent in the 1960s! There were definitely Revolutionary (dialectical) forces in operation not just in the West – but throughout the world! Paul McCartney would pen a song entitled ‘Back in the USSR’ (about a Cold War Soviet spy returning from service in the US – where he understood just how ‘bad’ life is for the average person living under capitalism) and John Lennon would write a song entitled ‘Revolution’ – and record at least 18 versions of it within which he ‘might’ or ‘might not’ support a violent ‘Revolution’ depending upon how he felt on the day!

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The ‘Budokan’ and Doing ‘A Beatles’! (29.3.2023) 

John Lennon had been to Japan with the Beatles about five months before he met Yoko Ono in New York. The Beatles made their first visit to Asia at the end of June 1966. They played two televised Concerts at the ‘Budokan’ on June 30th and July 1st, 1966. This is actually the ‘Nippon Budokan’ (日本武道館) located in the heart of Tokyo. The name means ‘Japan Martial Arts Training Hall’ and this venue was built and opened in 1964. Although Japan was still officially ‘Occupied’ by the US Military until 1972 (following Japan’s Unconditional Surrender during late 1945) – the Americans tolerated a certain level of right-wing Japanese ultra-nationalism amongst the population – providing it was contained to being aimed at Communist China. Yoko Ono’s family is said to have been supportive of this ‘racist’ ultra-nationalism – which she rebelled against by having relationships (and children) with ‘White’ men. At one point, Yoko Ono even allowed her husband to have an 18-month affair with his ethnic ‘Chinese’ secretary – the American-born May-Pang (龐鳳儀 – Pang Feng Yi). 

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The Beatles – A Work in Perpetual Progress! (29.3.2023) 

Despite the UK in many ways appearing to be a Soviet State between 1948-1979 – it still functioned within a Bourgeois, capitalist (liberal democratic) system. Since 1979, the onus has been upon dismantling this Socialist edifice and re-instating the pre-1948 status quo where workers do as they are told for as little money as possible. This has to understood if the stage-managing of The Beatles is to be understood. The Beatles existed as a means for the four members and the plethora of individuals surrounding and enabling them (including the ‘Roadie’ Mal Evans) were to make a comfortable living. Behind all these people was the monolith of EMI – so if The Beatles were already millionaires by 1964 (and there are good reasons to assume this) – the reader can speculate just how much profit their ‘look’ and ‘sound’ bought the publishing company! As a winning combination has been arrived at more or less by trial and error – the thinking was that none of it should be changed for fear of spoiling the earning potential. The music of The Beatles is so dialectically stimulating that it means many things to all people. This led to John Lennon expressing in a (reactionary) 1968 interview with British students that he had as many ‘fascists’ as ‘Socialist’ fans – he said this after berating the USSR and the idea of external (revolutionary) change. He seems to be expressing EMI advertising policy rather than any innate knowledge of Marxist-Leninism. Cackling in the shadows was Yoko Ono who never got round to addressing the subject of her anti-Western family supporting ultra-right-wing political views in Japan – or the War Crimes the Imperial Japanese Army had committed during the 1930s and 1940s throughout Asia (and against British POWs). She remains ‘anti-Chinese’ to this day.

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