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The Walrus and the Elephants

John Lennon's Years of Revolution

John Lennon's Years of Revolution

John Lennon's Years of Revolution

By James A. Mitchell

By James A. Mitchell

By James A. Mitchell

By James A. Mitchell

By James A. Mitchell

By James A. Mitchell

Best Seller

Category: Music | Politics | History

Category: Music | Politics | History

Category: Music | Politics | History

Paperback $17.95

Dec 09, 2014 | ISBN 9781609805760

Hardcover $23.95

Dec 03, 2013 | ISBN 9781609804671

Ebook $13.99

Dec 03, 2013 | ISBN 9781609804688

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    About The Walrus and the Elephants

    Nineteen-seventy-one was the year John Lennon left London and pop stardom for a life in New York City as a solo artist, record producer and activist looking to help end the war in Vietnam. He settled in Greenwich Village and quickly came to be seen by the leaders of the faltering anti-war movement as someone who was capable of reinvigorating it. The government was acutely aware of Lennon’s power as well, seeing him as a viable threat to Nixon’s reelection hopes, initiating extradition proceedings against him.
               
    Lennon’s second solo album, Imagine, appeared in 1971, followed the following year by Sometime in New York City. Meanwhile, John and Yoko are searching for her daughter, a primary reason they came to America in the first place. And John is struggling to embrace feminism.
               
    The Walrus and the Elephants tells a double-barreled story of music and politics, how the personal is political and the political is personal, of upheavals in one life amid the larger cultural upheavals of an era.

    About The Walrus and the Elephants

    Nineteen-seventy-one was the year John Lennon left London and pop stardom for a life in New York City as a solo artist, record producer and activist looking to help end the war in Vietnam. He settled in Greenwich Village and quickly came to be seen by the leaders of the faltering anti-war movement as someone who was capable of reinvigorating it. The government was acutely aware of Lennon’s power as well, seeing him as a viable threat to Nixon’s reelection hopes, initiating extradition proceedings against him.
               
    Lennon’s second solo album, Imagine, appeared in 1971, followed the following year by Sometime in New York City. Meanwhile, John and Yoko are searching for her daughter, a primary reason they came to America in the first place. And John is struggling to embrace feminism.
               
    The Walrus and the Elephants tells a double-barreled story of music and politics, how the personal is political and the political is personal, of upheavals in one life amid the larger cultural upheavals of an era.

    About The Walrus and the Elephants

    Nineteen-seventy-one was the year John Lennon left London and pop stardom for a life in New York City as a solo artist, record producer and activist looking to help end the war in Vietnam. He settled in Greenwich Village and quickly came to be seen by the leaders of the faltering anti-war movement as someone who was capable of reinvigorating it. The government was acutely aware of Lennon’s power as well, seeing him as a viable threat to Nixon’s reelection hopes, initiating extradition proceedings against him.
               
    Lennon’s second solo album, Imagine, appeared in 1971, followed the following year by Sometime in New York City. Meanwhile, John and Yoko are searching for her daughter, a primary reason they came to America in the first place. And John is struggling to embrace feminism.
               
    The Walrus and the Elephants tells a double-barreled story of music and politics, how the personal is political and the political is personal, of upheavals in one life amid the larger cultural upheavals of an era.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    About James A. Mitchell

    JAMES A. MITCHELL is the author of But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War, the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northeast; the rock biography It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder’s Life in Music; and the tale… More about James A. Mitchell

    About James A. Mitchell

    JAMES A. MITCHELL is the author of But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War, the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northeast; the rock biography It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder’s Life in Music; and the tale… More about James A. Mitchell

    About James A. Mitchell

    JAMES A. MITCHELL is the author of But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War, the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northeast; the rock biography It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder’s Life in Music; and the tale… More about James A. Mitchell

    Product Details

    Category: Music | Politics | History

    Paperback | $17.95
    Published by Seven Stories Press
    Dec 09, 2014 | 288 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9781609805760

    Category: Music | Politics | History

    Hardcover | $23.95
    Published by Seven Stories Press
    Dec 03, 2013 | 272 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9781609804671

    Category: Music | Politics | History

    Ebook | $13.99
    Published by Seven Stories Press
    Dec 03, 2013 | 272 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9781609804688
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    Praise

    “James Mitchell carefully and lovingly has reconstructed an inspiring and poignant chapter both in John Lennon’s odyssey and in the tangled flow of the American anti-war and other protest movements of the late nineteen sixties and early seventies. The Walrus and The Elephants is an indispensable window into an amazing time in American history and the history of rock and roll.” —Danny Goldberg, author of Bumping Into Geniuses

    “This book serves as a backstage pass to the missing link between Lennon’s music and his activism, ranging from decriminalization of marijuana to termination of undeclared war—both ends of that spectrum fueled by the government’s misuse of power without compassion—revealing how the Nixon administration tried to silence him.” —Paul Krassner, author of Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture

    “Lennon is one of the most documented individuals in modern culture, yet never before has this early New York period of his history been examined with greater depth and clarity.” —Lee Ranaldo, co-founder of Sonic Youth

    Author Essay

    Author James A. Mitchell is the author of But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War (Mansion Field, 2009), the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northeast; rock biography It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder’s Life in Music (Wayne State University Press, 2008); and tales from a rural newspaper, Applegate: Freedom of the Press in a Small Town (2002, University Press of America). A reporter and editor for more than thirty years in New York, Michigan, and as a US Army soldier-journalist, Mitchell’s works on a wide range of subjects have appeared in newspapers and magazines includingEntertainment Weekly, The Humanist, Video Business and Starlog. From South Asia, Mitchell produced video features for CNN’s iReports in the aftermath of the twenty-six-year civil war. Mitchell lives in southeast Michigan, and serves with a nonprofit organization that supports the Grace Care Center children’s home in Sri Lanka. The author makes frequent appearances before community and civic groups regarding Sri Lanka, and has appeared on radio and TV shows to discuss Detroit rock and roll.

    http://www.jamesamitchellonline.com
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    Media

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    Interior photos
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    Table Of Contents

    1. The Advent of the Hippie Messiah
     
    2. John and the Elephants
     
    3. “Doped with Religion and Sex and TV”
     
    4. “A Thourough Nuisance”
     
    5. Word Play
     
    6. “We’ll Get it Right Next Time” 
     
    7. “You Can’t Keep a Good Band Down” 
     
    A Post Trip Post Script: “We All Shine On…”

    Acknowledgements
     
    Author’s Note: Sources and Methodology

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