Many celebrities have claimed to have had experiences with ufos, from the rocker Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, to the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley. Actor Russell Crowe, Ace Frehley of KISS, British pop singer Robbie Williams are just a few more who have also claimed to have seen ufos in their time! And never to be out done, in August 1974 while John was enjoying his ‘lost weekend’ he too claimed to spot a low flying ufo! On the 23rd of August John was in bed when he was visited by what he believed to be life from another planet!
(Poster designed by Jay Kelly)
“I was lying naked on my bed, when I had this urge, so I went to the window, just dreaming around in my usual poetic frame of mind. There, as I turned my head, hovering over the next building, no more than 100 feet away was this thing with ordinary electric light bulbs flashing on and off round the bottom, one non-blinking red light on top." He described. His story was questionable, even with the details he gave. What made it even more questionable in the eyes of many was the fact that it happened during his ‘lost weekend’ where alcohol and drug abuse was at a high, and his anti social behavior was in the news papers. He did however do two things to quickly try and reassure people he wasn’t on a trip imagining the event. He firstly insisted at the time he saw the ufo he was completely sober from substances, and he also had another witness to back up his story. His girlfriend at the time was May Pang (who he dated during his separation from wife Yoko Ono) was called by Lennon to confirm what he was seeing in front of him. Speaking of the sighting May said “As I walked out onto the terrace my eye caught this large, circular object coming towards us. It was shaped like a flattened cone, and on top was a large, brilliant red light, not pulsating as on any of the aircraft we'd see heading for a landing at Newark Airport. ... When it came a little closer, we could make out a row or circle of white lights that ran around the entire rim of the craft, these were also flashing on and off. There were so many of these lights that it was dazzling to the mind” May, a keen amateur photographer, rushed to take photos of the sight.
(sketch found on google image search)
The couple took photos with a regular camera and a Polaroid. The photos however, strangely enough did not show up anything of the sight they saw. It might well have gone down in history as a work of fiction, a vision from a stoned rockstar ‘off the rails’ or a publicity stunt to boost record sales, had it not been for the police department. When John and May phoned the police to tell them what they had seen they were told there had been many other sightings that night that had been phoned in to them! John wouldn’t back down in what he believed he has seen, he even went as far as to have typed on his new album ‘Walls And Bridges’ “On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 o'clock I saw a U.F.O." May Pang and Lennon’s story is slightly different though. His story was that he was in bed, her story was that they had just ordered dinner. “We had just ordered up some pizzas and since it was such a warm evening, we decided to step out on the terrace.”
May described "There were no windows directly facing us from across the street, so John just stepped outside with nothing on, in order to catch a cool breeze that was coming in right off the East River. I remember I was just inside the bedroom getting dressed when John started shouting for me to come out on the terrace.” When she didn’t come right away he screamed her for again to join him right away. She added “We often had helicopters flying above us but this was as silent as the night and about seventeen storeys above street level.” As the evening went on he couldn’t calm down, so exited the what had seen. "During what was left of the evening, John kept saying, 'I can't believe it... I can't believe it... I've seen a flying saucer!'" In a filmed TV interview Lennon said “Over here, up there, I saw a ufo!” He said pointing to the spot he has seen it. “It went down the river, turned right at the United Nations, turned left, then down the river. It wasn’t a helicopter, and it wasn’t a balloon!”
(John showing where he had seen the UFO, found on google image search)
“I could have hit it with a brick, if I’d have thrown one at it”
In the song “nobody told me” he sings the following.....
“There's UFO's over New York / And I ain't too surprised."
No comments:
Post a Comment