Most of you will be familiar with the John & Yoko Bed-In, when they sang Give Peas a Chance. You may also remember that the phrase appeared mysteriously on the side of a bridge on the M25 around 1984. Some of you may also have heard, towards the end of Strawberry Fields, John saying what sounds like: ‘I buried Paul’ (thus adding fuel to the ‘Paul is Dead’ conspiracy theory, based on the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing featuring John, the minister, all in white, followed by Ringo, the mourner, all in black, followed by the dead Paul, holding a cigarette (coffin nail) and pointing down at his bare feet [who needs shoes when they’re dead?], with George, the grave-digger, bringing up the rear in blue jeans. John claims he actually said: ‘cranberry sauce’, which is far more in line with the much lesser known and far more plausible theory that John was addicted, not to various kinds of narcotics, but to all kinds of food. For example, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds does not equate to the mind-bending drug, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, but to the stomach-bulging effects of Lots of Scouse Dinners.
Further evidence is provided by a whole string of song titles. Some of these are blatant in their foodism: Beef Jerky, Meat City, Strawberry Fields Forever, Thanks for the Pepperoni, (credited to George, but in reality one of John’s) and, of course, Cold Turkey – very clever, that one! Others have been subtly adapted by John to hide his real addiction from his fans. So Oh Yoko! is manufactured from the original Oh Cocoa! – you can see where I’m coming from – followed by Starting Oven, Instant Banana (We All Dine On), Flour to the People, The Salad of John and Yoko, Lettuce Guy, Only Stew, Farting Over, Drinking Glass Hero, and culminating of course in Give Peas a Chance, the only one which has ever really emerged from the tangled web of John’s machinations.
