Give Peace a Chance - John Lennon - Montréal - 01/06/1969

So, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono checked into Suite 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth hotel and held a bed-in as a way of promoting peace. During that time they recorded the well-known song that resonates yet today as a song about peace and freedom....
Here's the deal!  Two posts later, with some photos in my possession I can let you in on what happened the other night in the lovely city, known to all as Montréal... la belle ville!

As some of you know, I travel back and forth, on a fairly regular basis between la ville de Québec and la ville de Montréal for work.  So, during this past week when I made my trip I reserved a room at the Queen Elizabeth hotel in downtown Montréal.  The Queen Elizabeth is situated right above the train station and is quite a grand old hotel.  Very typical CP hotel (Canadian Pacific Rail Lines).



So here is where Beatle-mania started for me...

The story is quite funny because it is one of those squeaky wheel stories....sorta....

You see there was a room, and possibly some newlyweds...or maybe not...and then there was me next door who just couldn't figure out how to get to sleep with all that noise. ;)  Anyway.....chanceuse for them.....BUT....not for me.....

So, the staff at the QE after a rather restless night felt compelled to offer me a new room and .....voila...the upgrade followed and a walk down memory lane began!
Suite 1742 became my suite for the night and probably the only time in my life that I will be able to say that I slept in the same room as John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
So, for all of you, this is what it looks like inside Suite 1742 which also has room 1740 and 1738 attached.

Photos line all the walls of the suite.....

The song that was recorded in the suite in 1969 was Give Peace A Chance...

They sang with their visitors, journalists, fellow musicians, followers....and the like...

This is the vestibule, with bathroom off to the left (hidden) and small kitchen to the right (hidden).  The doors on the left lead to the livingroom and on the right to the bedroom.

Journalists came from all over to write about their bed-in, not all of them were friendly as we know.

Apparently John and Yoko felt that the message of peace was simple, one that could be delivered from bed, one that really required all of us to stop and sit and.....think.

Obviously not the original bed and actually the bed is not in the same position. They had their headboard against the window.

So, that is it.  The room cost 800$ a night for John Lennon fans.  I, of course, would not be able to pay that price but am very thankful to the staff for the upgrade.  I do admit that I did not sleep well.  The history buff within me kept mulling over the various discussions, songs and arguments that were recorded between those walls.  I played old videos that I found on the Internet and listened to music of those days gone by and tried to imagine what it was like.
1969.
Long hair.
Hippies....peace signs....love not war....the Beatles and all that vibe going on!
Felt quite special,
I only wonder what John Lennon would say today.....

A tantôt

I am linking this up as a good life Wednesday because this is a Wednesday I will never forget!!!