Yoko Ono, the wife of the late John Lennon, will reprise the couple's 1969 Happy Christmas (War Is Over) war protest in 2006.
The original billboard campaign in New York will be given a global campaign in some of the world's largest cities later this year.The Lennon's conducted the original protest in retaliation against the war mongering tactics of the Nixon administration. The Yoko 2006 protest sends a message to the Bush administration.
John Lennon was hounded by Nixon, who had to try and have the British rock star deported from the USA for speaking out. Nixon resigned from his position as US president in disgrace before he completed his chore.
Never in a million years, did we think that promoting World Peace could be dangerous. Were we naive? Yes, on that account, we were. John sings: 'Nobody told me there'd be days like these.' That was his true confession," says Yoko Ono in a statement, "These songs have become relevant all over again. It's almost as if John wrote these songs for what we are going through now."
The story will be told in the new movie 'The US vs John Lennon' due shortly from Lionsgate Films.
The movie, done with the full support of Yoko Ono, features pieces together historic news footage to tell the tale.
"I believe John would have loved this film," says Ono Lennon, "It's the kind of cool film he would have liked even if it were about somebody else. It's not tabloid, but rather it tells it like it was. 'Gimme Some Truth,' indeed. If John were here today, he would have felt good about being represented by such a film, and the fact that we took the chance to make it and present it to the world. War Is Over (If You Want It)."
EMI Records will release the soundtrack to the film on September 26.
It will feature a previously unreleased live version of the Lennon's 'Attica State' and the movie's theme instrumental based on the Imagine album track 'How Do You Sleep'.
