Ritchie Yorke – Christ You Know It Ain’t Easy:Β John And Yoko’s Battle For Peace
October 9th, 2015
ISBN – 9990051135145
RITCHIE YORKEβS TRUE STORY OF JOHN AND YOKOβs CANADIAN PEACE MOVEMENT IS ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED
Australian author and journalist Ritchie Yorke is back in Toronto after many years absence to launch his first person account of John and Yokoβs Canadian Peace Campaign of 1969 and 1970.Β The Montreal Bed In. The Toronto Varsity Rock Concert.Β John and Pierre. Traveling the World For Peace. This is the real story, the real truth.
Yorke, Canadaβs first counter culture journalist, is in Toronto to overseeing the publication ofΒ CHRIST YOU KNOW IT AINβT EASY: JOHN AND YOKOβS BATTLE FOR PEACE.
The eBook will be published on October 9, which would have been John Lennonβs 75thΒ birthday. Yorke produced his book with the assistance and co-operation of Yoko Ono who has written the foreword.
β I assisted in bringing the Lennons back to Canada in December 1969 to unveil their historic War Is Over If You Want It peace campaign, and to meet with communications prophet Marshall McLuhan and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.β writes the Australian journalist. βDuring John and Yokoβs Canadian stay, I was given an ultimatum by my employer.Β I was instructed to either quit my Globe and Mail columnist job to join theΒ War Is Over If You Want ItΒ peace campaign, or get back to toiling at the Globe.Β Some choice!Β β
The editor told him that he couldnβt work for John Lennon and the Globe at the same timeΒ and that he had to make a choice between them. It took him about a sixth of a second to decide!
In the early 1970s Yorke found himself stuck in the middle of a world in change.Β He was passionately caught up in the Peace cause. He travelled around the planet selling the gospel of peace on the Lennonsβ behalf (he and travel buddy, rockabilly legend Rompinβ Ronnie Hawkins thundered through 15 countries and 52,000 miles in five weeks).Β They were all over the front pages of Hong Kong tabloids β seizing headlines when he and the Hawk risked their lives illegally crossing into Red China to present the War Is Over message to the Communist Chinese at Lok-ma-Chau.