Nedan en av de senaste utgivna videorna med John Lennon – Hold On (Elements Mix) (Official Music Video 5K) – hämtad från superduper-boxen THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION – SUPER DELUXE BOX SET med John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

John Lennon berättar här själv vad låten egentligen handlar om:

’Hold On John’ was just about holding on. Even though it’s not all that hot, let’s hold on. It’s only going to be all right – it’s now, this moment. That’s all right, this moment, and hold on, now. We might have a cup of tea or we might get a moment’s happiness any minute now. So that’s what it’s all about, just moment by moment.

Komponerad av: John Lennon
Inspelad: Mellan den 26 september och den 23 oktober 1970
Producenter: John Lennon, Yoko Ono och Phil Spector 

Släppt: Den 11 december 1970 (originalalbumet John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band)
Hold On (Elements Mix) släpptes på ovan nämnda box den 16 april 2021.

John Lennon – sång och elektrisk gitarr
Klaus Voorman – basgitarr
Ringo Starr – trummor

That’s how we’re living – cherishing each day and dreading it, too. It might be your last day – you might get run over by a car. I go through despair and hopefulness. I try and hang on to the hopeful bit. Otherwise, there’s just no point at all. I’m saying, ‘Hold on, John, it’s going to be alright’. Otherwise, I won’t hold on. I think complete happiness is when you are a bit of electricity, when you’ve made the absolute. And then the concept of what we think of happiness, of just being, which is what happiness will be for all of us – is not to. And I’ve had that through meditation. Just a state where you are not aware of anything. So there you’ll be and that’s complete happiness. You just are.

And that is the peace we’re looking for – is just to be. And nothing affects you, and you affect nothing, literally. You just are. The happiest people are the people that are ‘being’ more times a week than anybody else. And it’s just down to that. When you are just ‘being’, there’s nothing hassling you, or not hassling, or anything. And that’s it. And you get it writing, and you can get it daydreaming, or I remember having it as a kid on a desk, or in the grass in the sun, just for a moment.

Inspelning från 1970 av låten Hold On blev färdig och klar efter 32 tagningar på EMI Studios på Abbey Road i London.

I believe that meditation is a kind of ‘found truth’. Don’t run on this path but walk on it. The only way is to recover space in your mind. All you need is mind control. You have nothing to lose to try it. It will not make you crazy, you don’t have to be more smart to do it. Even when you’re meditating and doing these things with the whole expressed purpose of getting into that state, you’ve got to practise it like you’d practise anything to stop being frightened when you get to the different levels you get to on meditation – you get to a plane thing and whoop! And you’re fighting it all the time! A whole time is spent to stop being frightened of nothing. I think the world is on a trip. As humans, what we’re doing, we’ve been the tribal bit, childlike. And then we’re suddenly becoming aware of something and becoming self-conscious and going through all the hassles you go through being self-conscious, where you’re so self-conscious you can’t do anything.

And then to come out of that is the next stage, which I think we’re going into, of being self-conscious but realizing that you can handle it. And that’s the breakthrough. We’ve become too self-conscious of it and now we’ve got to put it in perspective. And we can have cars and tellies and that, but still get back to the spiritual bit, which is the bit we’ve missed out on. Becoming un-self-conscious. I had some great experiences in India because I was meditating eight hours a day. It was the biggest trip I’ve ever had in my life. You just sit there and let your mind go. It doesn’t matter what you’re thinking about, just let it go. And then you introduce the mantra, the vibration, to take over from the thought. You don’t will it or use your will power. There’s none of this sitting in the lotus position or standing on your head. You just do it as long as you like.

Nedan Instamatic-fotografier på John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Allen Klein, John & Yokos assistent Mal Evans, ljudteknikerna Phil McDonald, Richard Lush, John Leckie och Eddie Klein i kontrollrummet till Studio 3 i EMI Studios på Abbey Road nr 3 i London i oktober 1970.

Yoko Ono: Love is the energy that is really moving the whole world. Love is the creative energy and prayer is the poor man’s weapon. With prayer and love we can really create the world. Please send out the strongest energy of love, peace and belief to the world. Relax. Breathe in and out. It is important to have time when you are just relaxing. You are in the present moment. The present moment seems like a little dot. But that dot carries the human history of past, present and future and all of the people and things you love. Don’t waste your time worrying about things. Whatever will be, will be. And know that everything is a blessing if you let it be. A daydream, given the time, always comes true.