On June 1, 1969, in room 1742 at the Hotel Reine Elizabeth in Montreal, Canada, John Lennon and Yoko Ono made history. Along with an enthusiastic crowd of students, Hare Krishna devotees, and celebrity friends including Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg, they recorded the best-known anti-war song of the 20th century.
“In my secret heart, I wanted to write something that would take over We Shall Overcome,” Lennon told David Sheff in 1980. “I don’t know why, that’s the one they always sang.”
