"I can't wake you up. You can wake you up." (Image by Roy Kerwood.)

Not long before he was murdered thirty years ago, John Lennon sat down along with wife Yoko Ono for a wide-ranging interview with Playboy. The couple had grown increasingly reclusive after nearly a decade of living a highly scrutinized public life. In the interview, Lennon comments on what he expected from life in the decade ahead. An excerpt:

“Playboy: What is the Eighties’ dream to you, John?

John Lennon: Well, you make your own dream. That’s the Beatles’ story, isn’t it? That’s Yoko’s story. That’s what I’m saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself. That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshiped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be. There’s nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you.”