Watch John Lennon Perform “Mother” at the One to One Concert

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2025 has been bringing back Beatlemania in a major way. First came the casting announcements for the Fab Four’s upcoming, four-picture biopic series—a message met with overwhelming controversy and criticism over the A-list actor picks and their nonexistent resemblance to the IRL band. But as that debate rages on, the more attuned side of Beatles fandom is finding solace in One to One: John & Yoko, a new documentary following the spectacled couple through their life in ‘70s Greenwich Village and Lennon’s only complete concert post-Beatles breakup. Released exclusively for IMAX on April 11, the film’s widespread launch arrives this Friday, April 18.

In between its IMAX and nationwide release comes an exclusive clip of Lennon performing “Mother,” the opening track off his 1970 solo album Plastic Ono Band. The performance comes from the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972, a moment often neglected in profiles on the ex-Beatle (this was the first I’ve heard of it, at least.)

I returned to Plastic Ono Band last month in Paste’s Time Capsule series, and at the time said of “Mother”: “‘Mother’ takes Lennon at his most vulnerable. His voice cuts through raw and exposed—an orphaned plea to his troubled upbringing. But as the song unfolds, his desperation turns to anguish. Lennon’s emotional breakdown is deeply unsettling as he connects to his inner child and vents the pent up aching for parental guidance.”

Seeing this all unveiled on the live stage though, Lennon shines brightest. The mystic, seemingly untouchable climate of John Lennon is stripped bare as he sits, sings, and plays piano. It’s an impassioned display that helps to humanize one of the most venerated musicians of all time. Directed by Oscar award-winning filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald (Whitney, The Last King of Scotland), One to One: John & Yoko is an unseen, reflective dive into Lennon and Ono’s relationship throughout their first 18 months living in the US, and ultimately concluding with the concert for One to One.

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The film features an array of never-before-seen footage showing the pair’s often esoteric existence fitted alongside refinished moments from the concert itself. However, Macdonald’s cinematic objective was not to provide a definitive answer on Lennon and Ono’s relationship, nor pit one creative mind against the other, as many interpretations have done before. Instead, he allows their interactions to speak for themselves and highlights how vital Ono was to this period in Lennon’s life, music and creative inner-workings. Each detail is retold faithfully, from entire music videos worth of live performance, down to the candid recreation of their apartment in Greenwich Village.

In a press interview, producer Peter Worlsey said of the impetus to create One to One: John & Yoko: “I was having conversations with people in the Lennon estate and I found out that there was this One to One concert that was the only concert John gave after leaving the Beatles before his death. The master negative was in pieces-theLennon team were meticulously restoring it and wanted to remaster and release the concert. The impetus for the concert was an exposé by Geraldo Rivera on the terrible conditions in the Willowbrook children’s home. That made us start to think about telling a bigger story around the concert.”

Macdonald also elaborated on what he hopes people will take from the film, saying, “In one way, it’s the ultimate open-ended film. You have to take it all in and have your own response to it. There are the shards of these people’s lives as they appear in archival footage and the shards of that period as they maybe saw it on television.It’s not a neat jigsaw puzzle, but it is something you can immerse yourself in.I hope people come away feeling that they understand better who these two people were—that they were trying to make the world a better place and that that was done from a place of real integrity but also from a place that didn’t take itself totally seriously. They had a sense of humor about themselves and the modesty to accept when they couldn’t change things.”

Watch the performance of “Mother” below.

Exclusive: Watch John Lennon Perform “Mother” at the One to One Concert in 1972

One to One: John & Yoko arrives this Friday in IMAX nationwide with remastered audio. Kevin Macdonald’s new documentary follows the spectacled couple through their life in ‘70s Greenwich Village and their only complete concert post-Beatles breakup.