FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
Part Fifty-Three: Yoko Ono
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IN this A Buyer’s Guide…
IN THIS PHOTO: Yoko Ono with John Lennon
I am selecting the essential work from Yoko Ono. I have included various members of The Beatles before. I think that Yoko Ono too often gets associated with John Lennon and the band, meaning we do not listen to her music and consider her contributions. She is an amazing artist who has released some fantastic albums. Before getting to them, here is some biography about Yoko Ono:
“Ono first met Lennon of the Beatles on November 9, 1966, when he visited a preview of her exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London, England. Lennon was taken with the positive, interactive nature of her work. He specifically cited a ladder leading up to a black canvas with a spyglass on a chain, which revealed the word "yes" written on the ceiling. The two began an affair approximately 18 months later. Lennon divorced his first wife, Cynthia (with whom he had a son, Julian, born in 1963), and married Ono on March 20, 1969.
The couple collaborated on art, film and musical projects, and became famous for their series of "conceptual events" to promote world peace, including the "bed-in" held in an Amsterdam hotel room during their honeymoon in 1969. After her marriage to Lennon, Ono struggled with her ex-husband over custody of Kyoko. She recorded the song "Don't Worry Kyoko" as an effort to reach out to her child. In 1971, her ex-husband disappeared with Kyoko, and Ono did not learn for years what had happened to her daughter. Apparently, Kyoko spent more than a decade living with a religious cult called the Walk with her father.
Ono and Lennon became parents in 1975 with the arrival of their son, Sean. Lennon quit the music business to raise Sean, and when the famed musician returned to the spotlight in 1980, he was shot by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, only a few feet from Ono.
Since Lennon's death, Ono has continued her career, recording albums, performing concert tours and composing off-Broadway musicals. She has exhibited her art internationally, and the first U.S. retrospective of her work opened in New York City in 2002. Involved in an array of social endeavors, she co-founded Artists Against Fracking with son Sean in 2012 to lobby against drilling for natural gas in New York State.
Ono has also continued to honor Lennon's memory with a number of different projects. On October 9, 2002, she inaugurated the LennonOno Grant for Peace award to commemorate what would have been Lennon's 62nd birthday. On Lennon's birthday in 2007, she unveiled the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy, an island in Iceland. This outdoor artwork, created by Ono, represented her and Lennon's commitment to world peace.
Ono made music history in 2011, becoming the oldest artist to have a number-one hit on the dance charts. She was 78 years old when "Move on Fast" made it to the top spot. Ono has also enjoyed renewed interest in her artwork with a special exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2015. This show featured more than 100 works by Ono from 1960 to 1971”.
I am including the essential four albums (ones she recorded solo and with the Plastic Ono Band), in addition to one that is underrated. I am also bringing in her current studio album. I will finish by recommending a Yoko Ono book that is worth checking out. If you need a guide to the best work of Yoko Ono, then I think that the selectins below are…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Galella/Getty Images
A good starting point.
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The Four Essential Albums
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Release Date: 11th December, 1970
Label: Apple
Producers: Yoko Ono/John Lennon
Standout Tracks: Why Not/AOS/Touch Me
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=90491&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4F9869rWHV53x5Q5C4LMF7?si=iKRVrsqdSlmzMzfOhSBCdA
Review:
“Her 1970 album Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band is a triumph, in part, because it sounds fully aware of this reality. It’s also iconic because it contains some of Lennon’s most aggressive guitar work. Opener “Why” hurtles from its needle-drop opening, with slide guitar swoops and febrile picking that anticipate the variety of Ono’s vocal lines. When the singer enters, she wastes no time in applying a range of approaches to her one-word lyric sheet. Long expressions full of vibrato give way to shorter exhalations, rooted in the back of the throat. Spates of shredded laughter communicate the absurdist good humor that’s often present in Ono’s work. The minimalist pounding of drummer Ringo Starr and bassist Klaus Voormann is there as a foil, propped against all the invention on offer from Ono and Lennon.
“Why Not” inverts this script by arranging similar licks inside a slower tempo. Ono’s voice becomes more pinched and childlike, while Lennon’s guitar lines have a bluesier profile. Elsewhere, Ono puts a new spin on an “instruction” piece from her Grapefruit book, with the echo-laden “Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City.” Here, in another surprise, Ono’s voice sounds stolid and more traditionally “correct.” That feel is subsequently obliterated by the noisy middle section of “AOS,” a track Ono recorded in ’68 with saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s band. The Lennon-led backing group returns for the final two pieces of the original LP configuration, which have a comparatively calmer air.
Like Lennon’s ’70 solo album of the same name (and near-identical cover), Ono’s Plastic Ono Band initially scans as acerbic, yet manages to create a supple variety of song-forms from that opening template. Ono’s absorption of her new husband’s sonic language was only beginning to pay dividends, too. As Sean Lennon’s Chimera imprint and the Secretly Canadian label continue to reissue her catalog, Ono’s subsequent experiments with rock and pop formats will come into clearer view for audiences that have only heard rumors about her craft. Still, these opening reissues—which come complete with era-appropriate B-sides and outtakes—all manage to reflect a key aspect of Ono’s broader artistic intentions, as defined in a 1971 artist’s statement: “I like to fight the establishment by using methods that are so far removed from establishment-type thinking that the establishment doesn’t know how to fight back”– Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Why
Fly
Release Date: 21st September, 1971 (U.S.)/3rd December, 1971 (U.K.)
Label: Apple
Producers: John Lennon/Yoko Ono
Standout Tracks: Midsummer New York/Mindtrain/Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=95354&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/42oXWuPLLxMBZrK1HEzxUH?si=ItM8HJcWRC2iPdwbNtx7tw
Review:
“By the time Fly emerged, the battle lines had long been drawn, and those who preferred to place Ono's domestic situation rather than her music in the foreground were never going to give it a fair shake. Very much their loss -- not only is it that rarest of all beasts, a '70s double album that rewards repeated listening, but Fly also shows the work of a creative artist working with a sympathetic set of backing players to create inspired, varied songs. At points, the appeal lies simply in Ono's implicit "to heck with you" approach to singing -- compositions like "Midsummer New York" are easygoing rock chug that won't surprise many, but it's her take on high-pitched soul and quivering delivery that transforms them into something else. The screwy blues yowl of "Don't Worry Kyoko" is something else again, suggesting something off Led Zeppelin III gone utterly berserk. Meanwhile, check the fragile, pretty acoustic guitar of "Mind Holes," her singing swooping in the background like a lost ghost, while the reflective "Mrs. Lennon," as wry but heartfelt a portrait of her position in the public eye as any, ended up being used by Alex Chilton for "Holocaust," which gives a good sense of the sad tug of the melody. Perhaps the best measure of Fly is how Ono ended up inventing Krautrock, or perhaps more seriously bringing the sense of motorik's pulse and slow-building tension to an English-language audience. There weren't many artists of her profile in America getting trancey, heavy-duty songs like "Mindtrain" and the murky ambient howls of "Airmale" out to an English-language audience. Such songs readily match the work of Can, another band with a Japanese vocalist taking things to a higher level. As for "Fly" itself, the mostly unaccompanied wails and trills from Ono will confirm stereotypes in many folks' minds, but it's a strange, often beautiful performance that follows its own logic” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Mrs. Lennon
Approximately Infinite Universe (with The Plastic Ono Band)
Release Date: 8th January, 1973 (U.S.)/16th February, 1973 (U.K.)
Label: Apple
Producers: John Lennon/Yoko Ono
Standout Tracks: Yang Yang/Death of Samantha/Now or Never
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=90425&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1qRYdkOF7bbiNP6O1I0Wyq?si=1dzjVvz5SfiY-ZcK9hkJIA
Review:
“The somber ballads on Approximately Infinite Universe are mixed with slow rockers, funky workouts, and show-tune style numbers (all played mostly by New York band Elephant’s Memory; Lennon appears on a few tracks under a pseudonym). There’s a breezy thrill in Ono’s omnivorous songs, performed with both committed seriousness and campy humor. Over the samba-ish beat of “What a Mess,” she sings, “If you keep hammering anti-abortion/We’ll tell you no more masturbation for men... If you keep laying on money and power/We’ll tell you meanwhile your sprinkler is out of soda.” Even funnier is the horn-propelled “I Felt Like Smashing My Face in a Clear Glass Window,” wherein Ono playfully grapples with her parents’ influence, eventually questioning their sanity as well as her own.
Ono’s parents show up again on Feeling the Space, when soft opener “Growing Pain” begins with the lines, “I’m a battleship/Frozen by my mother’s anger.” From there, Ono persistently explores feminist struggles in ways both poetic and polemic. Some tunes, like the lifting “Coffin Car” and the theater-worthy “Woman of Salem,” paint metaphoric pictures of life as a woman. But more often, Ono confronts problems with bold brashness, in songs with titles like “Woman Power,’’ “Angry Young Woman,” and “She Hits Back.” The latter succinctly explains Ono’s anger: “My ears get tired of listening all the time/They’ve been taking lots of garbage all their lives” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Move on Fast
BETWEEN MY HEAD AND THE SKY (with the Plastic Ono Band)
Release Date: 21st September, 2009
Label: Chimera Music
Producers: Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon
Standout Tracks: WAITING FOR THE D TRAIN/HEALING/BETWEEN MY HEAD AND THE SKY
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=200175&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4BpAwcuCB5GAykJqbHjWjx?si=BbTlwKivSCqyQs_TktRd4Q
Review:
“She's really back; one of the most gloriously influential and notorious women in the history of rock has returned with a new album at the age of 76, and thank goodness. With Between My Head and the Sky, Yoko Ono has courageously and outrageously revived the Plastic Ono Band moniker; a group she and husband John Lennon formed together; only this time, instead of the late John, it's with the couple's son Sean Lennon. Audacious? Oh yeah, but wait until you hear it! On 2007's Yes, I'm a Witch, Ono gave a bunch of her old tracks to artists like J. Spaceman, Chan Marshall, DJ Spooky, and the Flaming Lips, to name a few, and re-recorded them. This time out, she surrounded herself with New York studio players, Sean's own band, and guests such as Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto, and members of Cornelius. The end result is a stunning collection of 16 wildly diverse tracks that were written in six days and recorded very quickly. The centerpiece is an electronic-cum-acid rock spoken word peace called "The Sun Is Down," with screaming guitars, crisscrossing beats and breaks, and Honda offering sung vocal support drifting entrancingly in the backdrop. Then there is the funkier material, such as the wonderfully surreal "Ask the Elephant," with some stellar feedback and heavy guitar work by Sean, and the overtly rockist title track, where Ono speaks more emphatically than she has in decades. This isn't just rock as spoken word, it's got groove, crunch, noise, and vulnerability as well as authority, and in places, yes, her trademark ululating wail. "Watching the Rain" is a midtempo ballad with shimmering blips and beats, her singing voice is expressive in its limited range, and her words are deeply moving. The shamanistic, trance-like quality of "Moving Mountains" melds acid folk and new production styles with a beautiful layer of horns -- trumpets mainly -- in the background. Come to think of it, there are a lot of trumpets on this record. Ultimately, however, Between My Head and the Sky is perhaps the most accessible album she's recorded, and yet the most forward looking, too, because it is ultimately contemporary in that it takes the past into account while pushing its margins to the breaking point and pointing to the known -- check the jazzed-up funky reggae in "Hashire, Hashire." This set is not full of ballads; there is little of the fragility of Walking on Thin Ice here, though its desire to heal individuals and the world is ever present, and has none of the overt self-conscious excesses of Plastic Ono Band projects of the past. This is a deeply focused, wonderfully colorful, and deeply expressive work that showcases a collaboration between mother and son and displays depth, strength, creativity in spades, and intense beauty” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: ASK THE ELEPHANT!
The Underrated Gem
Rising
Release Date: 7th November, 1995
Label: Capitol
Producers: Yoko Ono/Rob Stevens
Standout Tracks: Warzone/Wouldnit/I'm Dying
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=579087&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Eul0rbOz62sBPAOtFhlqr?si=QoyvKG3cQbeLCX7lg0YGFQ
Review:
“There are times when nepotism makes sense. The ardent patronage of her husband, John Lennon, enabled Yoko Ono to record and release some of the most fearless and prophetic music in avant-rock: the 1970 shriek feast Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band; the proto-No Wave bedlam of her 71 double album, Fly; the immortal 1981 serrated-boogie thang “Walking on Thin Ice.” On Rising, her first studio album in nearly a decade, Ono wisely dives back into the gene pool — this time with a crude-groove trio, IMA, led by her son, Sean Ono Lennon.
Based on the corrosive vigor of his guitar playing and IMA’s strong minimalist rumble, Sean Lennon is the most sympathetic collaborator Ono has had since his father was killed. The leanness of Rising is a major improvement on the sugar-shock overproduction of Ono’s mid-’80s solo albums and shows Lennon’s confidence in the idiosyncratic vitality of his mother’s voice. He, bassist Timo Ellis and drummer Sam Koppelman let Ono’s rippling yelps and raw lamentations roam free over the fat clang of a rhythm guitar in “New York Woman” and the brute rain-dance pulse of “Turned the Corner.” “I’m Dying” sounds like the Plastic Ono Jesus Lizard: one grinding chord progression cranked up to a crowd-surfing frenzy with Ono going into the kind of death-warble overdrive you usually don’t expect from a 62-year-old millionairess” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: Talking to the Universe
The Latest Album
WARZONE
Release Date: 24th October, 2018
Label: Sony Music International
Producer: Thomas Bartlett
Standout Tracks: Now or Never/Woman Power/Why/Imagine
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1439790&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5EvPFlJpDNTJ6qFMiEJnwH?si=KGAFUOYISpmanL765urMtg
Review:
“That whimsical spirit is perhaps Warzone’s defining characteristic, despite a tracklist that leans heavily on songs about war and other forms of violence. Ono, who turned 85 this year, still has the uncanny ability to see the world through the eyes of a child, which can be cloying at times, as in “Children Power,” with its kids’ chorus and prominent use of animal samples, though the song is kept just on the right side of twee by its Velvet Underground-esque groove and Ribot’s probing guitar solo. But Ono’s weaponized naïveté is powerful at times: On “Teddy Bear,” a reworking of “Cape Clear” from 1985’s Starpeace, the combination of her plainspoken words and simple melody with Bartlett’s elegiac piano evoke an ineffable sense of sadness and innocence lost.
Also fully intact is Ono’s trademark shriek, which has, if anything, grown richer and more resonant with age. Her new version of “Why,” from 1970’s Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, strips away the original’s proto-punk thrash to highlight her anguished screams, backed only by ominous rumbles of electronic noise and the sound of a trumpeting elephant. “Hell and Paradise” and “It’s Gonna Rain,” both from Starpeace, both end with blood-chilling primal screams, a post-verbal culmination of the lyrics’ sense of anxiety and desperation. In many ways, Warzone feels like an album-length extension of the viral audio clip Ono shared as her “response” to Donald Trump’s election in November 2016. Ono is in on the joke, as she knows her inimitable vocal style remains a punchline for many less-adventurous listeners. But in a time when many of our own inner monologues sound uncannily like Yoko Ono screamfests, she’s never been more relatable.
Trump gets a more conventional shout-out on “Woman Power,” a remake of the second-wave feminist anthem from 1973’s Feeling the Space with new lyrics for the era of Women’s Marches and #MeToo. But Ono, ever the optimist, manages to hold out hope for even our patriarch-in-chief’s redemption: “You may be the president now,” she sings, “You may still be a man/But you must also be human/So open up and join us in living.” This kind of radical empathy, even for a figure as cartoonishly unempathetic as Trump, is central to Ono’s politics. It’s tempting to call such feel-good sentiments anachronistic, but it’s also worth remembering that there was plenty of political turmoil in the ‘60s and ‘70s too. For better or worse, Ono continues to carry the banner of positivity she and John Lennon had been waving since “Give Peace a Chance.”
It’s thus appropriate that Warzone closes with a version of 1971’s “Imagine”—a song written by Lennon and inspired by Ono’s 1963 poem “Cloud Piece.” Like the rest of the album, Ono strips it down to the bones, opening with just her voice over ambient keyboards and slowly unfolding into an almost hymn-like arrangement. It is, frankly, a revelation: stripping away the decades of accumulated sentiment and cliché from Lennon’s original recording to reveal something utterly guileless and pure of heart. Warzone isn’t going to get us out of our current waking nightmare any more than Imagine did in 1971, but Ono’s gift for making change seem possible remains undimmed” – SLANT
Choice Cut: Hell in Paradise
The Yoko Ono Book
John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band
Authors: John Lennon/Yoko Ono
Publication Date: 29th October, 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Synopsis:
“Bursting with archive material and fascinating photographs, this deluxe volume traces the journey of John Lennon’s finest solo album and provides a unique insight into his relationship with Yoko Ono and the aftermath of the Beatles’s split.
Described by Lennon as 'the best thing I've ever done', and widely regarded by critics as his best solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released alongside the remarkable Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band on 11 December 1970. With first-hand commentary by John & Yoko, members of the Plastic Ono Band and other key figures in their lives, and packed with evocative and revealing letters, artworks and photographs, this incisive volume offers new insights into the raw emotions and open mindset of Lennon after marriage to Ono and the break-up of the Beatles.
Following their wedding in March 1969, Lennon and Ono decided that their future musical endeavours should be credited to a conceptual vehicle, the Plastic Ono Band. The band featured an ever-changing line-up of musicians, including Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Ringo Starr, Alan White, George Harrison, Billy Preston and Jim Keltner, all of whom played live with Lennon and Ono, and contributed to their recordings.
The fearless honesty that John & Yoko inspired in one another in their search for truth, meaning and peace had a huge impact on Lennon's song writing, resulting in the creation of tracks that are intensely personal and unlike anything previously heard in popular music, including 'Mother', 'Working Class Hero' and 'God'. This book takes those lyrics as a starting point and explores Lennon's life, relationships and world view during this transformative period” – Waterstones
Buy:https://www.waterstones.com/book/john-and-yoko-plastic-ono-band/john-lennon/yoko-ono/9780500023433