MOG

thank you for this! with my world constantly filled with the Beatles, I love your perspective. I too loved "Grapefruit" and all things Beatles and Lennon, My room as a child my parents decorated with Sgt Pepper Posters, and Beatles memorabilia!

I was raised basically, by my mom, who was a beliver of the "Tao of John" ( Lennon), which isn't such a bad way to be raised :)...

so I have much respect for him and the things he grew to love.

I will absolutely check this out. I hope you are enjoying the season....

Much love..

April:)

I don't resent her, but I've never given her music any sort of a chance at all. My interest has been piqued since seeing The US vs John Lennon, just in seeing another side of her I didn't know.

I'll write this list down, but I don't imagine I'll be taking a listen any time soon. It's nothing against her, I just don't like building things up. Expectations are the building blocks of resentment.

I imagine that one day someone's just gonna have to pop on an album without me knowing.

Death of Samantha mentioned above is a link to the song. Listen to it!

LOL I figured it was, but I was so content listening to Deftones! Okay, I'll download it. Right now Refused have my full attention, but I'll give Yoko her fair share.

ok, ok i'll give it a try ;-)

Okay. Well, I didn't dislike it. I didn't love it, but it was a first listen. At the very least it was definitely enough to get me to give her more of a chance. I'll be sure to give both you and Spencer full progress reports.

This is so useful. I've been meaning to give Yoko a chance for a long time, but I needed somebody to hold my hand. Thanks, Kate and Spencer!

what ookpik said.

I love Yoko. She always got a bum rap.

I notice you've uploaded more. After Europe, Yoko gets another go.

Did she just tell me to get a life?!

I keed, I keed. "It's Time For Action" is very 2000-era Bowie. Not bad, but I need to give proper listens and digest.

Thanks for the push. I won't be so wary in the future.

Kate. I NEED THAT CD! Yoko sounded so fabulous blasting through the MOG speakers

Back in early September '05 I saw Yoko live. She was the very last artist to play a festival after two days of non-stop music on 3 stages (2 outdoor and one small theater). It was the 1st annual Arthur Fest in Los Angeles (Barnsdall Art Park in Los Feliz). The festival was kind of a mess and had to be the single biggest gathering of retro-hipsters cloaked in Robin Hood like outfits....complete with knee-high suede elf boots (yes, with tassels) men with feathers in their hats and girls dressed in their princess outfits.

By the time Yoko was about to go on, I was pretty worn out from all the action, the parade of costumes, not to to mention the effects of drinking my friend Jr's liquid concoction made from organic poppies. Yoko had distributed little flashlights w/ special Morse Code-like instructions. Yoko's band of young musicians started to play (Sean Lennon was in the band too). Its actually kind of tough for me to remember what it sounded like at first, but it was basically a blend of sloppy, avant pop. Then Yoko came out and started the hour long performance-art-piece. The crowd began to use their flash lights to signal words towards Yoko and towards the audience. In Morse Code, audience members would signal 'LOVE,' 'PEACE,' and other positive pronouncements. It was a really interesting experiment. For all the casual observers, the music sounded unpleasant, if not horrible and the signals of light appeared to be a chaotic mess. But for the willing participants in the art-piece, it was a different experience altogether. All of the participating audience members that I spoke to afterward were completely floored. They felt that they were part of a truly significant event. An exchange of something profound on both an artistic and personal level.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, skeptical outside observer or member of the congregation or Yoko.....I have to give props to the woman for being so bold and fearless. To always experiment in a cultural landscape that can be very stagnant and safe. Also, to have the courage to be pushing for such positivity in a world where its cool to be ironic and nihilist. Thanks Yoko.

Wow, thank you for that wonderful reminiscence. My brother was also at that Yoko show. His friend Wes worked for Barnsdall and hooked him up with a job working at Arthurfest. He also recalls being exhausted by the Devendra Banhart clones populating the fest, but was awed by Yoko's art/song combo. I was listening to the Yoko song "Woman Power." It strikes me as her subtle response to the vitriol hurled her way by angry Beatles fans, and a reminder to the man-egos that run our world that we would be nowhere without this kind of quiet feminine force.

There's a reason the man married her. I tried to post at work but it wouldn't let me. Bastards! Anyway, what I was going to say is I have never had a chance to check her out. I know Sonic Youth and a whole slew of indy noise rock and others call her a god(dess?) so this is an excellent springboard. Thanks Kate. Or, should I be thanking Mr. Owen? Also, thank you for dropping the links. That's some sweet sounds that make my mind say, "stop it ears we can't take it!" Anyway I'm going to try to compile this mix CD. It's my new destiny (aside from deciding to find the musico de Itala as previously mentioned). How awesome was this post?! Thanks Kate.

Haven't listened to much Yoko beyond the Plastic Ono Band and Double Fantasy cuts, she's an artist and has been into it for a long time. No regrets on giving this a listen. I never held her in disdain and liked her stuff as long as she wasn't crooning or wailing, that just hurts. Good post Kate, as always ;)

I am not really into arty-New Wavy stuff, so I have never really gotten into her music, although it certainly seemed ahead of its time, and as influential and good as anything in that genre. That being said, I have always been a Yoko booster both for her artwork, and for the clearly wonderful effect she had on John. After meeting her, he went from being a self-centered, angry popstar to being a true artist dedicated to exploring himself, his world and his responsibilities to it, and a man capable of being in a loving family. I also tend to prefer all the music he made after he met her to the music he made before he met her (although Tomorrow Never Knows is definitely top five).

i have a 45 of john lennon's - just starting over, the b-side is yoko ono's - kiss kiss kiss, a querky punk funk tune with a very odd ending where i think she is calling out in a kinda orgasmic fashion for her mother and father. good tune to dj within a punk funk set, sandwiched between the rapture and esg

so am i supposed to be looking for a Yoko or a female version of John making me Yoko? what does it all mean?

It depends on who you want to be.

yeah as long as i love yoko like she loved john vice versa , its all good. say, who has she collaborated with over the year? i imagine its quite diverse and strange even. i think id really like to meet her. she sounds really interesting.

"over the years">

In the '60s, she was a performance artist, and she was in the art collective called Fluxus (read more about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus). She also knew John Cage, who wrote a piece half-dedicated to her called 0'00" in which you perform any action, and you do it anywhere but on a stage, and you make sure it's amplified by a microphone as loudly as possible.

I'm not sure how she got involved with Ornette Coleman, but she performed with him in the late '60s/early '70s, and evidence of this can be found on the album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band on the song "Aos."

Through Lennon, she of course ended up working with many talented musicians and producers in his circle. In the '80s, after John died, she collaborated with a ton of different people on a bunch of weak albums; I don't know about the majority of it of the top of my head, but Phil Spector produced Season of Glass, and (of possible interest to Kate) she did a really terrible one called Starpeace with Sly & Robbie at their rhythm stations and Bill Laswell at the helm. (Really; it's terrible.)

In the '90s, her son Sean got super hip, joining Cibo Matto and hanging with the Beastie Boys and such. Sean put together a trio called Ima and they were her backing band on her '95 release Rising. There was also an outstanding release the next year called Rising Mixes which featured remixes by the Beastie Boys, Tricky, Cibo Matto, Ween, and Thurston Moore. (I love the Thurston Moore one because the entire contents are literally just hundreds of Japanese noise tapes playing at the same time beneath Yoko's experimental vocal performance. He described the making of it in detail once and it was hysterical.)

Then in the early '00s, she worked with a bunch of dance producers so they'd do remixes of a few of her early songs, and these mixes actually did really well in clubs. And finally, in 2006, she's putting out an album called Yes, I'm a Witch in which several current hip artists of her choosing (though I can only imagine Sean helped again) were given access to her entire back catalogue to remix. Here is the semi-underwhelming tracklist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes%2C_I%27m_a_Witch

That's just off the top of my head... enough for you??

holy crap. you sir are certified Yokologist and might I add a Doctor In Yoko otomy.

ooohhhhh...and its on astralwerks.sqweet. thats a new word. sqweet it is...

Thank you Kate! For bringing this out into the open and for not actually using your face to break glass. And for Maracatu's extensive knowledge of all things Yoko. I'd have to wiki the data otherwise.

I don't think I've been ready for Yoko Ono 'til now, but since I started listening to really eclectic bands like eX-Girl and Cibo Matto, I think I might be ready to give her a try.

Not to change the subject - but my wife LOVES Sean Lennon. Probably too much. I know he just released an album a few months back and now I have to seek out Ima to see if they actually released an album with him on vocals.

In related news - LONDON (Reuters) - Yoko Ono has called for the anniversary of John Lennon's death (Dec 8th) to become a worldwide day of forgiveness but said she could not yet absolve her husband's killer. Link

Wow, I'm listening to "Double Fantasy" right now, and lovin' the Yoko tracks as usual... esp "I'm Moving On" and "Every Man..."

There was a full on Yoko retrospective in Oxford (UK) a few years ago. It was one of the best things I've seen. They had a selection of stuff that sort of had "Beatles-time" all over it - including the ladder with the card on the ceiling above it - but what really got me was all the mid-60s work that had got gallery owner Robert Fraser's attention in the first place. Great pieces about perception and the role of the artist that took some of Duchamp's thinking and ran with it. The one that sticks in my mind was a big painting-size piece of perspex, hung in the window, and across the bottom was stencilled a message to the effect that this is a painting. It sounds a bit simple but the effect was staggering. And there were xerox copies of some of her instruction pieces, so we have an original Yoko Ono hanging in the kithcen!

You've made me go and dig out the Yoko box set someone once gave me and start really going through it. Thanks!

You are so right. I ignored her music till Double Fantasy, then had to listen to more

Glad you liked it - yeah, I just randomly happened upon him, but I really like him.

You live in Berkeley. I just moved from there 6 months ago after having spent 5 years there. Do you like it there?

Very cool, efinitely interested, I'll probably try to get that tracklist in order, thanks for posting it.

Yoko is much maligned, and most misunderstood. She's a creative tour-de-force... she's contributed a great deal of artistic thinking to the world.

Why thank you darlin'. Still figurin' things out on the MOG site, but we're glad to be part of the community. Thanks for your sweetness.

B.A.R.

Kate,

"I Feel Like Smashing My Face In A Clear Glass Window" has always been a fave of mine so it's nice to someone else discovering that song in addition to Yoko's other material. :)

Aloha from Hawaii!

Thanks for the heads up. I, too, am so wimpily wishy washy about really discovering Yoko music, and this just might be the kickstart I need.

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