YOKO ONO 
“Feedback” starts off with feedback-drenched guitar echo that is among the best I have heard – certainly better than “Free Form Guitar” on Chicago’s first album Chicago Transit Authority, or the side-long “Cambridge 1969” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that was included on their follow-up to Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions – then again, Index went on to do a real song rather than just waving their guitar in front of the amp. (March 2011) * * * Opposition to the unfair imprisonment of two women in Pussy Riot became a cause célèbre of many Western celebrities plus musicians from every genre imaginable: Bryan Adams, Beastie Boys, the Black Keys, John Cale, Peter Gabriel, Green Day, Nina Hagen, Kathleen Hanna, Paul McCartney, Moby, Yoko Ono, Pet Shop Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patti Smith, Sting, Pete Townshend, etc. Pussy Riot was featured on 60 Minutes as well.
For their part, the bandmembers in Pussy Riot that were not in prison distanced themselves from all of this attention and were quoted as saying: “We’re flattered, of course, that Madonna and Björk have offered to perform with us. But the only performances we’ll participate in are illegal ones. We refuse to perform as part of the capitalist system, at concerts where they sell tickets.”
(December 2013)
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Also gaining currency in the 1960’s was the notion of loving Jesus Christ and what He stood for, but not wanting to become involved in the Christian Church. John Lennon echoed these sentiments when he was asked to look back on the controversy in an interview in Canada in 1969 (from Wikipedia): “He repeated his opinion that the Beatles were more influential on young people than Christ, adding that some ministers had agreed with him. He called the protesters in the US ‘fascist Christians’, saying he was ‘very big on Christ. I’ve always fancied him. He was right.’” Also in 1969: “In a BBC interview . . . [John] Lennon called himself ‘One of Christ’s biggest fans’, talked about the Church of England, his vision of heaven, and unhappiness over being unable to marry Yoko Ono in [the] church.”
(September 2014)
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John Lennon was beginning to write some new songs and noticed that much of the new music sounded a lot like Yoko Ono’s earlier work, particularly “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s. This realization fired his inspiration to get a new album out. The couple produced dozens of songs, enough to fill up their hit 1980 album, Double Fantasy, as well as a second planned album, Milk and Honey that was ultimately released in 1984 (following Lennon’s assassination). (March 2016) * * * From Wikipedia: “Written by [John] Lennon as an anguished love song to Yoko Ono, [‘Don’t Let Me Down’] was interpreted by Paul McCartney as a ‘genuine plea’, with Lennon saying to Ono, ‘I’m really stepping out of line on this one. I’m really just letting my vulnerability be seen, so you must not let me down.’ . . . Richie Unterberger of Allmusic called it ‘one of the Beatles’ most powerful love songs’.” (September 2017) * * * Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten. March 2016 – 1980’s-2000’s punk/funk band THE LOVEMASTERS; Story of the Month on Pat Boone; also, Twisted Sister, the B-52’s, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, ZZ Top, Deee-Lite, Katrina and the Waves, Arlo Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, the Ramrods, Robert Mulrooney, Bootsey X, Bobby Beyond, One String Sam, the Credibility Gap, Dark Carnival, Nathaniel Mayer. (Year 7 Review) |