Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band | ||||
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Studio album by Yoko Ono with Plastic Ono Band | ||||
Released | 11 December 1970 | |||
Recorded | 10 October – 6 November 1970 "AOS" February 1968 | |||
Studio | Abbey Road and Royal Albert Hall, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:29 | |||
Label | Apple | |||
Producer | Yoko Ono, John Lennon | |||
Yoko Ono chronology | ||||
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Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono, released on Apple Records in December 1970 alongside her husband's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band . Ono's album features her vocal improvisations against backing by the Plastic Ono Band (consisting of John Lennon on guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, and Klaus Voormann on bass), with the exception of the track "AOS", which is backed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet. [3]
In the United States, the album peaked at number 182 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It received negative criticism upon release, with the exception of supportive reviews by Billboard and critic Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone . Despite its lack of commercial success, it has been depicted as an influential recording for a variety of subsequent musicians.
With the exception of "AOS", a 1968 recording, Ono's album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios during the same September–October 1970 sessions that produced the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. [4] [5] Also recorded at this time was "Between the Takes", which was released on the 1998 CD reissue of Ono's Fly album. [4] "Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City" was based on a sample from a tape of George Harrison playing sitar and a Ringo Starr drum break with an added echo effect [6] plus Ono's vocals with a lyric referencing a miscarriage. [7] Ono's vocalisations on tracks such as "Why" and "Why Not" mixed hetai, a Japanese vocal technique from kabuki theatre, with modern rock 'n roll and raw aggression influenced by the then-popular primal therapy that Lennon and Ono had been undertaking. According to Ono, the recording engineers were in the habit of turning off the recording equipment when she began to perform – which is why, at the end of "Why", Lennon can be heard asking "Were you gettin' that?" [6]
On 29 February 1968, Ono appeared onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall with Ornette Coleman and his jazz group. The performance and their afternoon rehearsal were both recorded; "AOS" was recorded during this rehearsal and included on the album, the only track not featuring the Plastic Ono Band as it existed for the December Ono and Lennon albums. Describing how she met Coleman, Ono has stated:
Ornette was already very, very established and famous and respected guy as a musician. And I met him in Paris. The way I met was, I was doing a show and after the show, somebody said, Oh, Ornette Coleman is here and he would like to – okay. Well, hello. Thank you for coming. That kind of thing. And he was saying, Well, okay. So he said that he was going to go and do a concert in Albert Hall and would I come and do it with him because he thought it was kind of interesting what I do. [8]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [9] |
Rolling Stone | Positive [10] |
Pitchfork | 9.1/10 [11] |
Initially on Apple Records, through EMI, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band was released to considerable critical disdain in 1970, at a time when Ono was being widely blamed for disbanding The Beatles. Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band only hit the lower reaches of the album chart in the United States, failing to chart in the United Kingdom altogether. [5] Notable exceptions were the estimations of Billboard , which called it "visionary," and Rolling Stone critic Lester Bangs, who called it "the first J&Y album that doesn’t insult the intelligence—in fact, in its dark confounding way, it’s nearly as beautiful as John’s album… There’s something happening here." [10]
More recently, the album has been credited with having an influence on musicians grossly disproportionate to its sales and visibility, akin to that of The Velvet Underground. [12] [13] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly has credited the album with "launching a hundred or more female alternative rockers, like Kate Pierson & Cindy Wilson of the B-52s to current thrashers like L7 and Courtney Love of Hole". The record placed #136 on NPR Music's 2017 list The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women. The site's Marissa Lorusso deemed it "jarring, experimental and stunning" and complimented its "fearless curiosity" for shaping genres including avant-garde rock, experimental electronic music, and post-punk, as well as sound art. [14]
In a 2017 Bandcamp Daily feature focused on Ono's impact, British electronic musician Kiran Leonard applauded Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band and her vocal performances across it. He wrote that "the strength and range of vocal techniques on [it] is simply astonishing", noting that "to do what Ono does with her voice on [it] is no easy task." [15]
The covers of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band albums are nearly identical. Lennon pointed out the difference in their 1980 Playboy interview: "in Yoko's, she's leaning back on me; in mine, I'm leaning on her". The photos were taken with a cheap Instamatic camera on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park (their home at the time) by actor Daniel Richter. At the time, Richter lived with Lennon and Ono and worked as their assistant.
The album was reissued on compact disc by Rykodisc in 1997 with three bonus tracks from the era. [16] An "LP replica" special edition was issued by V2 Records in Japan in 2007, [17] and it was reissued again on LP, compact disc, and digital download by Secretly Canadian on November 11, 2016, with bonus tracks and rare photos.
The title and lyrics to "Greenfield Morning" derive from Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit . An edited version of "Open Your Box" appeared as the B-side to the UK issue of Lennon's single "Power to the People".
All songs written by Yoko Ono.
Side one
Side two
Tracks 1–6 per the 1970 release, with the following bonus tracks:
Tracks 1–6 per the 1970 release, with the following bonus tracks:
The 2020 deluxe box set of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band included a Blu-ray disc containing the unedited live sessions for Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band as well as three previously unreleased songs and three B-sides that appeared on John Lennon singles in 1969 and 1970. [18] "Life" is the full version of the track "Between the Takes", which appeared as a bonus track on CD reissues of Fly .
Technical personnel [5]
Chart (1970) | Peak position | Total weeks |
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US Billboard 200 [20] | 182 | 3 |
Country | Date | Format | Label | Catalog |
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United States | 11 December 1970 [21] | LP | Apple | SW 3373 [22] |
Cassette | 4XW 3373 [23] | |||
8-Track | 8XW 3373 [24] | |||
United Kingdom | LP | SAPCOR 17 [22] | ||
Japan (Promo) | 1970 | LP (Red) [25] | AP-80175 [26] | |
Japan | 13 January 1971 | LP | ||
United States | 20 May 1997 [27] | CD | Rykodisc | RCD 10414 [16] |
United Kingdom | 1997 | |||
Japan | VACK-5370 [28] | |||
24 January 2007 | Rykodisc, Apple | VACK-1308 [17] | ||
United States & Europe | 11 November 2016 | LP | Secretly Canadian, Chimera Music | SC281/CHIM20 [29] |
LP (Clear) [30] | ||||
CD [31] | ||||
Japan | 7 December 2016 | CD | Sony Records International | SICX-73 [32] |
22 February 2017 | LP (Clear) | SIJP-33 [33] |
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. Backed by the Plastic Ono Band, it was released by Apple Records on 11 December 1970 in tandem with the similarly titled album by his wife, Yoko Ono. At the time of its issue, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received mixed reviews overall, but later came to be widely regarded as Lennon's best solo album.
Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann is a German artist, musician, and record producer.
Mind Games is the fourth solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. It was recorded at Record Plant Studios in New York in summer 1973. The album was released in the US on 29 October 1973 and in the UK on 16 November 1973. It was Lennon's first self-produced recording without help from Phil Spector. Like his previous album, the politically topical and somewhat abrasive Some Time in New York City, Mind Games received mixed reviews upon release. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 9 in the US, where it was certified gold.
Walls and Bridges is the fifth solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. It was issued by Apple Records on 26 September 1974 in the United States and on 4 October in the United Kingdom. Written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono, the album captured Lennon in the midst of his "Lost Weekend". Walls and Bridges was an American number-one album on both the Billboard and Record World charts and included two hit singles, "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" and "#9 Dream". The first of these was Lennon's first number-one hit in the United States as a solo artist, and his only solo chart-topping single in either the US or Britain during his lifetime.
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band, released in December 1969 on Apple Records. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono received a phone call from the festival's promoters John Brower and Kenny Walker, and then assembled a band on very short notice for the festival, which was due to start the following day. The band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The group flew from London, and had brief unamplified rehearsals on the plane before appearing on the stage to perform several songs; one of which, "Cold Turkey", was first performed live at the festival. After returning home, Lennon mixed the album in a day.
Wedding Album is the third and final in a succession of three experimental albums by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It followed Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins and Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. In Britain, the album was released credited by "John and Yoko", without last names mentioned. In the United States, it was released credited by "John Ono Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon."
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions is the second of three experimental albums of avant-garde music by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in May 1969 on Zapple, a sub label of Apple. It was a successor to 1968's highly controversial Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, and was followed by the Wedding Album. The album peaked in the United States at number 174, 50 places lower than the previous album. The album, whose title is a play on words of the BBC Radio show Life with The Lyons, was recorded at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London and live at Cambridge University, in November 1968 and March 1969, respectively. The Cambridge performance, to which Ono had been invited and to which she brought Lennon, was Lennon and Ono's second as a couple. A few of the album's tracks were previewed by the public, thanks to Aspen magazine. The album was remastered in 1997.
"Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon, and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Released as a single in July 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, it is the first solo single issued by Lennon, released while he was still a member of the Beatles, and became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the British singles chart.
The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name.
"You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles originally released as the B-side of the single "Let It Be" on 6 March 1970. Although first issued with their final single (and the penultimate single in the United States), it was recorded in four separate sessions beginning with three in May and June 1967, with one final recording session conducted in April 1969. The song features a saxophone part played by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
"Cold Turkey" is a song written by English singer-songwriter John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon and it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's first appearance on an album was Live Peace in Toronto 1969 where the song had been performed live on 13 September 1969 with Lennon reading the lyrics off a clip-board.
Season of Glass is the fifth studio album by Yoko Ono, her first solo recording after the murder of her husband John Lennon. Season of Glass, released in 1981, reached number 49 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, making it Ono's highest-charting solo album to date.
Fly is the second album by Yoko Ono, released in 1971. A double album, it was co-produced by Ono and John Lennon. It peaked at No. 199 on the US charts.
Feeling the Space is the fourth solo album by Yoko Ono, released in 1973. It was her last one to be released on Apple Records.
"Hold On" is a song from the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon. It features only vocals, tremolo guitar, drums, and bass guitar, typical of the sparse arrangements Lennon favoured at the time. On the 2000 reissue of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, "Hold On" features a slightly longer introduction. The original version was restored on the 2010 reissue.
"Well Well Well" is a song by English musician John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The eighth and longest track on the album, "Well Well Well" features an aggressive guitar sound, screaming vocals and a pounding backing track.
"Why" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on her 1970 Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album. In the U.S. it was also released as the B-side of John Lennon's "Mother" single, taken from his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.
"Touch Me" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on her 1970 album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. An edited version was later released in the U.S. as the b-side to John Lennon's single "Power to the People."
"Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for A Hand in the Snow)" is a song by Yoko Ono that was originally released by Plastic Ono Band in October 1969 as the B-side of John Lennon's single "Cold Turkey" and was later released on Ono's 1971 album Fly. Several live versions have been released, including on Live Peace in Toronto 1969 and Some Time in New York City in 1972. An early version was titled "Mum's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow". It has been covered by several other artists.
Japanese multimedia artist, singer and songwriter Yoko Ono has released 14 studio albums, eight collaborative albums, and 40 singles as a lead artist. Married to English singer-songwriter and the Beatles member John Lennon until his murder in 1980, she has contributed several B-sides to his singles from late 1960s to the 1980s. Ono released her debut studio album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in December 1970, faring poorly in the United States. Similar moderate success was achieved with her follow-up records Fly (1971) and Approximately Infinite Universe (1973).
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