yoko ono/plastic ono band

i believe yoko ono is best described as john lennon described her essentially saying, she is famous but nobody knows what she does. i imagine most people are familiar with her for being the wife of lennon and perhaps most credit her for that most famous of groups break-up. (in truth it was most likely paul who broke up the band indirectly, i believe, but whatever…) generously, i will say half are aware she was a sort of performance artist of some type. her storied happenings with la monte young and others or her “performance” with the dirty mac at the rolling stone’s rock and roll circus and the plastic ono band’s live peace in toronto has made a few aware of her status as an artist/musician of some type. as you read this you must by now be wondering where this is going…

somehow a few months ago i found myself reading about john lennon on wikipedia. i don’t remember exactly why. perhaps my love of a few of his beatle songs (tomorrow never knows, strawberry fields forever, i am the walrus, are the top 3 if you must know, in no order.) or maybe i had found my way there by accident, whatever the case for a night i was mildly intrigued particuarly with his “experimental” albums made while in the begining of his relationship with yoko ono. actualy the pair made a number of recording together i found out which vary from completely pointless, as is the case with “two virgins”, to excellent, which is the case with yoko ono’s “plastic ono band” album. lennon did an album and ono did an album both titled “plastic ono band” which featured nearly identical covers. his is typical lennon, hers is a great piece of experimental rock in a sort of futuristic velvet underground, john cage avant-garde tradition. 

ono’s album reminds me in a way of how bowie later twisted a sort of stockhausen spirit into his albums and the iggy pop albums he worked on while in berlin. ono twists more of cage’s conceptual approach to music as opposed to stockhausen’s more sophisticated and disciplined ethos. both deal with chance as well as the general idea that any sound is musical but to me the former is more outside of what the average person may percieve as being music or musical. and i speak very generally here. for one, ono was associated with cage and secondly the material is fairly varied and distinctly original so comparisons do little justice.

after about 10 second into the first track, “why” i was pleasantly suprised. this was not the sort of thing i had expected. it was rocking! the drums (ringo star) and bass (klaus voormann) are very fluid and repetative. this is joined by the finest guitar work john lennon has ever played. period. what’s amazing to me is that is is almost completely devoid of any white blooze noodlings or rock guitar trapings. this could have easily been something from can, neu! or brian eno had i not known better. her voice which appear as mostly non lyrical shrieks and moans are effected by tape manipulation and effects. what is most pleasing about this is her control. just as you think she will send you for the fast foward button she pulls back. just as you are ready for her to kick into super annoying overdrive, ear drum destroying nonsensical over indulgence she disappears. it is at once, challenging, funky-fun-ass-shaking and moving. 

the next track, “why not”, creates the same feeling at a more moderate tempo. the reat of the album is just as engaging for the most part. her vocalizing does begin to wear thin at times, but as it does the tone shifts a bit to a more conceptual music/sound collage/electronic terrain. the track with ornette coleman’s quartet would be the most interesting thing here, you would think. actually, it is not. it’s not bad, but it just seems to blend in more than you would expect it to stand out, considering the name implies you’re dealing with one of jazz’s top innovators (debatable, sure. humor me). 

to place this album in context for me i would have to say it prefigures some of my favorite music of the era to come, mostly can, neu! and faust. it also features some elements i find similar to john lydon’s approach with PiL and musical eno and a heavier talking heads. it is one of the more listenable examples of something which is intended to be labeled avant-garde, for sure. certainly it is mostly more musical than most things that would try to be so experimental for the time (circ 1970). it is suprisingly musical and avoids many of the musiciany indulgence of anything so called progressive in approach and execution. granted, i have only given this album a few listens at this point so my glowing recomendation here may be somewhat premature. it is not for everyone. but if you can appreciate something a little different, i say, give it a shot. (no pun intended.)