Yoko Ono

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grammy awards, february 8, 2004

"This book accompanies the current Yes Yoko Ono museum exhibit which is a retrospective of Yoko's artistic career for the past four decades. This 390-page fully illustrated catalog of Yoko's work includes an anthology of her writings, and a CD of new recordings by Ono. Comprehensive descriptions of Ono's work in six major areas of artistic production are presented including scores and instructions; early objects; events and performances, advertisements; films and video; and music. If you ever wondered what Yoko was all about, this is the book to get!!"

"Don't be fooled by the metallic cover: although this extensively documented book finally gives Yoko Ono her due as a protean conceptual and performing artist, YES Yoko Ono is no celebrity bio. It is actually a rigorous analysis--by experts in modern Japanese and contemporary Western art, performance, video, and music--of the innovative approaches that made Ono a seminal avant-garde figure in the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and continued to influence her work during the next three decades."

John Lennon Interview
February 1972
Interviewed by Alan Smith
Copyright 1972 Hit Parader Magazine



ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW:
Hit Parader's Alan Smith caught up with John and Yoko for a chat during the promotion the new 'Imagine' LP. Topics include John and Yoko's recent film projects, the Beatles, as well as Paul's 'Ram' album. The exclusive interview was published in Hit Parader's February 1972 issue.




Q: "Isn't there room today for the Beatles as a living band? A contemporary band? You're surely now far more aware as people. Must it always now be for you that the Beatles made yesterday's music? Or is it that you're now too egocentric to be able to work together fully, even if you tried?"

JOHN: "We always were egocentric. But look, George is on half of my new album playing guitar. The only reason Ringo wasn't on it was because he was abroad, making his movie. So then the three of us would have been on, but then it wouldn't have been the Beatles. It would have been Plastic Ono because I would have the final say. There would be no decision making by George or Ringo, other than if I liked an idea I'd take it-- which is what happened with the Beatles-- but then it was more diplomatic."

"So yes, it's quite possible about the Beatles working as a unit, because I might play on George's or Ringo's if they wanted my style of playing. But imagine how we've flowered since then. George is suddenly the biggest seller of all of us. I think my music's improved a millionfold lyric-wise and everything. And Ringo's coming out and writing 'It Don't Come Easy' and now he's going to write the title song for this cowboy thing he's in, and he's playing a really tough guy and all that. It's really beautiful."

"The fact is, the Beatles have left school... and we have to get a job. That's made us work-- really work harder. I think we're much better than we ever were when we were together. Look at us today. I'd sooner have 'Ram,' John Lennon Plastic Ono Band, George's album, and Ringo's single and the movies than 'Let It Be' or 'Abbey Road.'"

YOKO: "If the four of them had gone on, then they would have suffocated each other."

Q: "Do you resent journalists talking about the past?"

JOHN: "No. I'm always doing it myself. It's only human. Something funny happened the other day-- I went into Apple and they said, 'Jesus, you look like a Beatle again!' And you know, just for a second I'd forgotten what a Beatle really was. It was because I'd just got back from New York and I hadn't been a Beatle at all. It's just been me and Yoko, and we've been doing all sorts of things."

Q: "Do either of you feel any pain of any kind, any problems, either physical or mental? Or are you totally cleansed of any hangups of the past?"

JOHN: "Oh no. I'm sure not. I just know myself better, that's all. I can handle myself better. That Janov thing-- the Primal Scream, and so on-- it does affect you because you recognize yourself in there. The difference between us and Janov, as Yoko puts it, is that the past we remember is the past we create now because of the necessity of the present. I wouldn't have missed it though. It was very good for me. I still 'prime' and it still works."

Q: "Tell me about your philosophy of life. Many of your comments have been construed as extreme left wing or communist."

JOHN: "They knock me for saying 'Power To The People' and say that no one section should have the power. Rubbish. The people aren't a section. The people means everyone."

"I think that everyone should own everything equally and that people should own part of the factories and they should have some say in who is the boss and who does what. Students should be able to select teachers."

"It may be like communism but I don't really know what real communism is. There is no real communism state in the world-- you must realize that Russia isn't. It's a facist state. The socialism I talk about is 'British socialism,' not where some daft Russian might do it or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we'd rather have a nice socialism here-- a British socialism."

Q: "Don't you both spend a great deal of your time filming yourselves, and having yourselves filmed?"

JOHN: "Why not? It's home movies. And the ultimate movie is a home movie. Luc Godard, or whatever his name is, is now making 8mm films. Home movies is where it's at. Poetry's done at home-- why shouldn't movies be the same way?"

"In our film 'Apotheosis' you see us for only two seconds. In 'Fly,' Yoko's film, she's not in it. In 'Rape' there was a Hungarian girl. In 'Erection,' the one I've just made about a hotel, it was done from still photographs over a year and a half. There's only a couple with us in-- so that whole thing is a lie."

YOKO: "If we were putting ourselves in films all the time-- so what. We do not pretend."

Q: "Yoko's art seems to me to exclude appreciation of the more established works of art, the Mona Lisa, and so on."

JOHN: "Not necessarily, but her art is the very opposite of making a saint out of the Mona Lisa or having it in a building where people could be living."

YOKO: "I'm not somebody who wants to burn the Mona Lisa-- that's the difference between some revolutionaries and me-- they think you have to burn the establishment. I'm just saying, make the Mona Lisa into something like a shirt. Change the value of it. It's like those four boys who got together to make the Beatles and without kidding anybody they changed the whole world. And that's beautiful. That's all I'm trying to do-- the only thing with the Beatles is that they changed it and then they stopped there-- they weren't going on being revolutionaries."

JOHN: "I never wanted the Beatles to be has-beens, I wanted to kill it while it was on top. Remember I said ten years ago, 'I'm not going to be singing She Loves You at thirty.' Although I expressed it that, by thirty, I guess I would have woken up a bit or changed my sights."

Q: "Are you now remotely interested in singles or chart success?"

JOHN: "Sure. I get all the musical papers and the daily papers. I get my world chart thing and Billboard, and the other one... Cashbox, and I mark off all the Apple records all 'round the world. The Beatles are blasting the world up. We've got records everywhere and two or three in every chart. I get a kick out of it because I'm getting through to all those people, and because I'm doing it on my own or with Yoko."

"And I like singles, and not LPs. I like the idea of saying everything in three minutes."

Q: "Did you listen to Paul McCartney's 'Ram' album?"

JOHN: "Of course I did. The first time I heard it I thought it was awful, and then the second time, ahem, I fixed the record player a bit and it sounded better. I enjoyed a couple like 'My Dog It's Got Three Legs' or something, and the intro to 'Uncle Albert.' I can't stand the second track from the... well I mean, it doesn't matter anyway. In general I think the other album he did was better in a way. At least there were some songs on it."

"I don't like all this dribblin' pop-opera-jazz. I like pop records that are pop records."

Q: "Is there a song on your album 'Imagine' that refers to Paul... lines about a pretty face and the sound of Muzak?"

JOHN: (smiling) "Er, there's a song which COULD be a statement about Paul. It could be interpreted that way. But then, it could be about an old chick I'd known."

Q: What do you think of your own album?"

JOHN: "It's the best thing I've ever done. This will show them. It's not a personal thing like the last album, but I've learned alot and this is better in every way. It's lighter too-- I was feeling very happy. There's a guy called George Harrison on it and he does some mother of solos. George used to be with The Bubbles or somebody. Then there's a guy called Nicky Hopkins. Then there's Jim Gordon on drums, Alan White on drums, Jim Keltner on drums, and they're fantastic."

"Yoko's on whip, and that's very good. Whip and mirror, actually. Then we had John Barnham on a few things and King Curtis is on sax. The Flux Fiddlers are on violins."

"Eighty percent was recorded in Britain in seven days. I took them, re-mixed them, and took it to America like they used to do in the old days. It took me nine days to make this album, and ten to make the other before... so I'm getting faster."

Drawing on Lennon's gifts

ATLANTA - Almost 25 years after his death, John Lennon's spirit continues to hover closely around Yoko Ono.
As she prepared to bring a collection of the slain Beatle's drawings to Atlanta via the Artwork of John Lennon: "When I'm Sixty-Four" last weekend, the 71-year-old legendary artist, musician, feminist and peace advocate consented to an interview.

Miss Ono, who spoke from her Studio One offices in New York, is warm, playful and enthusiastic on an array of topics, including her unexpected 2003 No. 1 Billboard dance club hit, "Walking on Thin Ice," a remix of the song she and Mr. Lennon were finishing on the night of his murder.
Q: It's 11 months overdue but congratulations on the No. 1 record.
A: (giggles) That's very sweet of you. I hope that's just the start, dear. I got a great kick out of it.
Q: You're bringing a collection of John's art, "When I'm Sixty-Four" to Atlanta. Beatles fans can't wait.
A: I'm very excited too. This has been a very, very successful program. I never thought it would be this successful. At the beginning I was very nervous about it all . . . especially since it's about John's work and not myself. I just wanted everything to be right.
Q: Instead of a conventional gallery, you're bringing the show to the Westin Hotel. Was that part of the plan all along, to draw in a less conventional art crowd?
A: Absolutely. With the avant garde artists — I was one or am one (laughs) — we always tried to expand the spaces where we would show our things. Places like subways, things like that. And so for me, this is really an extension of that. We were just looking to show the pieces at the right places. When I say the right places, I don't mean the accepted right places. I mean, creating new venues for art to been seen.
Q: What are your favorite pieces in the show?
A: That's a very difficult question. When I set up the program, I went through each drawing and said, "This one is OK, that one is not." The reason I did that is because I really believe the program should be powerful. I had to select the right pieces. I love each one of them.
Q: A lot of people get emotional when they see the "Real Love" series, the drawings John created for and with Sean (the son of Miss Ono and Mr. Lennon).
A: Really, that's how I felt when I started that particular program. It's a very personal one. I was there when John and Sean were there in the kitchen having that dialogue. They would sit at the kitchen table and I'd be making tea or something and just listening to them talk to each other. It was just such a beautiful thing to watch.
Q: There's a lot about family emphasized in the show. I can't help but think back to the interviews you and John gave when "Double Fantasy" was released in the fall of 1980. He shocked a lot of people when he happily discussed his new role as a house husband, looking after Sean and even baking bread while you went off to become the CEO of the family. Twenty-five years later, our culture has changed and we're seeing a lot more men and women following your example.
A: I'm glad you noticed. (laughs). John really wanted to show what he was doing and he wanted to share that experience. Even though the world looked at him as this macho rocker, he felt it was important to make that statement. He wanted to interest people into doing this, especially the men. The world is better for that.
Q: If John were still here, he would be turning 64 this October. Do you ever stop to contemplate what he might be contributing as an artist?
A: Oh, dear, yes. Well, you know, he was such an active person and that would have continued. He would probably be doing the usual stuff that John loved to do. He was very curious about new ideas and new methods of communication. He would have loved and really have gone for the whole Internet and Web site thing.

http://www.washtimes.com/entertainment/20040418-102130-7968r.htm

Ono and Geldof to Present Art Prizes

By Laura Scott, PA News


Former Beatle’s widow Yoko Ono was joining a fellow 70s legend tonight to present one of the richest art prizes in the UK.

Ono, who was married to murdered Beatles icon John Lennon, was teaming up with rock star Bob Geldof to announce the winners of this year’s Beck’s Futures awards.

The peace campaigner, composer and artist, who became a household name for the huge influence she was said to exert over Lennon, was credited as one of the creators of the conceptual arts movement.

Her latest work was being shown at art museums in Liverpool, Detroit, Montreal, Baltimore, Tokyo and Prague and earlier this year Ono wowed critics with her exhibition Odyssey Of A Cockroach.

She was to hand the winner of tonight’s art award, which was organised by Beck’s Bier and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), a Ј24,000 cheque. Other artists short-listed for the Beck’s Futures 2004 prize were to receive Ј4,000 each.

Judges for the top prize are chief curator for the MoMA, New York, Klaus Biesenbach, curator at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Katrina Brown, senior curator for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Dan Cameron, and artists Mark Dion and Philippe Parreno.

Geldof, who sprang to fame in the 70s with his punk band The Boomtown Rats before going solo, was to reveal the winner of the student prize for film and video which showcases the best from art and film schools across the UK.

The contenders were picked by artist Alison Jackson and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes and the prize is worth a total of Ј5,000.

ICA director Philip Dodd said of the guest stars: “Yoko Ono belongs to the past, present and future of the ICA and it’s marvellous that she wants to lend support to the institute and to emerging young artists.

“Bob Geldof is more than a musician, more than a public statesman. He’s someone for whom culture and politics are inextricably intertwined.”

The ten shortlisted artists for Beck’s Futures 2004 award are Haluk Akakce, Tonico Lemos Auad, Ergin Cavusoglu, Simon Bedwell, Imogen Stidworthy, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Andrew Cross, Susan Philipsz, Hayley Tompkins and Nicoline Van Harskamp.

Their art features drawings on bunches of bananas, a film of two Cilla Black impersonators, abstract water colours, floor to ceiling projections, carpet animal sculptures, satirical posters and video works and is being shown in ICA galleries and cinemas
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2844128

Yoko Ono and the Edge to launch Amnesty hit
http://www.recirca.com/artnews/269.shtml

Ono and Geldof to Present Art Prizes
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2844128

foto
http://www.a-i-u.net/becks.html

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