Paul McCartney Waterfall Estate Peamarsh St Leonards on the Sea Sussex England Paul McCartney 7 Cavendish St. St. John's Wood London W1 England
Paul McCartney High Park Cambelltown Mull of Kintyre Scotland
MPL Communications Ltd. 1 Soho Square London W1V 6BQ England
Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr 2 Glynde Mews London SW3 1SB England Ringo Starr "Rocca Bella" 24 Ave. Princess Grace, Monte Carlo Monaco
George Martin
George Martin AIR Studios Lyndhurst Hall Lyndhurst Road Hampstead London NW3 5NG England
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono 1 West 72nd Street New York, N.Y. 10023 USA E-Mail is : yoko@yoko.com
Beatles Record Companies
Apple Records
Apple Records 27 Ovington Square London, SW3 1LJ ENGLAND Capitol Records Capitol Records 1750 Vine St. Hollywood, CA. 90028 (213) 462-6252 EMI EMI Records Ltd. EMI House 43 Brook Green Hammersmith London W6 7EF England EMI Abbey Road Studios London: 0171-266-7000 Fax: 0171 289-7527 EMI Canada EMI Music Canada 3109 American Drive Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4V 1B2
Re: А где фанаты Wings? Автор:Клим.Дата: 15.05.04 22:45:14
If hearing that album is like watching helplessly while a friend bleeds, listening to It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982) is like seeing a time-lapse movie of the wound's healing. Poignant and (characteristically) frank, this album comes as close to "charming" as any Ono's produced. The anger from all her previous work, both the source of her power and the reason she had been perceived as threatening and therefore feared and hated, is distilled into its greatest height of personal triumph yet. Couched in a most attractive blend of well-earned pride and heartfelt humility, we hear a musical and poetic definition of the phrase, "righteous anger."
1985 saw the release of Starpeace and a return to Yoko's themes of peace and freedom (the title is a reference to then-president Reagan's Star Wars program). Ahead of her time as usual, she brought about a relentlessly cheerful sound (I've jokingly referred to this as her "Archies" album) by layering what would become known as techno and world beats. Only one track is added to the reissue, but what a doozy: her version of Lennon's "Imagine," recorded live on her 1986 world tour, is as full of authority and conviction as anything she's ever done, actually outstripping his original in impact and believability. We've been imagining it long enough that we really can see it happening; as she said in her 1972 song "Now or Never," "Dream we dream alone is only a dream/ But dream we dream together is reality."
By the time we get to the Rising album, Yoko, in what I think are her most beautiful lyrics to date, makes explicit the "teachings" to which I referred at the beginning of this article, which have always been in her work between the lines. In "Revelations," she blesses the so-called shadow feelings and emotions we all experience and offers advice on making them experiences of light. The various verses address, among other things, anger, sorrow, directionlessness, greed, and jealousy. Having theorized that she is despised because she is feared, I quote what she has to say to those experiencing the shadow side of love: "Bless you for your fear/ It's a sign of wisdom/ (Transform the energy to flexibility/ and you will be free from what you fear.)"
One verse of the 1982 song "Wake Up" goes, "Wake up, wake up/ The bird is up singing/ I know the good times that are coming your way/ I know you're afraid of me and the love of the world/ But open your eyes and you will see that/ I'm singing for you." I believe that Yoko Ono can and will claim the truth of that statement for herself as well as for the bird, and I am grateful that these albums' reissue can hasten that day. In her 1972 song "We're All Water," Yoko sings, "There may not be much difference/ Between you and me/ If we show our dreams." Yoko's been showing you hers for over thirty years; maybe now it's your turn - what are you afraid of? Please take a chance and treat yourself to one or more of these CDs. If you thought you didn't like this music, I think you'll surprise yourself. If you do already like it, you'll be amazed at how fresh it sounds and how lovingly it's been brought back to (digital) life, you'll appreciate the wealth of "new" material, and you'll fall in love with Yoko Ono all over again, more deeply than ever.
As John himself said, "Right on, sister!" Bringing that up to date, I would just add, "You go, girl!"
Fly (1971) is a transitional album. Yoko here has one defiant foot in the avant-garde improvisations that defined the limiting stereotypes that still plague her. The other is confidently feeling its way to the achingly beautiful but powerfully direct poetry, the sensitive instrumentation, and evocative singing that have characterized her work ever since - the work few have heard, despite the fact that it constitutes the majority of her oeuvre.
Having established her identity with Fly, Yoko never looked back. The next four albums she recorded, as far as I'm concerned, are the jewels in her musical crown, although there's nothing beyond Fly that I feel slightly equivocated about recommending to New Times readers. Well, the technical exception to this is the original cast recording of a short-lived musical based on her songs, New York Rock. Broadway show tune-type voices are such a gross mismatch for this material that the CD constitutes the sole blot on her legacy.
One of the first in the genre now known as "tribute albums," 1984's Every Man Has a Woman (PolyGram) is a much better way to prove to yourself what a fine gift for songwriting Ono possesses, and how adaptable the songs are to interpretation in different - but appropriate - styles. Harry Nilsson, Roberta Flack, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, and Eddie Money are among the diverse artists turning in more-than-credible performances on the Ono tunes here.
1972 saw Yoko taking a strong stand on feminist issues, and both that year's Approximately Infinite Universe and 1973's Feeling the Space are dominated by songs that were loudly focused on that topic. The material was so direct that it even put off some feminists at the time. In "I Want My Man to Rest Tonight," Yoko reminds her sisters that men and women were complicit in creating a society in which "He was taught by his mothers to never trust girls/ He was told by his fathers to never shed tears." In "What a Mess," she cautions, "If you keep hammering anti-abortion/ We'll tell you no more masturbation for men/ Every day you're killing living sperms in billions/ So how do you feel about that, brother?"
Feeling the Space was, like its two predecessors, recorded with the intention of releasing it as a two-record set. That idea was shelved at the time, although Onobox's version of the album restores the five songs cut. The version of the anthem "Woman Power" (which still gets my fist in the air!) included on Onobox is treated to an ultramodern remix that makes it sound as though it were recorded yesterday. The stand-alone reissue of Feeling the Space is true in mix and sequencing to the original; the bad news is that you have to go to the box set for the extra five songs.
The good news is that one of the bonus tracks here is taken from Yoko's appearance at the First International Feminist Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at which she both spoke (without) and performed (with) John. She movingly tells of how she was "upgraded from 'bitch' as a successful (woman) artist to 'witch' as 'the ugly Jap who took your monument [John] away from you.' She says that, as John's mate, society treated her differently and even her closest friends changed their tune from one of support to "shut up, stay in the background, and you'll be happy." The more powerful she became - both intrinsically and in terms of influence - the more universally she experienced the maxim about fear being the flip side of love. She relates that three years of societal pressure and guilt trips taught her to - literally - stutter.
How wonderful for all of us that she unlearned that through music that was - and remains - cathartic not only for her but also for those that it reached, both through her and through Lennon. (Her influence on him musically and politically cannot be overestimated; witness, for example, his 1972 single "Woman Is the Nigger of the World," backed with her "Sisters O Sisters.")
Ono recorded her next album in 1974. Titled A Story, it did not see release until Onobox. It chronicles in painful detail her processing of her feelings around a "trial separation" she and John were going through at the time. If I were to single out one disc from the batch of Ryko reissues as the New Times album of the month, it would be this fragile masterpiece of heart-on-sleeve soul bearing. The deceptively simple beauty of the arrangements, and the peace, playfulness, and ironically cheerful tone suggested by them, stand in cruel contrast to the heartbreaking angst of the lyrics. This is a masterpiece of honesty, confused yet enhanced by the mixed message of the instrumentation.
Many songs from A Story wound up being recorded in different versions for later projects; two carry tragically prescient alternate meanings in their respective contexts. "Hard Times Are Over" is her affirmation that things will work out for the best, but the false ending on this version bespeaks the fact that Yoko had greater trials to face. When she sings in "Loneliness" of missing her love on A Story, there's quite a different inference than when the song is reprised on 1982's It's Alright (I See Rainbows); by this time, there is no doubt in anyone's mind - Yoko's, John's, or the listener's - that the two are soulmates.
It's well known that the pair took a sabbatical from recording upon their reconciliation, so there is a gap between the latter album and their joint 1980 release, Double Fantasy, upon which - mockery of fate! - appears the re-recording of "Hard Times Are Over." During the sessions for that album, released days before John's assassination, they also recorded the material found on the posthumous album Milk and Honey as well as Ono's only bona fide American hit, "Walking on Thin Ice."
That song turns up as a bonus cut on the reissue of her first post-John album, Season of Glass (1981). Dripping with grief and anger and always eloquent through every intertwined turn of restraint and outburst, the album is as absorbingly, irresistibly painful to listen to as it must have been to make. Yoko was criticized at the time for commercializing John's death, but anyone who understands the soul of an artist knows that this was the only way for her to process her feelings. That point is underscored through the other bonus track, the first version of "I Don't Know Why," recorded on cassette the day after the assassination. In its brooding and plaintive embryonic state, the song offered no foretaste of the seething rage infusing the version included on the album.
Отличный обзор по дискографии Yoko Ono, правда на английском языке.
Cool and Unusual:
The Recordings of Yoko Ono
by David A. Young
My position as editor of The New Times has not only failed to disprove but, in fact, reinforced my long-held view that there are but a handful of important, lasting, and universal spiritual truths. Our receptivity to and integration of these truths and principles has to do with when, where, and through whom we experience them more often than it does with our being the first ever exposed to them. A master, guru, or teacher with proprietary information is to be held suspect; it is not the fundamental teachings with which we resonate (or not), it is the teacher.
Why am I beginning my music column by saying that? As I've prepared for writing about Yoko Ono's music, three of these principles kept returning to my consciousness: the importance of releasing judgment, the value of speaking one's truth, and the belief that the opposite of love is fear. Few artists have been as universally maligned, reviled, and hated - feared - as Ono, who has steadfastly spoken (and written, sung, painted, and sculpted) her truth, only to be judged - harshly - by most of the world.
Because of her commitment to her art and to her themes of peace and equality, I can honestly and gratefully say that she has been one of the teachers with whom I have resonated. I hope that, through these words, I can convince some that may have based a past dislike of Yoko on misinformation or peer influence to reexamine their judgments. I also hope that those who never had an opinion one way or the other will consider checking into the extraordinary body of work she has recorded.
The reason I am bringing Yoko Ono's music to your attention at this time is that her entire back catalog (1968-1985) has just been reissued on CD on the Rykodisc label. (Three more recent albums remain in print on Capitol.) True to the Ryko's form (they're the ones that did such a stellar job with the Bowie and Zappa catalogs), each disc has been meticulously brought into the digital age and adorned with one to three bonus tracks. In 1992, Ryko brought us Onobox, a deluxe boxed six-CD career retrospective and, simultaneously, Walking on Thin Ice, a best-of-the-best single disc; these remain available alongside the individual album reissues. There's never been a better time to (re)discover Yoko Ono.
The lingering prejudice against Yoko seems to stem from two theses: "she's the bitch that broke up The Beatles," and "all she does is shriek, scream, and yodel; she calls that singing?" Even today, few realize that Yoko was already a successful artist in the underground/avant-garde scene while The Beatles were still gigging in Hamburg, with performances with such luminaries as Ornette Coleman and John Cage to her credit long before she hooked up with her future husband. Her list of collaborators now reads like a "Who's Who in Music and Art," and her life's work in and (way) beyond music is well documented in the book Yoko Ono: Arias and Objects. Even if you decide to pass on checking out her musical legacy on CD, this is a book well worth looking into for an overview of why she is such an important artist.
Her reputation as a screecher is not entirely unfounded; her landmark LP Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970) combines the by-now-trademark nonverbal vocalizations that got her stuck in that pigeonhole with such a hard-rocking band that today it'd be labeled grunge. This is a form to which she returned with a vengeance on her most recent album(s), 1995's Rising/Rising Mixes, prominently featuring her son Sean Ono Lennon on background vocals and a variety of instruments. (I should mention that the Rising albums also contain her most quiet and spare pieces to date.) Released simultaneously with the former record was John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; the two albums had virtually identical front covers and an overall sound unified by the Primal Scream Therapy they were then undergoing with psychologist Arthur Janov (remember Lennon's "Mother"?). Somehow, Lennon's screaming was hailed as groundbreaking and Ono's dismissed as ugly, spontaneous caterwauling.
The pair had collaborated on three prior albums, all of an experimental, nonmusical nature. These are of somewhat anecdotal interest at this point, but do serve to remind one of the extent to which Mr. Lennon shared his future bride's interest in sound for sound's sake. The third of these, Wedding Album (1969), featured a takeoff on Stan Freberg's 1953 novelty hit "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" ("John & Yoko") on one side and an aural documentary of their "bed-in" honeymoon, during which the (released separately) hit "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded, on the other. The original B-side to that single, Yoko's lovely "Remember Love," appears as a bonus track on the CD reissue of John and Yoko's infamous nude-cover Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (1968). Two other Ono B-sides turn up as bonus cuts on the Wedding Album CD: "Who Has Seen the Wind?" ("Instant Karma") and "Listen (The Snow is Falling)" ("Happy Xmas [War Is Over]"); it's great to hear these three again without the scratches!
Re: Самая не удачная песня Битлов!? Автор:Клим.Дата: 14.05.04 20:43:49
Лучше наверное сказать, не самая не удачная песня Битлов, а песня, которая мне не нравится. Ведь зачастую мнение наше суьективно, и самая не удачная песня Битлов, и будет та, которая менее нравится. Мне пара песин из их репертуара не нравится, но я не уверен, что они самые не удачные.
Re: Твоя первая пластинка The Beatles! Автор:Клим.Дата: 14.05.04 20:36:28
Первый полноценный альбом БИТЛЗ который я услышал был альбом Револьвер, его принёс мне друг, записаым на бабине, и было это в фефрале 1981 года. НО ВОТ, ЧТО ИНТЕРЕСНО, до БИТЛЗ, примерно в двадцатых числах января 1980 у меня появился ы коллекции альбом ДЖОНА ЛЕННОНА "DOUBLE FANTASY". Вот ведь штука какая !!!
P.S. Хотя впервые песни БИТЛЗ, я услышал значительно раньше !!!
Re: Concert for George DVD Автор:Клим.Дата: 14.05.04 13:30:43
Хочу отметиить со своей стороны, что довольно большой раздел отведённый под индийскую музыку в начале первого диска, скорее большой плюс, чем минус. Кто хочет слушать старые добрые шлягеры, написанные Джорджем, может слушать сразу диск два. А я с большим удовольствием просмотрел индийскую часть, ну скажите где можно ещё найти подобные вещи столь качественно и слаженно съигранные?
Re: Битлзы на магнитофонных фирменных бобинах, так называемый reel-to-reel Автор:Клим.Дата: 14.05.04 13:17:03