Yes, Yoko Ono
Don't be fooled by the metallic cover. Although this extensively documented book finally
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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.Ono was born in 1933 in Japan, to a wealthy and pedigreed family. In her early work, the pan-artistic classical Japanese approach to culture mingles with her Zen-like search for moments of concentrated sensory experience and the anti-heroic stance of the young American artists she would meet in New York upon her arrival (with her first husband, a composer) in 1959. Also significant was her sense of herself as an outsider. She spent her early childhood in the US with her family, only to be snubbed by Japanese schoolmates on her return.In Secret Piece, from 1953, Ono wrote a musical score consisting of nothing but two half-notes in the bass line and a scribbled notation: "With the accompaniment of birds singing at dawn". It became one of the brilliantly inventive instructions for making art pieces in her 1964 book, Grapefruit, an early conceptual work. Since those heady days, she has continued to explore the possibilities, stumbling sometimes (the inert bronze sculptures of the 1980s) but never abandoning her fascination with elemental feeling and observation. --Cathy Curtis
Advantages: A beautiful collection of happy, sad and funny memories Disadvantages: It's not a starting point
...This book passed me by unnoticed. It was commisioned and compiled by YokoOno (who also introduces and edits it) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death last year. She asked many friends to contribute memories and both the friends and memories are extremely varied.
Every part of Lennon's life is covered from childhood (remembered by his cousin Mike Cadwallader and mentioned by others), to the days in Hamburgh, Beatles stardom, peace protests, immigration problems, the househusband/dad years and, finally, his brutal, inane and tragic murder. I was delighted to discover aspects of Lennon's character as remembered by his friends that don't turn up in the biographies and commentaries I've read. There is a wealth of material, of memories, in this book.
The memories also vary in length, from Normal Mailer's "WE HAVE...
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Advantages: Strong insight into Lennon's character Disadvantages: A few annoying writing features (french phrases etc)
...and has presumably been living in a hole in the Scottish highlands for the past few decades).
Then, from the dizzy heights of Beatlemania, we see Lennon, a man who many describe in the book as a forward moving force constantly relishing change, growing increasingly unhappy with his marital wife, and with his musical husbands Paul, George and Ringo. The arrival of YokoOno in John Lennon’s life prompted Lennon into divorcing both. Now, before reading the book, I like so many other fans of the fab four, had always to a certain degree regarded Yoko as the cold old witch who kidnapped Lennon and destroyed the Beatles. After reading the book, I realise I was wrong to do so. With first hand observations and experiences, Coleman writes with a sustained sensitivity and objectivity, which in this instance makes it apparent that the death...
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Advantages: A fairly insightful look into John's life by someone who really knew him Disadvantages: A little naff and bias in places
...and even another band mates babe. I think in hindsight, these were the moments in which she herself could see her marriage crumbling and, by the time all of that is revealed in the novel, you really do feel sorry for her and a distinct disliking for the somewhat unfairly portrayed YokoOno.
This strong disliking is something that lingers in the book, even after the death of the man in question. To be fair though, on the incidences discussed, it is truly easy to sympathise with Cyn; It did appear that John's second other half was doing her best to completely alienate her away from any notion of John's name which is both tragic and slightly pathetic considering the singer's first son, Julian, had to tolerate a large brunt of this through one form or another.
There are several tales that took place after John's untimely death in which...
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