Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band

Infobox Album | Name = Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Type = Album
Artist = Yoko Ono


Released = 11 December 1970
Recorded = Late September -
Mid October 1970
Genre = Avant-garde, Experimental, Rock
Length = 40:29
Label = Apple
Producer = John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Phil Spector Fact|date=June 2008
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6usqoatabijn link]
*"Rolling Stone" (somewhat favourable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/yokoono/albums/album/234866/review/5942982/yoko_ono_and_plastic_ono_band link]
Last album = "Live Peace In Toronto 1969"
(1969)
This album = "Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band"
(1970)
Next album = "Fly"
(1971) |

"Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band" is the avant-garde debut album by Yoko Ono, which came after recording three experimental releases with John Lennon and a live album as a member of the Plastic Ono Band. With the exception of one track (recorded with Ornette Coleman), the entire album emerged from one raw and cacophonous freeform session when, improvising throughout, Ono develops and pushes to extremes her characteristic trademark, a strained vocal style derived from Japanese hetai, a vocal technique used in Kabuki performances'.

It was recorded simultaneously with her husband's "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" at Ascot Sound Studios and Abbey Road Studios using the same musicians and production team. The covers of both 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.") Both photos were taken with a consumer-grade Instamatic camera on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park (their home at the time) by actor Daniel Richter (as listed in the album's credits) who worked as an assistant for the Lennons at the time.

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 the break-up of The Beatles. Notable exceptions were the estimations of "Billboard" who called it 'visionary' and critic Lester Bangs who supported it in "Rolling Stone". More recently, the album has been credited (like those of The Velvet Underground) with having an influence, particularly on musicians, grossly disproportionate to its sales and visibility. Critic David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly", has credited the album with "launching a hundred or more female alternative rockers, like Kate Pierson of the B-52s to current thrashers like L7 and Courtney Love of Hole."

"Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band" failed to chart in the UK but reached #182 in the US. The album was reissued on CD by Rykodisc in 1997 with three bonus tracks from the era, and an "LP replica" special edition was issued by V2 Records in Japan in 2007.

Track listing

All songs by Yoko Ono.

ide one

#"Why" – 5:37
#* "An edited version became the B-side to Lennon's single "Mother"
#"Why Not" – 9:55
#* "Excerpted in a 1980 RKO Radio tribute, featuring Lennon's last recorded interview"
#"Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City" – 5:38
#* "The title and lyrics come from Ono's book Grapefruit"

ide two

#"AOS" – 7:06
#* "Featuring Ornette Coleman, recorded in 1968, predating the rest of the material"
#"Touch Me" – 4:37
#* "Also selected as a B-side, to "Power to the People", replacing Ono's "Open Your Box" for the US market"
#"Paper Shoes" – 7:26
#* "Referenced by Lennon during the 1980 RKO interview"

Bonus tracks

#

"Open Your Box" - 7:35
#"Something More Abstract" - 0:44
#"The South Wind" - 16:38

Personnel

* Vocals - Yoko Ono
* Guitar - John Lennon
* Drums - Ringo Starr
* Bass - Klaus Voormann
* Engineers - Phil McDonald and John Leckie.

On "AOS"
* Trumpet - Ornette Coleman
* Drums - Edward Blackwell
* Bass - David Izenzon, Charles Haden