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Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band

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Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono, released on Apple Records in December 1970 alongside her husband's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album features Ono's vocal improvisations accompanied by the Plastic Ono Band (consisting of Lennon on guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, and Klaus Voormann on bass), with the exception of "AOS", on which she is backed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet.[3]

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Studio album by
Yoko Ono with Plastic Ono Band
Released11 December 1970 (1970-12-11)
Recorded10 October – 6 November 1970
February 1968 ("AOS")
StudioAbbey Road, London
Royal Albert Hall, London ("AOS")
Genre
Length40:29
LabelApple
ProducerYoko Ono, John Lennon
Yoko Ono chronology
Live Peace in Toronto 1969
(with The Plastic Ono Band)
(1969) 		Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
(1970) 		Fly
(1971)

In the United States, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band peaked at number 182 on the Billboard album chart. The album was poorly received upon release, with the exception of supportive reviews by Billboard and Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone. Despite its lack of commercial success, it has been influential on a variety of subsequent musicians.

Recording

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With the exception of "AOS", Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band was recorded at Abbey Road Studios during the same September–October 1970 sessions that produced the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.[4][5] Also recorded at this time was "Between the Takes", which was released on the 1998 CD reissue of Ono's 1971 album Fly.[4] "Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City" was based on a sample from a tape of George Harrison playing sitar and drums by Ringo Starr treated with tape echo,[6] with lyrics referencing a miscarriage that were derived from Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit.[7] Ono's vocalisations on tracks such as "Why" and "Why Not" mixed hetai, a Japanese vocal technique from kabuki theatre, with rock vocal styles and a raw aggression influenced by the then-popular primal therapy that Lennon and Ono had been undertaking at the time. According to Ono, the recording engineers were in the habit of turning off the recording equipment when she began to perform; at the end of "Why", Lennon can thus be heard asking "Were you gettin' that?"[6]

On 29 February 1968, Ono appeared onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall with avant-garde jazz musician Ornette Coleman and his quartet, then consisting of drummer Ed Blackwell and bassists Charlie Haden and David Izenzon. The performance and their afternoon rehearsal were both recorded; "AOS" was recorded during the rehearsal and included on the album, the only track not featuring the Plastic Ono Band. Describing how she met Coleman, Ono has stated:

Ornette was already very, very established and famous and respected guy as a musician. And I met him in Paris. The way I met was, I was doing a show and after the show, somebody said, Oh, Ornette Coleman is here and he would like to – okay. Well, hello. Thank you for coming. That kind of thing. And he was saying, Well, okay. So he said that he was going to go and do a concert in Albert Hall and would I come and do it with him because he thought it was kind of interesting what I do.[8]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [9]
Rolling StonePositive[10]
Pitchfork9.1/10[11]

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band was released through Apple Records to considerable critical disdain on 11 December 1970, at a time when Ono was widely blamed for the recent break-up of The Beatles. It peaked at number 182 during a three-week run on the Billboard album chart in the United States, and failed to chart in the United Kingdom.[5] Among the few favorable contemporary reviews were those of Billboard, which called it "visionary," and Rolling Stone critic Lester Bangs, who called it "the first J&Y album that doesn’t insult the intelligence—in fact, in its dark confounding way, it’s nearly as beautiful as John’s album… There’s something happening here."[10]

Legacy and impact

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More recently, the album has been credited with having an influence on musicians grossly disproportionate to its sales and visibility, akin to that of the Velvet Underground.[12][13] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly has credited the album with "launching a hundred or more female alternative rockers, like Kate Pierson & Cindy Wilson of the B-52s to [sic] current thrashers like L7 and Courtney Love of Hole". NPR Music ranked at number 136 on their 2017 list of "The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women". The site's Marissa Lorusso deemed it "jarring, experimental and stunning" and cited its "fearless curiosity" as influencing subsequent experimental rock, experimental electronic music, post-punk, and sound art.[14]

In a 2017 Bandcamp Daily feature focused on Ono's impact, British electronic musician Kiran Leonard applauded Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, writing: "the strength and range of vocal techniques on [the album] is simply astonishing...to do what Ono does with her voice on [the album] is no easy task."[15]

Release

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The covers of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band 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". The photos were taken with an Instamatic camera on the grounds of their Tittenhurst Park estate in Berkshire by actor Daniel Richter, who lived with them and worked as their assistant at the time.

The album was reissued on compact disc by Rykodisc in 1997, with three bonus tracks from the era.[16] An "LP replica" special edition was issued by V2 Records in Japan in 2007,[17] and the album was reissued again on LP, compact disc, and digital download by Secretly Canadian in 2016, with bonus tracks and rare photos.

An alternate version of "Open Your Box", the B-side to the UK issue of Lennon's 1971 single "Power to the People", appears on the 1997 and 2016 reissues.

Track listing

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All songs written by Yoko Ono.

Original release

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Side one

  1. "Why" – 5:37
  2. "Why Not" – 9:55
  3. "Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City" – 5:38

Side two

  1. "AOS" – 7:06
  2. "Touch Me" – 4:37
  3. "Paper Shoes" – 7:26

1997 reissue

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Tracks 1–6 per the 1970 release, with the following bonus tracks:

  2. "Open Your Box" (alternate version) – 7:35
  3. "Something More Abstract" – 0:44
  4. "The South Wind" – 16:38

2016 reissue

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Tracks 1–6 per the 1970 release, with the following bonus tracks:

  2. "Open Your Box" (alternate version) – 7:35
  3. "Something More Abstract" – 0:44
  4. "Why" (extended version) – 8:41
  5. "The South Wind" – 16:38

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band – The Live Sessions (2020)

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The 2020 deluxe box set of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band included a Blu-ray disc containing the unedited live sessions for Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band as well as three previously unreleased songs and three B-sides that appeared on John Lennon singles in 1969 and 1970.[18] "Life" is the full version of the track "Between the Takes", which appeared as a bonus track on CD reissues of Fly.

  1. "Why" (Live Session) – 18:00
  2. "Why Not" (Live Session) – 21:22
  3. "Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City" (Live Session) – 8:22
  4. "Touch Me" (Live Session) – 15:54
  5. "Paper Shoes" (Live Session) – 12:17
  6. "Life" – 6:57
  7. "Omae No Okaa Wa" – 6:31
  8. "I Lost Myself Somewhere in the Sky" – 5:01
  9. "Remember Love" – 4:04
  10. "Don't Worry Kyoko" (Live Session) – 9:29
  11. "Who Has Seen the Wind?" – 2:09

Personnel

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Technical personnel[5]

Charts

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Chart performance of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Chart (1970) Peak
position 		Total
weeks
US Billboard 200[20] 182 3

Release history

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Release history of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Country Date Format Label Catalog
United States 11 December 1970[21] LP Apple SW 3373[22]
Cassette 4XW 3373[23]
8-Track 8XW 3373[24]
United Kingdom LP SAPCOR 17[22]
Japan (Promo) 1970 LP (Red)[25] AP-80175[26]
Japan 13 January 1971 LP
United States 20 May 1997[27] CD Rykodisc RCD 10414[16]
United Kingdom 1997
Japan VACK-5370[28]
24 January 2007 Rykodisc, Apple VACK-1308[17]
United States & Europe 11 November 2016 LP Secretly Canadian, Chimera Music SC281/CHIM20[29]
LP (Clear)[30]
CD[31]
Japan 7 December 2016 CD Sony Records International SICX-73[32]
22 February 2017 LP (Clear) SIJP-33[33]

References

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  1. ^ Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band at AllMusic
  2. ^ Hoskins, Zachary (26 July 2017). "Yoko Ono's Fly, Approximately Infinite Universe, and Feeling the Space, Reissued and Reevaluated". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  3. ^ Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band at AllMusic
  4. ^ a b Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970-2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780711983076.
  5. ^ a b c Irvin, Jim, ed. (2009). The Mojo Collection the Ultimate Music Companion. Edinburgh: Canongate. p. 228. ISBN 9781847676436.
  6. ^ a b "Yoko Ono & Sean Lennon Interview". Spinning On Air. 12 May 2012. WNYC.
  7. ^ Blaney, John (2005). John Lennon: Listen to This Book (illustrated ed.). [S.l.]: Paper Jukebox. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-9544528-1-0.
  8. ^ "Live: Yoko Ono and Ornette Coleman, Royal Albert Hall, London". The Beatles Bible. 29 February 1968. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  9. ^ Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band at AllMusic
  10. ^ a b Bangs, Lester (4 March 1971). "Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band | Album Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  11. ^ Walls, Seth Colter (5 December 2016). "Yoko Ono / John Lennon: Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins / Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the Lions / Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  12. ^ Adam Mason PopMatters website retrieved 28 July 2020.
  13. ^ "SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: YOKO ONO – PLASTIC ONO BAND (REISSUE)", The Spill Magazine retrieved 28 July 2020.
  14. ^ Lorusso, Marissa (24 July 2017). "Turning The Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women: NPR". NPR Music. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  15. ^ Hart, Ron (4 January 2017). "Six Vocalists on the Power and Influence of Yoko Ono". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  16. ^ a b "Yoko Ono / The Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  17. ^ a b "Yoko Ono / The Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  18. ^ John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Media notes). John Lennon. Universal Music Group. 2020. 0602507354299.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  19. ^ Spizer, Bruce (2005). The Beatles Solo on Apple Records. New Orleans, LA: 498 Productions. p. 343. ISBN 0-9662649-5-9.
  20. ^ "Yoko Ono Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  21. ^ Onobox (liner notes). Yoko Ono. Rykodisc. 1992. RCD 10224/29.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  22. ^ a b "Yoko Ono - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  23. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  24. ^ "Yoko Ono - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  25. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  26. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  27. ^ Kaufman, Gil (19 February 1997). "Ready Or Not: Yoko Ono Albums To Be Reissued". MTV News. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018.
  28. ^ "Yoko Ono - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  29. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  30. ^ "Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band - LP". Rough Trade.
  31. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Plastic Ono Band". Discogs.
  32. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band Yoko Ono CD Album". CDJapan.
  33. ^ "Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band [Limited Release] Yoko Ono Vinyl (LP)". CDJapan.
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