It was rainy last night in Oakland, CA., but that didn't stop fans of Yoko Ono from selling out the renovated Fox Theatre for a rare show by Yoko, Sean Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
The evening opened with local progressive band Deerhoof, for which the word "unexpected" is an excellent description. Their set, which included all four members switching off on different instruments, included everything from improvisation to a faithful rendition of Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country."
After a short break, Yoko Ono's set opened with an emotion-grabbing short biographical film that included clips of her life (with a few rare ones) of her life with John Lennon, including a shot of his blood-stained glasses after his death. Ono has never been one to shy away from the controversial or the uncomfortable.
Some of the Lennon clips were emotional to view. A brief clip of John and Yoko giving advice to protesters in Berkeley, which is right up the road from Oakland, received some notable applause.
We really wish some of those rarely seen films that were included here were seen more often. They give a better view beyond the usual "Two Virgins" cover shot of what John Lennon and Yoko Ono were all about -- their naked emotions, not their naked bodies.
Before Ono came on stage, the crowd was treated to animation of Ono with birds flying out of her mouth, a design matching a t-shirt being sold in the lobby. Also for sale were CD and vinyl copies of her "Between My Head and the Sky" album.
Then it was time, as John Lennon once said, for Ono to "do her thing all over you." The set list included several tracks from her recent album, "Between My Head and the Sky," and a few golden oldies from the Apple Records days, which, according to a recent interview with her, she is considering reissuing.
"Walking on Thin Ice," the song she was working on in the recording studio with Lennon the night of his death, still sounds as powerful live as it did in the released studio version. "Death of Samantha," another Apple oldie, was a great nostalgic choice.
While the Oakland show didn't have the abundant guest list that the recent Brooklyn show did, there were a couple of notable guest performers. Harper Simon, Paul Simon's son, who was at the Brooklyn performance, joined in on acoustic guitar. And Jaron Lanier, who Sean Lennon credited as a man who could play hundreds of instruments, played a few of those during the set. Besides Ono, Simon, Lanier and Lennon, the band also included Yuka Honda on keyboards and the trio Cornelius.
"The Sun Is Down," which has such a bounce on the album, was augmented here with vocals by Sean Lennon and video animation in the background.
The evening climaxed with a full-tilt replay of the original Plastic Ono Band with Ono and the band performing "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mommy's Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow)" and leading a sing-along of "Give Peace a Chance" to close out the show. The crowd, which included "Lost Lennon Tapes" host Elliot Mintz, cheered wildly.
But when you think about it, "Give Peace a Chance" was an ironically common moment of what had been a most uncommon night.
Yoko Ono's Oakland set list:
1. IT HAPPENED
2. D TRAIN
3. BETWEEN MY HEAD & THE SKY
4. RISING
5. WALKING ON THIN ICE
6. WILL I (enter Harper & Jaron)
7. MOVING MOUNTAINS (Harper /Jaron)
8. CALLING (Harper/Jaron/Yuka- bass
9. SUN IS DOWN
10. DEATH OF SAMANTHA
11. MINDTRAIN
12. HIGA NOBURU
ENCORE
13. MULBERRY (w/ Jaron)
14. DON'T WORRY KYOKO (W/ Deerhoof)
15. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
Sean Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band with Eric Clapton perform "Yer Blues" in Brooklyn last week.
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Comments
Sounds great. I saw her in '97 at the Roxy in LA. Fantastic performance. It wasn't sentimental at all and included no footage of Lennon. I like when Yoko stands as her own artist. I hope she and Sean take the show on the road (and by road, I guess I mean the few cities that she could book.) I'm not sure how well she can fill a theater in some parts of the country. Perhaps that is snobby. I'm glad she will be releasing the BAM show with Clapton et. al.
I had tickets to see Yoko in Merrillville Indiana for her "Starpeace" tour in the 1980's but sadly it was canceled. At the time I thought that she would be the closest I would ever get to seeing an ex-Beatle live as Paul and Ringo weren't touring yet.
I'm not being mean but Sean's voice gets annoying to me very quickly. When "Yer Blues" started, I thought that it was Yoko on lead vocal! Sean is talented for sure but just didn't get a strong singing voice.
"Walking On Thin Ice" would be amazing to see live and Yoko should do some of her "Double Fantasy" and "Milk And Honey" songs too. "DON'T WORRY KYOKO" is great too.
John S. Damm
Nice to see Eric playing with Sean and Yoko. Interesting that they did the ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS version-- where Eric extends his solo at the end. Sean can't sing like his dad, but just like he would've, Sean messed up the lyrics early on...John would have been proud, Sean!
Steve,
You did a writeup worthy of rock star, but she's far from rock star caliber.
I'm sorry to say but you couldn't pay me enough to go spend an evening watching her perform. I can't stand her voice, she doesn't "sing", she screams or screeches or whatever you want to call it. As for Sean, he can at least sing but I would prefer if Sean was his own artist, had divorced himself from his mother, and sought out his style instead of borrowing from his Dad.
Just because John married her doesn't mean as a fan of John that I have to accept her lock, stock and barrow. To this day I can't stand the sight of her or her voice or anything about her.
MK: You don't, but I think one could consider "Walking on Thin Ice" great no matter who Yoko was married to. And even she acknowledges that not everyone understands her music.
I agree with MK. Music is not what I think of when I hear the name "yoko". I would bet that if she did not have the Lennon connection she would have a following that would fit in a VW Beetle.
Sean, quite frankly, is a momma's boy.
Steve, saying "she acknowledges that not everyone understands her music" is Yoko talking down to anyone who does not like her music. "The simple people are not going to understand her greatness". What is there to understand? You either like it or you don't. Not liking what she calls music is not a lack of understanding. By saying that she is implying that people who do not like her music are not samrt enough or cool enough. Nice psychological trick on her part.
Steve,
the only reason why "Walking on Thin Ice" has any merit is because John (and record producer Jack Douglas who produced the DF album) spent so many long hours, including the recording session before he got shot, on this album. Also I have heard that several of the songs that Yoko included on "Walking on Thin Ice" were actually written by John for Ringo which Yoko conveniently just grabbed shortly after John's death. One reason why John worked so hard on helping Yoko with "Walking on Thin Ice", was that he wanted her to have own commercial success as a performing recording artist in her own right. Regardless, I still can't stand her voice, or the sight of her. As George said, "she's got bad energy" and I agree. No matter how much money she donates she can't get away from herself.
Well said, MK
Out of the 5 Mike Douglas shows that John and Yoko co-hosted for a week that was taped in January 1972 and aired in Febuary,a young criminal lawyer Rena Uviller(she went on to become a Supreme Court Judge) who worked with juveniles, and she,Mike Douglas,John and Yoko were discussing the then very recent women's liberation movement. George Carlin was on too.
Rena said,she agrees with Yoko,that the idea of Women's lib is to liberate all of us,and she said ,I mean we could talk hours on the way men really suffer under the sex role definitions.Yoko agreed with what she said too. Rena said that men don't really realize they have only to gain from Women's Lib,and that she thinks that maybe with a little more propaganda we can convince them.
John then said,yeah there is a lot to gain from it,just the fact that you can relax and not have to play that male role,he said we can do that,and he said that I can be weak,( but notice how then in a male dominated gender divided,gender stereotyped,sexist society,and even unfortunately still now in a lot of ways,the "female" role was defined as the weak one,and the male role as the strong one) I don't have to protect her all the time and play you know that super hero,I don't have to play that,she allows me to be weak sometimes and for me to cry,and for her to be the strong one,and for me to be the weak one. John then said,and it really is a great relief,after 28 years of trying to be tough,you know trying to show them,I don't give a da*n and I'm this and I'm that,to be able to relax.and just be able to say,OK I'm no tough guy forget it.
Rena then said,I think in some funny way,I think girls even as children,have a greater lattitude because a little girl can be sort of frilly and feminine or she can be a tomboy and it's acceptable,but a little boy if he's not tossing that football,there's a lot of pressure on him.John said,there's a lot of pressure,not to show emotion,and he said that there was a lot of pressure on me not to be an artist,to be a chemist and he said he discussed this on another Mike Douglas episode.
Rena said that unfortunately some of the leaders in the Women's Liberation movement fall victim to being spokesmen,for Women's Lib, and yet at least in public personality they seem to really have a certain amount of contempt for the hair curled housewife and there is a kind of sneering contempt,and she said I think it's a measure of their own lack of liberation.And Yoko said it's snobbery,and Rena said yeah,they really don't like other women,but I'm sympathetic,and Mike Douglas then said a sexist woman-hating statement,saying,well women don't like other women period.Rena said,no see that's very unliberated and Yoko said, in response to what Mike Douglas said,that's not true,that's not true.And John said,you see they are brought up to compete with men.
Yoko said that even though in Japan they say they don't have much of a woman problem and women already had some liberation,there is still a long way to go that she really agrees with Rena that so many female liberation movement people basically hate women,and we have to first start to understand women and love them whether they are housewives or not,and she said that snobbery is very bad and we have to somehow find out a way to co-existing with men,and she asked Rena don't you think so and she said most definitely.
George Carlin said,that actually many successful women are acting out male roles just like a lot of blacks think they escaped are acting out white roles.John also said that he thinks that women have to try twice as hard as to make it as men,and he said you know they have to be on their toes much more than a man.
On another Mike Douglas episode from the same week,former actress and acclaimed film maker Barbara Loden was on and Yoko had requested her as a guest.John asked her ,Did you have any problems working with the men,you know like giving them instructions and things like that and Barbara said,I did, but I think it was because I was afraid that they would not accept what I said,and I wasn't quite that authoritative in my own self.John said it's certainly a brave thing to do,and Yoko said it is.
Mike Douglas asked Yoko if John's attitude had changed much towards her since The Female Liberation Movement,and at first Yoko says John's attitude from the beginning was the same,and that they met on that level.John then says,twice, I was a male chauvinist and Yoko says,yes he was a male chauvinist but,and then John says,Can I say how you taught me,and Yoko says yes.John says,How I did it in my head was,would I ask Paul or George,or would I treat them the way I would treat a woman? John then said,it's a very simple thing maybe it's fetch that or do that ,and I started thinking if I said that to them,they'd say come on get it yourself,and if you put your wife or your girl friend in the position of your best friend,and say now would I say that to him,then you know when you're treading on some delicate feelings.
Mike Douglas said years later that after this week of John and Yoko co-hosting his show,many young people who had never watched his show before,(and his main audience was middle America and people older than their 20's and even mostly their 30's) told him they loved the show,and that it was great and his ratings went up high for those shows.Even if John didn't always live up to his feminist ideals and beliefs in his personal life,(although he did with Yoko because of her and this why and how he emotionally evolved into a caring,nurturing,house husband and father to Yoko and Sean),just the fact that he spoke out as a man in support of the feminist movement on a popular TV show back in early 1972 when most of the sexist male dominated woman-hating society looked down at it and considered it crazy which in some ways it's still unfortunately wrongly misunderstood(and it's really the male dominated,sexist,woman-hating society that has always been so wrong and crazy!),and the fact that John was (and still is) greatly admired and influential to many young people male and female,he did *a lot* to legitimize it and show it was rational,reasonable,needed and right!
A few months later he was performing Woman Is The Ni**er Of The World on The Dick Cavett Show and then months after that live in Madison Square Garden.In his very last radio interview done by Dave Sholin etc from RKO Radio just hours before he was tragically shot and killed, John said I'm more feminist now than I was when I sang Woman Is The N**ger,I was intelectually feminist then but now I feel as though at least I've put not my own money,but my body where my mouth is and I'm living up to my own preachings as it were.
And Yoko keeps promoting John's great music and art not for money,(she doesn't need the money anyway,John was a millionaire and in addition she made her own money as she still does from her work as an artist)she does this because she still loves him deeply,and she wants him to be remembered for the truly great music artist and art artist he was who was killed for no rational reason at only age 40!
Mike Douglas also said to John and Yoko,You're both so different,you had such different childhoods. John said,it's incredible isn't it? Yoko said,Yes! Mike asked,What do you think has attracted you to each other? Yoko said,We're very similar.John then said,She came from a Japanese upper-middle class family.Her parents were bankers and all that jazz,very straight.He said they were trying to get her off with an ambassador when she was 18.You know,now is the time you marry the ambassador and we get all settled.I come from a an upper-working class family in Liverpool,the other end of the world. John then said,we met but our minds are so similar,our ideas are so similar.It was incredible that we could be so alike from different enviornments,and I don't know what it is,but we're very similar in our heads.And we look alike too!
Mike also asked John about his painful childhood,and how his father left him when he was 5,and John said how he only came back into his life when he was successful and famous(20 years later!),and John said he knew that I was living all those years in the same house with my auntie,but he never visited him.He said when he came back into his life all those years later,he looked after his father for the same amount of time he looked after him,about 4 years.
He also talked about how his beloved mother Julia,who encouraged his music by teaching him to play the banjo,got hit and killed by a car driven by an off duty drunk cop when John was only 17 and just getting to have a realtionship with her after she had given him away to be raised by her older sister Mimi when he was 5.
And John also said,And in spite of all that,I still don't have a hate-the-pigs attitude or hate-cops attitude.He then said, I think everybody's human you know,but it was very hard for me at that time,and I really had a chip on my shoulder,and it still comes out now and then,because it's a strange life to lead .He then said,But in general ah,I've got my own family now ...I got Yoko and she made up for all that pain.
John's psychologist Dr.Arthur Janov told Mojo Magazine in 2000( parts of this interview is on a great UK John Lennon fan site,You Are The Plastic Ono Band) that John had as much pain as he had ever seen in his life,and he was a psychologist for at least 18 years when John and Yoko saw him in 1970! He said John was a very dedicated patient. He also said that John left therapy too early though and that they opened him up,but didn't get a chance to put him back together again and Dr.Janov told John he need to finish the therapy,he said because of the immigration services and he thought Nixon was after him,he said we have to get out of the country.John asked if he could send a therapist to Mexico with him,and Dr.Janov told him we can't do that because they had too many patients to take care of,and he said they cut the therapy off just as it started really,and we were just getting going.
I once spoke to a radio DJ by accident,because he was now a manager of a CD store and I wanted to order some imported solo John Lennon and Paul McCartney albums.And we got to talking and I said are you a Beatles fan,and he said yeah I'm a Beatles fan.And he told me that he was the one who went up with fellow DJ Helen Leicht (who is a huge Beatles fan and she used to host a great 2 hour Breakfast With The Beatles show for many years from 10am-12pm every Sunday on a local radio station.)to do an extensive interview with Yoko at the Dakota in 1983 that aired on two different Sundays in parts 1 and 2.
I loved Yoko ever since I heard this interview,she's very intelligent and a kind person for the most part,and I love that she was a feminist who turned John into one too.Anyway I said to him,you went in John's home? And he said yep,I said how could you go in there wasn't it painful? And he said it was tough ,and I said were there pictures of John all over the place and he said yes.I asked him what was Yoko like and he said she's a very nice lady.
And John himself was always proud of Yoko's art and music and he loved it! He said in his very last interviews that he had 2 partners in his life,Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono and he said that's a pretty good record and that he did pretty well as talent scout.Rock photographer Bob Gruen says in John Lennon The New York Years,the fact that Yoko already had her own one-person show when she met John was an incredible accomplishment.He also said,to be included in a show of many would have been impressive for a woman at the time;for a woman to have her own show was almost unheard of.
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