Don’t forget her famous film loop that consisted entirely of peoples’ naked asses.
Yes, she was from one of the richest and most influential families in Japan.
Yeah, she really hit bottom there.
Yes, at one point in the '90s, Paul, Linda and Wings came through Toronto. The specifics of what Linda did to piss off the sound man were never clear, however, he made a tape of her BG vocals and sent it to a local rock radio station, Q107. The vocals in question were as weird as anything Yoko ever did with the Plastic Ono Band. Linda was just as much a parasite, if not more, than Yoko ever was. Linda’s ego was certainly just as large.
About her art, well, that’s what the dynamic was like in the '60s - remember Warhol? Jackson Pollock? Mark Rothko? Barnett Newman? It was a time when the concept was more important than the execution, and technical skill as an artist was seen as old fashioned.
If you look at the Plastic Ono Band in the context of punk rock, she and Lennon were well ahead of their time.
Yikes.
Rumor has it (meaning that I can’t remember the source) that Yoko was responsible for Paul McCartney getting busted for pot in Japan back in 1979. Now, technically, Paul is responsible for his weed, but the story goes that it was Yoko who tipped off the authorities.
Fun times!
Go to 1:15. Wow.
I don’t think she was particularly talented or even interesting. Probably doesn’t deserve the hate but she didn’t do herself any favours and is generally thought of as being a negative influnce on Lennon’s Beatle’s life anyways.
I agree. The Dopers of the tri-state area are united in their condemnation of Yoko Ono!
And I don’t get the “she’s hot” bit either.
I don’t blame Yoko for breaking up the Beatles or contributing to the long decline of John Lennon.
I have the same reaction to her as to any screechy talentless nonentity who gets attention for being a remora on a famous person.
There’s the problem. Blindfolds (and earplugs) should have been handed out to the audience.
I know where to put the cork. 
The difference being that Linda’s bad singing was hidden, whereas Yoko’s was way out front. Neither could sing on key or even close. I never thought that Yoko broke up the band, I just thought that there was no further they could musically go together. Paul was not going to sit still for the angrier direction that John was going, and John wasn’t interested in the softer direction Paul was going.
:dubious: The softer direction Paul was going? Really? What on Abby Road or Let It Be make you think Paul was heading in some soft direction that John couldn’t tolerate? Or for that matter McCartney, Band on the Run, or Ram?
John was a prick. He was horrible to people–even the people who loved him. He made poor business decisions. He was a naturally angry person, prone to extended periods of depression which only made him more difficult to hang around with. Paul is a prick. He’s forever a frustrated perfectionist–one that is not ultimately happy with anything. He resented sharing John’s attention with Yoko. He began going into the studio and laying down tracks completely by himself with nobody’s input–Why Don’t We Do It in the Road is a good example of this. He recorded most of McCartney before the band even realized they were formally broken up. The resentment swirling between them wasn’t limited to them. George wanted to be an equal part of the band, not just recording one or two tracks per album. He was growing as a musician and experimenting with more and more Eastern influences. Now consider that they had been forced to live practically on top of each other for over a decade (some marriages don’t even last that long), and add the fact that since Brian Epstein’s death, they were rudderless and in serious conflict over who should be handling their money and rights. And that’s just a basic summary of some of the more surface tensions. None of which had anything to do with either John “getting angrier” or Paul “getting softer”–an assertion that isn’t borne out by their late Beatles-era or post-Beatles output.
Yep, and they pretty much put up with each other, but if you look at the music they put out, John’s music was continually edgier, and Paul’s more melodious. And they continued in those directions until the late 70s, early 80s until inexplicably, they each went in the other direction.
No, they didn’t “pretty much put up with each other.” They were extremely close and good friends for the majority of their time together. If you ever listen to candid outtakes from their recording sessions, or just watch the two of them interact with each other on the various documentaries, that’s pretty clear. And I think it’s a fool’s game to try to say one was more “edgier” than the other. For one thing, even in the later years when they had more solo compositions, they still contributed a great deal to each other’s work (with notable exceptions like Why Don’t We Do It in the Road). But when it comes down to it, they were both interested in a diversity of music, and they both experimented in their own ways, with and without each other.
John was not “edgier” than Paul, whatever that means. Imagine is pure treacle (and very melodious). Sure you could say Happiness is a Warm Gun is edgier than Blackbird, but that opens the door for Helter Skelter and Why Don’t We Do it In the Road compared to Julia and Cry Baby Cry. You want to look at Let It Be? Well we have The Long and Winding Road and Dig a Pony, but from the same session we have Get Back, which is a fun little rock and roll number, and Across the Universe. On Abbey Road, we have I Want You (She’s So Heavy) pitted against Oh! Darling, but then we’ve also got Because and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. If you listen to the medly, the parts that genuinely rocked were mostly Paul’s compositions (She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, You Never Give me Your Money, and Carry That Weight). My point is that, ultimately, the “common knowledge” that Paul is one thing and John is the other might be oft-repeated, but it’s far from the truth. And that doesn’t even get into their solo work.
I just outright disagree with your post 34. Just about everything in it. Yes, they were good friends once, but barely spoke to each other for 10 years. Paul was writing Silly Love Songs, etc. including Helter Skelter, which should not be interpreted as Charles Manson did, but rather as a what it was, a goofy song about a playground. Paul was all about tender love songs. John was all against war and for peace and introspection, and most of late Beatles work and early solo work reflected this. It was outright angry. It is interesting to see someone who clearly loves both their works have such a different opinion of them than I do.
Our culture still isn’t comfortable with women in the spotlight as anything but pretty faces. She is subject to the same irrational hate as Hilary Clinton.
As I read the Beatles’ biography by Spitz (he is quoted earlier in this thread), I got the distinct impression that John was passive-aggressively trying to distance himself from the Beatles and used Yoko to do this - and she was a willing accomplice. Shenanigans like having her bed moved to the studio when she was sick so he could be with her while they recorded? Including her in band decisions, something no other Beatles’ wife/girlfriend could’ve ever imagined? Oy.
Add to that her own personal/artistic idiosyncracies, which could be interpreted as pretentious or what have you in their own right and you have a recipe for reputation.
Bottom line? John was acting out, but used a willing Yoko to do it and since she came across as an artsy-fartsy, pretentious counter-culture, cosmopolitan snob anyway - well, it was easy to re-direct any ill feelings her direction…and kinda still is.
I am reading that article now. Thank you to miss elizabeth for posting it. I never paid much attention to the whole situation at all and now I realize I have had the same opinion of Yoko Ono without even knowing it - just a knee-jerk “knowing” that has never been looked further into.
<mod>
ONO!
Mean Mr. Mod is carrying that weight of a thread over to Cafe Society.
Now let it be or Maxwell’s Silver Hammer will be your fate.
Moved IMHO > CS
</mod>
OK? Plus, this is one of the truly greatest songs of the 80s; unfortunately the only copy I can find on the web that isn’t a horrible, trancey remix is this odd video of the vinyl record playing on a turntable; presumably the sound was recorded on the video camera as it shot the spinning disc. Muddy sound, but it retains its general shape.