''I saw a film today oh boy'' (Lennon, 1967). By words of introduction, I would like to write about one of the most recognizable avant-garde artist; Yoko Ono.
All the information contained within this post comes from the youtube video named The Real Yoko Ono and my memory collected from books. Mainly, I remember the one particular book John Lennon, la ballade inachevée. Unfortunately, I could not find the English version. Nevertheless, the book is well written with a lot of the facts which I never known.
Coming back to the video, the Yoko Ono biography is interspersed with her relationship with The Beatles. Which again, I can evaluate the connection with my project. However, according to the history, she entered Lennon's life after recording Sgt.Pepper. This not accept her contribution in 1967, when John was mentally dissatisfied with his marriage with Cynthia (his first partner from 1962). According to one of the interviews (probably from the documentary movie Imagine) were Klaus Voorman mentioned the inevitable depression sights when he met John on Strawberry Fields Forever shoots for the video. Conforming to his memories, John started picking the leaves from the bush and left it almost naked ''I am so unhappy Klaus''. Moreover, as confirmed “John was not in good shape. He was very unhappy. He was living in Weybridge at the time [his house outside London] and he didn’t like to be with Cynthia, his wife. The whole situation, the whole setup—he didn’t enjoy it. I mean, he was always frustrated. Till Yoko came along, John was frustrated. He was very sarcastic, very funny, like a clown sometimes, but he was always frustrated.” (Voormann, 2011).
Knowing John's situation in those times, let's turn to Yoko history.
She has born on 18 February 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. The biggest advantage considering those times was her wealthy family status. She was the first child of a bank executive known as well as a pianist, and a very organised ''busy'' intelligent woman. Her younger brother appeared in her childhood memories as a charming little boy. However, the second world war had an impact on higher class society as well. In the film Imagine she recalls her early fascination with imagining creative things. During the war, she and her brother had been starving, to stopped crying Yoko comforted her brother by asking what he would like to eat. They managed in their minds a perfect menu. She is still convinced, that only with imagination people can crossed boundaries. It is partly a pure conceptual state of mind. She had been taught manners alongside her mother's novelty approach to marriage. Therefore, later on, Yoko became a notorious feminist as well.
According to Sean statement, ''She never allowed someone to interfere into her person''. Yoko had guaranteed a start with education, by an attempt to the philosophy program in Tokyo university and then in New York, where she joined her father. Tutors recalled her attitude in a stubborn but very intelligent way. In 1956 she married Ichiynagi Toshi. However, people commemorate their relation as tough and non-mutual. Nevertheless, this marriage allowed Yoko to began forgoing connections in the New York avant-garde world. She could show up with her ideas, which part they are assembled in her book Grapefruit (1964). One of her first shows was with the ladder, where the one from the audience needed to jump from the possible highest step (as I recall from the video)
She divorced Toshi in 1962, and his place was taken by filmmaker Anthony Cox. By this time she moved to London. From the lecture, she said when she suffered from depression, he was the only person who came to visit her in the hospital. In this time the success could be reached even more efficient thanks to the new husband. In 1963 she gave birth to a girl Kyoko Chan Cox. She took braver steps into the colocation of sexual violence in her performance Cut Piece (1964). The striking fact of her determination testifies her interferes with the public. Which she has perfectly shown in the film No.4, known as the Bottoms. This picture shocked local papers. Recalling the famous quotation ''There is no such thing as bad publicity'' P.T Barnum. And in this case, it appalled to be a success. However, after that, she was known from this film. People remembered a great number of standing behind anonymous with the scene captured only their bottoms. Apparently, in this year (1966) Paul McCartney has been living in the city centre. He was a kind of acculturative man likely to spend an evening with local artists and spending the day in galleries. He encouraged John to visit one of his favourite places. ''Indica'' gallery has always got in touch with Paul regarding new exhibitions. Likely in this time, he came with John as a special guest to see the upcoming Yoko Ono avant-garde display Unfinished Paintings and Objects. Lennon found it as an opportunity to have a great laugh of expected a continuation of the Bottoms topic. However, recalling his actual beliefs, he was fascinated. The first thing that sprang to his mind was the ladder with a hanged magnified glass. When he climbed up to the top, he could use the glass to see inscribed words ''yes''. The next exhibit, “Painting to Hammer a Nail In” strongly urged him to try it with his hand. And there he overindulged Yoko's patience. It was just before opening day and John would destroy her work. Therefore, she offered five shillings per nail, anyway, they agreed that Lennon would pay imaginary money to hammer an imaginary nail.
Along with this story, there is a lot of different rumours. One of them states that they knew each other before the exhibition; especially Paul in one interview desperately claimed that he had seen Yoko in front of his door in 1965 when she kept asking about John. The other one states that John was drunk in the gallery, therefore he could be more effusive.
Nevertheless, since then, they still kept in touch.
I found a number of stories of how dreadful time it was for the band with Yoko's presence. However, people do not know about prior conceptual transitions in Sgt.Pepper album, where we can define as a very first approach to avant-garde music scenery. A year later, when The Beatles travelled to India (1968), to finding themselves through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi mantras, John (behind wife's back) received letters from Yoko.
However, this short documentary mentioned the engagement and honeymoon in Amsterdam. I would like to recall a song written by Lennon, The Ballad of John and Yoko. The lyric perfectly determines the whole story seeing by his eye's, not dictating by the press.
Their life banded together and set in Tittenhurst Park, the remarkable 72-acre estate in Berkshire. One of the rarest pictures can be seen in the film ''Imagine''. It tells the real young couple's life in a huge residency interspersed with recordings for an identically titled album.
However, it was not an enjoyable time for them. They have a drug recovery and by the feeling of a distance from a city (mainly by Yoko), They moved to the Dakota building in New York. According to John's memories, it was the place where he felt that he belonged there. It was a final settlement, however without Kyoko. In the video, the facts were presented in a twisted way. More likely, it appealed to me a version of long fighting with Cox about parental rights. There was a trial first, where Yoko supposed to take care of her child. In the real story, he kidnapped Kyoko and they were seeking her. When in the video, Yoko mentioned that the trial was mainly about the child decision; with which parent she would like to stay, it embraced John's childhood. He had met with the same question when his mother Julia encounter John with his real father on the way to the New Zeland. Personally, I found it a terrific experience to be faced with as a child.
Mother and daughter drifted apart. However, Yoko intentions were remembered, after 25 years apart they met together.
Nevertheless, when John and Yoko settled in New York, they try to have a baby. Unfortunately, she miscarriage twice. That was a hard time for them, they lost the hope.“We got back together, decided this was our life, that having a baby was important to us and that anything else was subsidiary to that. We worked hard for that child. We went through all hell trying to have a baby, through many miscarriages and other problems. He is what they call a love child in truth. Doctors told us we could never have a child. We almost gave up.'' (Lennon, 1980)
John started to be more politically active, enhanced by connections with members of rebellion parties, the CIA started to watching his moves. This led to receiving a deportation order. However, the third attempt ended with a full of strength boy on Oct. 9, 1975. Everything for them starts to clarify their future. Yoko tried her best being a business woman and John has mastered baking bread. They both started to look after a baby, especially John. He removed himself from the public eye, finally got an American visa. Nevertheless, he did not stop writing songs. In 1980 Yoko and John promoted the album called Double Fantasy. It includes songs singing by them both or solo. It was released on Nov. 17, three weeks later, John was dead.
On Dec. 8, When the couple returned from the recording session, someone stopped them at the front door and asked for an autograph. As it turned out, that was a psychopathic man who was waiting for John until he appeared. He shotted him a few times. Which, Yoko remembrance as the worst experience in her life. She was shouting, crying and believed that there is a chance to keep John alive. In the video, she said that when the nurse confirmed his death, she kept this information for herself. Only when she decided that it was high time, she showed up as a widow to tell this sad news to the world.
Living in mourning changed direction into art, she made a lot of marvellous pieces. The most heartbreaking for me is Season of glass album cover. The shoot was taken from Yoko's exhibition.
Lifton, D. (2015) The Day John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Son Sean Was Born. [Online] Ultimate Classic Rock. Available from : https://ultimateclassicrock.com/sean-lennon-born/ [Accessed 18/05/21].
Ono, Y. (1981) Season of glass.
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