John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band or Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band?

COOKIE!!

People who whine about this being all serious and self-indulgent conveniently forget that in the middle of a purty nice song like "Hold On" John growls "COOKIE!!!!" out of nowhere, for absolutely no reason.

In all the things I've read about "POB" I've never read a mention of 'cookie' and it doesn't exist in the liner notes. I was half entertaining the idea that I had been imagining it this whole time!

High point of John's career--definitely in terms of guitar work; one of Ono's two best. And definitely the funkiest Ringo or Klaus Voorman ever got. Ono was nearing a Faust-like state.

I really, really, really hope there are some bootlegs of the Klaus/Ringo/John rhythm section blasting from Valhalla somewhere.

This is why I like Ringo so much. He can act like a doofus, be the 'lucky guy that got picked randomly' to go down in history, and take all that criticism in stride. And then you hear this Yoko Ono POB stuff and think 'holy shit!!'

Ringo's so unpretentious. The day after they recorded 'Why' he was making a silly peace sign. I bet it never registered how badass it was, he just thinks "Oh well, that was a fun little jam with me friends!"

"Harmonic masterpieces" -- this thread is just chock full of classic Geir.

My view is Yoko/POB for reasons already cited.

Geir shocked by Beatles liking music by black people.

The Beatles are my favorite band, but Yoko is my favorite Beatle.

i've never heard the rest of the album, but I know and love "why." is it worth my time to track down the rest?

Yes! Get the whole album if you love "Why". Also get "Fly"

The Beatles' Hamburg roots brought them no fame. For a reason. It wasn't until they started composing their own tunes that The Beatles became the greatest and most important thing ever to happen to music. And Paul McCartney was the most important musical brain in the group, proving a touch of true musical sophistication to the otherwise way too raw and simple R&B roots.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, April 8, 2007 7:15 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Definition of "Curate's egg" here. Parts are very true, and parts are total bol. Without Hamburg, there'd be no 1st album, which brought them fame. "I saw her standing there" was made perfect by Hamburg (where they played it 10 times a week, at least)

The raw and simple R&B brought them fame. Yes, if they had stuck to that, they'd have fizzled out. But they developed musically. Oh no! They developed! Oh, it's OK, musical development was only banned in 1974...

oh, and these albums need re-releasing as a double or twin-pack.

The new Plastic Ono Band record, Between My Head And The Sky, is fantastic

plenty of Fly-esque tracks of "OHWHAHAHAHHAHAA" over heavy psych beats

another thread ruined by Geir

This is crazy sounding:

http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/395

new Plastic Ono Band IS pretty good! new Sean Lennon is uhhhh.
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/4079a19b95ca98b945924ba60584f7f8/2480031.jpg

actually terrible album covers of 2009

also, wtf Sean
http://animalnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/sean-lennon-purple-terry-richardson.jpg

like, seriously

Together, we are stronger than Geir.

xpost or are we?

NSFW everybody

As I just discovered

shit, sorry about that, doggs. didn't realize it was totally nsfw.

http://img.ymlp108.com/GuerrillaGroup_1_image_3.jpg

is that hope sandoval lying on sean lennon?

She's hotter than Yoko and he's way more burnt than John.

Had to research because "DAMN".

For the Fall issue of Purple magazine, Sean Lennon appears in a recreation of his parents’ famous 1981 Rolling Stone cover, their last photo together by financially troubled photographer Annie Leibovitz. The new snap by Terry Richardson features Sean in his mother’s place while nude model Kemp Muhl fills in for his dead father."

Launched in 1969 with the single "Give Peace A Chance", PLASTIC ONO BAND is known for its avant-garde music, film, art, and activism. Revived in 2009, YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND includes Yoko Ono, Cornelius, Yuka Honda, Haruomi Hosono and Sean Lennon. On February 16, the group performs a very special concert, featuring songs from their new album Between My Head And The Sky , welcoming many special guests, including some original band members.

There are some eye-opening special guests.

http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/9356

It occurred to me hearing "Give Peace a Chance" full through on the radio tonight that this tune has to be one of the most raggedy pop hits of all time. It's pretty much just one long chorus with a big group of singers and John Lennon scatting every so many measures. What the heck is making that drum beat sound? It might be more than just a microphone in a room. Maybe it was staged to sound that raw, I don't know, but it seems hard to believe that the song was that big a hit. The tune made it to #14 in the US charts and #2 in the UK.

It's a tough choice because they're both excellent, yet very different records. Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is hugely underrated, IMO. Post-punk before there was post-punk. It actually makes John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band look relatively conservative, and hits the spot in the same way for me as Public Image Ltd. or Can or The Fall do.

that and Fly are very krautrock-y. although I've never really understood why/how that came about, did Yoko visit Cologne with Klaus and Ringo at some point in 1970 or something

I'm fascinated by Lennon's guitar playing on this record, actually, particularly the searing guitar on 'Why?'... I love it when the screaming kicks in on 'AOS' too. Lennon's album is more lyrical and song-based, but I find Yoko's album far more expressive and cathartic.

Still have never listened to all of the John album. I love the Yoko album deeply. Even (most of) the bonus tracks on the reissue are great.

Beatles haircut came from German avant gardeners. Klaus did dada-pop collage for "Revolver". Beatles always had some proto-krautrock in them. Remember that long droney take of Revolution that leaked a few years ago?

Also there is that long-rumored 20+ minute version of "Helter Skelter" that I suspect has some cool stuff going on.....

Also the lovely "Remember Love" (released while the Beatles were still together). Twee lofi indie pop w/o the insufferably, just pure uncut beauty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-wSiMplfJQ

Beatles always had some proto-krautrock in them.

otm. "Tomorrow Never Knows" is seriously proto-krautrock.

Isn't there supposed to be a 25 minute jam version of "It's All Too Much" that the released track was edited from?

yeah yeah I'm aware of the Beatles' history with musique concrete and epic jams there's just something about those two Yoko records that slots in so perfectly with early krautrock - the locked-in groove, the abstraction, the tape effects - I just wonder if there was some more direct connection

They all went to art school and know about those techniques?

Yoko surely about those techniques, but Lennon didn't know that tapes could be played backwards, never mind what they sounded like backwards (to say nothing of loops), until 1966. His mantra was "'avant-garde' is French for bullshit" until he met Yoko.

Lennon's art school education was far different/more conservative than the later (and, significantly, London) art school experience of, say, Pete Townshend, who was immersed in an overtly avant-garde curriculum (and, as it turns out, witnessed a Yoko performance, in collaboration with Gustav Metzger, at least a year or two before Lennon met her).

you guys aren't really answering my question

although the implication seems to be that it was just osmosis - CAN and John/Yoko were on similar trajectories and arrived at the same point largely independent of each other

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51aLY99QTeL.jpg

i got the new vinyl Plastic Ono Band reissue. sounds great! i really love this record. it is still quite mindblowing. love the noise jams. love the drone rock. hey on some of these songs there are more Beatles playing than on actual Beatles songs. Ringo + John + i count bassist Klaus Voorman who may as well be an honorary Beatle from the OG days (and doing the cover art for Revolver). the Beatles with a German art school bass player and a Japanese conceptual artist lead singer. its the Beatles as Can.

"Why?" is such an powerhouse opener. i really love the direction it takes on side two. "Touch Me" and "Paper Shoes" going through different moods. the bit with the train going by. the part where the tree falls and it cuts right into a primal muck bass-drums groove by Ringo and Klaus. so great. i really appreciate the flow of this record, especially all the little found sounds. there is a part where the music stops and we just hear birds in a little forest for a while, a potent and soothing antidote. lot of love and care in this album.

the re-issue is really nice and comes with an art booklet and a foldout poster for the Feb 1968 Ornette Coleman performance that opens side 2. the label on the record is a grapefruit done in the style of the classic apple label. fucking awesome.

this is really cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qSQRoDj4w

awww sweet. But now I'm going back through the thread and still wondering if Yoko and John had heard Can