LennonOno Grant for Peace Ceremony, Hofdi House, Reykjavik, Iceland

JOHN & YOKO: A New York Love Story

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER Unveiling

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2006)

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2004)

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: FLY at Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland

Yoko Ono Exhibition: FLY at Ke Art Center, Shanghai, China

Blankets 4 Mongolia

Yoko Ono: Vertical Memory (1997)

Yoko Ono Interviews

Yoko Ono: Written works

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: FLY at Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland

Yoko Ono Exhibition: FLY at Ke Art Center, Shanghai, China

Blankets 4 Mongolia

LennonOno Grant for Peace Ceremony, Hofdi House, Reykjavik, Iceland

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2006)

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2004)

Yoko Ono: Vertical Memory (1997)

Yoko Ono Interviews

Yoko Ono: Written works

ONO Remixes

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: Indica Gallery (1966)

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: Touch Me (2008)

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: IMAGINE PEACE, Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace (2008)

Yoko Ono Artworks: Blue Room Event (1966)

Yoko Ono Artworks: FLY

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: FLY at Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland

Yoko Ono Exhibition: FLY at Ke Art Center, Shanghai, China

Blankets 4 Mongolia

LennonOno Grant for Peace Ceremony, Hofdi House, Reykjavik, Iceland

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2006)

Penal Colony by Yoko Ono & Arata Isozaki (2004)

Yoko Ono: Vertical Memory (1997)

Yoko Ono Interviews

Yoko Ono: Written works

ONO Remixes

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: Indica Gallery (1966)

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: Touch Me (2008)

Yoko Ono Exhibitions: IMAGINE PEACE, Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace (2008)

Yoko Ono Artworks: Blue Room Event (1966)

Yoko Ono Artworks: FLY


Yoko Ono Artworks: Misc

John Lennon Artworks

John & Yoko Events: Acorns (1968)

John and Yoko events: WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)

John & Yoko Events: Declaration of Nutopia (1973)

Dream Power John Lennon Super Live 2007

My 75th Birthday Party

 
photos

 

YOKO ONO INTERVIEWED, THE TOURING LENNON ART EXHIBITION (1997) In his own draw

For anyone who has only experienced her singing -- which slews wildly between a visceral scream of anguish and an orgasmic howl -- Yoko Ono’s remarkably quiet speaking voice, barely above a whisper, comes as a surprise. And this week as she talks about art and music from her home in New York it is aggravated by a cold and initially reduced to being almost inaudible.

“I’ll do my best,” she coughs. “I was just in about five countries and I’ve just come back so I think it was probably the plane.”

She coughs again, gets a glass of water, then explains she was in Copenhagen and Spain opening her own art installations, about which she laughs almost self-consciously.

And in the course of a wide-ranging conversation Yoko Ono laughs a lot -- which will further surprise those whose only image of her is as the dour, emotionally impenetrable avant-garde artist who somehow seduced her famous husband, the late John Lennon, away from the Beatles and into years of bizarre political activism, art happenings and other period madness besides.

As a member of the Fluxus art group in the early 60s, and through the New York avant-garde scene, Ono had credentials as an artist -- of the performance art kind -- but so too had Lennon she says. And it is his work as much as her own she has put into the world this past decade.

An exhibition of Lennon’s works entitled Imagine -- more than 100 drawing and limited edition lithographs -- is part of a permanent travelling exhibition of his distinctive, idiosyncratic work.

While some might tartly observe that as a visual artist Lennon was an exceptionally gifted musician, Ono is quick to remind that her husband -- whom she met at one of her own exhibitions at London’s Indica Gallery in 1966 -- was also a former art school student.

“When we met we were talking quite a lot initially about art and artists and people he liked. And then he wanted to have a one-man show but he said, ‘I can’t, I’m a Beatle’.

“At the time I just couldn’t understand why a Beatle couldn’t do a show. I came from a very different background. He did a Robert Fraser Gallery show [You Are Here in 1968] which was basically ignored by the critics and his friends, so he was very disappointed.”

Not that it stopped him. Through a series of avant-garde films, albums of sound collages and found noise, exhibitions of drawings and lithographs, Lennon made a strong bid for artistic credibility outside the constraints of then then-disintegrating Beatles.

   Most successful, if only for their notoriety, were the Bed Peace events -- the pair staying in bed for a week as a peace protest -- and the “War is Over -- if you want it” poster campaign of 1969, the latter anticipating by a decade the public aphorisms of artist Jenny Holzer.

   “Yes, the stuff we were doing was a little too soon, a little too early I think,” laughs Ono. “But you know, we suffered, we really suffered for not being able to communicate. It was like being invisible but you’re not, you know? But that kind of suffering was probably very good for us because we were both very strong-headed people and had very high opinions about ourselves.”

And she laughs again.

“It’s good to learn a lesson that way. But we were totally, totally naïve as well,” she says, noting both she and Lennon were stunned by the outpouring of vitriol and naked racism they encountered.

“I think that because it was us, the combination of . . . the Western hero, so to speak, John Lennon, and he decided to get together with an oriental woman. That whole combination made people angry, I think. I wasn’t prepared for it. I was really surprised by it, but so was John. We went through that and it was a learning process. Also I think it was a learning process for John’s fans.”
Lennon of course had long been used to public scrutiny, and not just a Beatle. His lightning-fast, often scabrous wit had made it into print in two books of his odd verse, In His Own Write in ‘64 and A Spaniard in the Works a year later. Both books also contain his distinctive, often cruel, line drawings.

What the Imagine exhibition overview allows is to see the changes in his style, from the often biting caricature of the early work to . . . dare we suggest, something more akin to the refined Japanese calligraphic style?

“Definitely. John did visit Japan before he met me, but that was a totally different kind of trip. We went together -- not often, but often enough -- and he got more interested in the oriental brushstroke. I didn’t influence him at all, he just picked up the brushes and he was experimenting with that too. Even before that, when we were still in Britain, he was asked to do lithographs, the Bag One series, and at that time already he was getting into that oriental minimalism. The spiritual aspect of the brushstroke is a fascinating subject in a way.”

The works in the Imagine exhibition traverse all of those Lennon styles, from witty cartoons and quickly sketched caricatures of himself, Ono and their son Sean, to that refined Japanese-influenced simplicity. What is not part of Imagine is the famous Bag One works of his erotic lithographs from early 1970, eight of which were seized by Scotland Yard as obscene. In court they were compared with similar works by Picasso and subsequently released.

“I thought, ‘What is going on here?’ If it was Picasso he wouldn’t be confiscated. There was definitely some kind of prejudice there, so [John] hit the wall in a way, a wall of prejudice everywhere. When we were living in New York he was looking for a gallery again and most of them thought it was just the dabbling of a pop star so why should they do it. Galleries have their own snobbery.”

Ono says that after Lennon’s death her priority was to release the Milk and Honey album they had been working on then, after five years, she turned her attention to his art works. She acknowledges her approaches to galleries met with indifference initially. However now “after 10 years, the programme is extremely successful and now his work has been put in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, that kind of thing.”

That alone might give the lie to the argument that Lennon’s drawings are famous only because of who did them rather than on their own merit -- but to be fair some of them are not very good. It is also notable that Imagine is not a work curated for galleries but is most often displayed in commercial outlets and places such as hotels.

Some of Lennon’s work however betray an assured and confident hand and Ono admits choosing from the hundreds of drawing and sketches was difficult for her. She says she chose works that were finished and Lennon would not have minded being shown. Some he felt confident enough about to sign and “the ones that are shown in the exhibition I really think are top quality stuff.”

If the Imagine exhibition has led to Lennon the artist being taken rather more seriously, it runs parallel with the rehabilitation of Ono whose star has been in the ascendancy for the past five years, first with the much-acclaimed release of the Onobox, a handsome six-CD collection of her music, the touring programme of her films, then last year’s unexpectedly strong Rising album with son Sean’s band and the subsequent brief live appearances.

“I just put all my energy into my voice -- and people don’t walk out on a thing like that!” she laughs.

And now there has been the re-release of all 11 of her solo albums.

“You know,” she says with an audible sigh, “I don’t necessarily enjoy being that busy anymore. In the beginning I thought busy was good, you know? Then for about three years I have been so busy and this summer I just want to relax a bit.”
And suddenly Yoko Ono -- for most of us frozen in images now 30 years old -- sounds every bit of her 64 years. She speaks of doing another album and of other projects, but that is her public life. Privately through the Spirit Foundation -- to which go part of the proceeds from sales at the Imagine exhibition -- she has unobtrusively been a major donor to numerous charities.

“I think that’s very important. There’s a certain balance in our life and also you want to do your own thing, but also to help others too. If each one of us could just do a little . . . . The same goes with communication, just making people around you happy and doing things here and there.

“If all of us did that, the world would change very fast.”

This interview first appeared in the New Zealand Herald, July 1997

Videos of Joko Ono and John Lennon

Transmission with T-Mobile Interview with Yoko, Ana and Beth

Yoko Ono accepts award for John Lennon

Yoko Ono on forgiving Chapman

Julian Lennon on John

 3:24

George Harrison_Talks about Julian, Drugs, TM

174,581 views

Sailawayraymond

 0:35

Sean Lennon-Give Peace A Chance

72,268 views

leia176oo

 

5:58

John Lennon-on Yoko Breaking Up the Beatles

92,916 views

leia176oo

 

0:12

A Message from Julian Lennon

81,984 views

whaledreamers

 

5:40

John and Julian Lennon- "The End" and "Stand By...

171,803 views

Marvson

 

5:24

Julian Lennon on David Letterman

52,565 views

NewMJ

 

9:54

the truth about John Lennon

25,998 views

RolandNeubauer

 

2:01

Yoko Ono on forgiving Chapman

93,973 views

leia176oo

 

3:31

Woman (Cynthia Lennon) - John Lennon

195,202 views

migroja

 

1:13

Paul McCartney-on John missing the Beatles

139,559 views

leia176oo

 

4:38

Don't Let Me Down - Julian Lennon Cover

114,251 views

pozobyt

 

2:36

Cynthia Lennon

34,381 views

34bx

  8:35

Julian Lennon on Arsineo Hall

63,690 views

NewMJ

  2:37

Beatles and Julian Lennon - 'When I'm 64'

698,147 views

earcandyfilms

Loading...

See all 58 videos

 

2:22

Sean Lennon at Sundance 07

32,208 views

deenichols

 

8:05

Interview with Sean Lennon

185,006 views

IOLvideo

 

0:48

John Lennon & Sean Lennon

111,442 views

jaroslavko2

Added

7:53

Julian Lennon on John

230,708 views

leia176oo

 

2:08

Sean Lennon -- Tomorrow

11,233 views

RavinRavenclaw

 3:52

JOHN LENNON BEAUTIFUL BOY

101,106 views

caroline372

 5:09

Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon

2,105,646 views

jigowatts

 4:20

Rufus, Moby, & Sean Lennon - Across The Universe

206,811 views

jovewilliams

 4:07

Sean Lennon - Dead Meat

240,952 views

seanlennonofficial

 2:23

this boy - sean lennon

45,600 views

60beatles

 3:21

Ringo Starr on John Lennon (plus video)

132,637 views

leia176oo

 4:45

John Lennon on government targets

67,912 views

leia176oo

 1:49

Yoko Ono accepts award for John Lennon

32,962 views

leia176oo

 2:19

Sean Lennon, Robert Schwartzman, Rufus Wainwrig...

75,246 views

TruffleShuffle324

 6:47

"Give Peace A Chance" Remakes

1,995 views

leia176oo

 

1:11

Sean Lennon live in Liverpool

7,449 views

betsypug

 7:32

Sean Lennon

128,257 views

ericd84

 2:08

Tomorrow- Sean Lennon

11,270 views

ToHarrison

 

John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1969).

Lennon and Yoko recording "Give Peace a Chance".

Yoko Ono delivering flowers to Lennon's memorial in 2005.

The Dakota, Ono's residence since 1973

Yoko Ono

Early life

Yoko was born to mother Isoko Ono, the granddaughter of Zenjiro Yasuda of the Yasuda^[1] Two weeks before she was born, her father was transferred to San Francisco. The rest of the family followed soon after. In 1937, her father was transferred back to Japan and Ono was enrolled at Tokyo's Gakushuin University, one of the most exclusive schools in Japan, which, before World War Two, was open only to those descended from aristocrats (in the House of Peers) or the imperial family. banking family, and to father Eisuke Ono, who worked for the Yokohama Specie Bank and a decendant of an Emperor of Japan. In 1940, the family moved to New York City, where Ono's father was working. In 1941, her father was transferred to Hanoi and the family returned to Japan. Ono was then enrolled in an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family. She remained in Tokyo through the great fire-bombing of March 9, 1945. During the fire-bombing, she was sheltered with other members of her family in a special bunker in the Azabu district of Tokyo, far from the heavy bombing. After the bombing, Ono went to the Karuizawa mountain resort with members of her family. The younger members of the imperial family were sent to the same resort area. Ono has said that she and her family were forced to beg for food while pulling their belongings in a wheelbarrow; and it was during this period in her life that Ono says she developed her "aggressive" attitude and understanding of "outsider" status when children taunted her and her brother, who were once well-to-do. Other stories have her mother bringing a large amount of property with them to the countryside which they bartered for food. One often quoted story has her mother bartering a German-made sewing machine for sixty kilograms of rice with which to feed the family. Her father remained in the city and, unbeknownst to them, was eventually incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in China. In an interview by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman on October 16, 2007, Ono said of her father "He was in French Indo-China which is Vietnam actually... in Saigon. He was in a concentration camp." By April 1946, the Peers' school was reopened and Ono was enrolled. The school, located near the imperial palace, had not been damaged by the war. She graduated in 1951 and was accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University, the first woman ever to be accepted into that department of the exclusive university. However, after two semesters, she left the school.^[2]

Education, marriage, and family

Ono's family moved to Scarsdale, New York after the war. She left Japan to rejoin the family and enrolled in nearby Sarah Lawrence College. While her parents approved of her college choice, they were dismayed at her lifestyle, and, according to Ono, chastised her for befriending people they considered to be "beneath" her. In spite of this, Ono loved meeting artists, poets and others who represented the "Bohemian" freedom she longed for herself. Visiting galleries and art "happenings" in the city whetted her desire to publicly display her own artistic endeavors. La Monte Young, her first important contact in the New York art world, helped Ono start her career by using her Lower East Side loft as a concert hall. At one concert, Ono set a painting on fire; fortunately John Cage had advised her to treat the paper with flame retardant.

In 1956, she married composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. They divorced in 1962 after living apart for several years. On November 28 that same year, Ono married American Anthony Cox. Cox was a jazz musician, film producer and art promoter. He had heard of Ono in New York and tracked her down to a mental institution in Japan, where her family had placed her following a suicide attempt. Ono had neglected to finalize her divorce from Ichiyanagi, so their marriage was annulled on March 1, 1963 and Cox and Ono married on June 6. Their daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, was born on August 8, 1963.

The marriage quickly fell apart (as observers describe Tony and Ono threatening each other with kitchen knives) but the Coxes stayed together for the sake of their joint career. They performed at Tokyo's Sogetsu Hall with Ono lying atop a piano played by John Cage. Soon the Coxes returned to New York with Kyoko. In the early years of this marriage, Ono left most of Kyoko's parenting to Cox while she pursued her art full-time and Tony managed publicity. After she divorced Cox for John Lennon on February 2, 1969, Ono and Cox engaged in a bitter legal battle for custody of Kyoko, which resulted in Ono being awarded full custody. However, in 1971, Cox disappeared with eight-year-old Kyoko, in violation of the custody order. Cox subsequently became a Christian and raised Kyoko in a Christian group known as the Church of the Living Word (or "the Walk"). Cox left the group with Kyoko in 1977. Living an underground existence, Cox changed the girl's name to Rosemary. Cox and Kyoko sent Ono a sympathy message after Lennon's 1980 murder. Afterwards, the bitterness between the parents lessened slightly and Ono publicly announced in People Magazine that she would no longer seek out the now-adult Kyoko, but still wished to make contact with her.

Ono and Kyoko were reunited in 1994. Kyoko lives in Colorado and avoids publicity.

Artwork

Ono was a reluctant member of Fluxus, a loose association of Dada-inspired avant-gardeGeorge Maciunas, a friend of Ono's during the 60s, admired her work and promoted it with enthusiasm. Maciunas invited Ono to help him promote the Fluxus movement, but she declined because she did not necessarily consider Fluxus a movement and she wanted to remain an independent artist^[3]. John Cage was one of the most important influences on Ono's performance art. It was her relationship to Ichiyanagi Toshi, who was a pupil of John Cage’s legendary class of Experimental Composition at the New School, that would introduce her to the unconventional avant-garde, neo-Dadaism of John Cage and his protégés in New York City. artists that developed in the early 1960s. Fluxus founder

Almost immediately after John Cage finished teaching at the New School of Social Research in the Summer of 1960, Ono was determined to rent a place to present her works along with works of other New York avant-garde artists. She eventually found a cheap loft in downtown Manhattan at 112 Chambers Street that she used as a studio and living space^[4]. Composer La Monte Young urged Ono to let him organize concerts in the loft, and Ono acquiesced^[4]. Both artists began organizing a series of events in Ono’s loft at 112 Chambers Street, and both Young and Ono claimed to have been the primary curator of these events^[5], but Ono claims to have been eventually pushed into a subsidiary role by Young.^[6] The Chambers Street series hosted some of Ono’s earliest conceptual artwork including Painting to Be Stepped On, which was a scrap of canvas on the floor that became a completed artwork upon the accrual of footprints. Participants faced a moral dilemma presented by Ono that a work of art no longer needed to be mounted on a wall, inaccessible, but an irregular piece of canvas as low and dirty as to have to be completed by being stepped on. Ono was an explorer of conceptual art and performance art. An example of her performance art is "Cut Piece", performed in 1964 at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo. Cut Piece had one destructive verb as its instruction: “Cut.” Ono executed the performance in Tokyo by walking on stage and casually kneeling on the floor in a draped garment. Audience members were requested to come on stage and begin cutting until she was naked. Cut Piece was one of Ono’s many opportunities to outwardly communicate her internal suffering through her art. Ono had originally been exposed to Jean-Paul Sartre’s theories of existentialism in college, and in order to appease her own humanly suffering, Ono enlisted her viewers to complete her works of art in order to complete her identity as well. Besides a commentary on identity, Cut Piece was a commentary on the need for social unity and love. It was also a piece that touched on issues of gender and sexism as well as the greater, universal affliction of human suffering and loneliness. Ono performed this piece again in London and other venues, garnering drastically different attention depending on the audience. In Japan, the audience was shy and cautious. In London, the audience participators became zealous to get a piece of her clothing and became violent to the point where she had to be protected by security. An example of her conceptual art includes her book of instructions called Grapefruit. This book, first produced in 1964, includes surreal, Zen-like instructions that are to be completed in the mind of the reader, for example: "Hide and seek Piece: Hide until everybody goes home. Hide until everybody forgets about you. Hide until everybody dies." The book, an example of Heuristic art, was published several times, most widely distributed by Simon and Schuster in 1971, and reprinted by them again in 2000. Many of the scenarios in the book would be enacted as performance pieces throughout Ono's career and have formed the basis for her art exhibitions, including one highly publicized show at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York that was nearly closed by a fan riot. Ono was also an experimental filmmaker who made sixteen films between 1964 and 1972, and gained particular renown for a 1966 film called simply No. 4, but often referred to as "Bottoms". The film consists of a series of close-ups of human buttocks as the subject walks on a treadmill. The screen is divided into four almost equal sections by the elements of the gluteal cleft and the horizontal gluteal crease. The soundtrack consists of interviews with those who are being filmed as well as those considering joining the project. In 1996, the watch manufacturing company Swatch produced a limited edition watch that commemorates this film. (Ono also acted in an obscure exploitation film of the sixties, Satan's Bed.) John Lennon once described her as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does."^[7] Her circle of friends in the New York art world has included Kate Millett, Nam June Paik, Dan Richter, Jonas Mekas, Merce Cunningham, Judith Malina, Erica Abeel, Fred DeAsis, Peggy Guggenheim, Betty Rollin, Shusaku Arakawa, Adrian Morris, Stefan Wolpe, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol, as well as Maciunas and Young. In 2001, YES YOKO ONO, a forty-year retrospective of Ono's work, received the prestigious International Association of Art Critics USA Award for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City. (This award is considered one of the highest accolades in the museum profession.) In 2002 Ono was awarded the Skowhegan Medal for work in assorted media. In 2005 she received a lifetime achievement award from the Japan Society of New York. Ono received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Liverpool University in 2001; in 2002 she was presented with the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Bard College.

She currently has an exhibition at the Baltic on Gateshead Quayside. Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Ono and Lennon collaborated on many albums, beginning in 1968 when Lennon was still a Beatle, with Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, an album of experimental and difficult electronic music. That same year, the couple contributed an experimental piece to The White Album called "Revolution 9". Ono also contributed backing vocals (on "Birthday"), and one line of lead vocals (on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill") to The White Album. Many of the couple's later albums were released under the name the Plastic Ono Band. The couple also appeared together at concerts. When Lennon was invited to play with Frank Zappa at the Fillmore on June 5, 1971, Ono joined in as well. In 1969, the Plastic Ono Band's first album, Live Peace in Toronto 1969, was recorded during the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival. In addition to Lennon and Ono, this first incarnation of the group consisted of guitarist Eric Clapton, bass player Klaus Voorman, and drummer Alan White. The first half of their performance consisted of rock standards, and during the second half, Ono took the microphone and along with the band performed what may be one of the first expressions of the avant garde during a rock concert. The set ended with music that consisted mainly of feedback, while Ono screamed[1] and sang. Ono and Lennon married on March 20, 1969 in Gibraltar. Ono released her first solo album, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in 1970, as a companion piece to Lennon's better-known John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The two albums have almost identical covers: Ono's featured a photo of her leaning on Lennon, and Lennon's had a photo of him leaning on Ono. Her album included raw and quite harsh vocals that were possibly influenced by Japanese opera, but bear much in common with sounds in nature (especially those made by animals) and free jazz techniques used by wind and brass players. The performers included Ornette Coleman and other renowned free jazz performers. The personnel was supplemented by John Lennon, Ringo Starr and minor performers. Some songs consisted of wordless vocalizations, in a style that would influence Meredith Monk, and other musical artists who have used screams and vocal noise in lieu of words. The album peaked at #183 on the US charts. In 1971, Ono released Fly - a double album. On this release Ono explored slightly more conventional psychedelic rock with tracks like "Midsummer New York" and "Mind Train", in addition to a number of Fluxus experiments. She also received minor airplay with the ballad "Mrs. Lennon". Perhaps the most famous track from the album is "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)", an ode to Ono's kidnapped daughter. After the Beatles disbanded, Lennon and Ono cohabitated in London and then in New York. They were arrested for possession of cannabis resin on October 18, 1968. The arrest would be significant to their future together. Their relationship was very strained as Lennon faced near-certain deportation from the United States based on the British drug charges and Ono was separated from her daughter, who would have remained behind if she followed Lennon back to England. Lennon began drinking heavily and Ono buried herself in her work. The marriage had soured by 1973 and the two began living separate lives, Ono pursuing her career in New York and Lennon living in Los Angeles with personal assistant May Pang in a period commonly referred to as his "lost weekend". In 1975, the couple reconciled. Their son, Sean, was born on Lennon's 35th birthday, October 9, 1975. After Sean's birth, the couple lived in relative seclusion at the Dakota in New York. Lennon John Lennon retired from music to become a househusband caring for their child, until shortly before his murder in December 1980, which Ono witnessed at close range. Ono has stated that the couple were thinking about going out to dinner (after spending several hours in a recording studio), but were returning to their apartment instead, because John wanted to see Sean before he was put to bed.^[10] Following the murder, she went into complete seclusion for an extended period.

Memorials

Ono funded the construction and maintenance of the Strawberry Fields memorial in New York City's Central Park, across from where they lived and John died. It was officially dedicated on October 9, 1985, which would have been his 45th birthday.

In 2000, she founded the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan.

On October 9, 2007, Ono dedicated a new memorial called the Imagine Peace Tower, located on the island of Videy, 1 km outside the Skarfabakki harbour in Reykjavík in Iceland. Each year, between October 9 and December 8, it will project a vertical beam of light high into the sky.

Musical career

Ono collaborated with experimental luminaries such as John Cage and jazz legend Ornette Coleman. In 1961, years before meeting Lennon, she had her first major public performance in a concert at the 258-seat Carnegie Recital Hall (not the larger "Main Hall"). This concert featured radical experimental music and performances. She had a second engagement at the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1965, in which she debuted "Cut Piece."

In early 1980, Lennon heard Lene Lovich and The B-52's' "Rock Lobster" in a nightclub, and it reminded him of Ono's musical sound. He took this as an indication that her sound had reached the mainstream.^[11] Indeed, many musicians, particularly those of the new wave movement, have paid tribute to Ono (both as an artist in her own right, and as a muse and iconic figure). For example, Elvis Costello recorded a version of Ono's song "Walking on Thin Ice", the B-52's covered "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for A Hand in the Snow)" (shortening the title to "Don't Worry"), and Sonic Youth included a performance of Ono's early conceptual "Voice Piece for Soprano" in their fin de siecle album SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century. One of Barenaked Ladies's best-known songs is "Be My Yoko Ono", and Dar Williams recorded a song called "I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono." The punk rock singer Patti Smith invited Ono to participate in "Meltdown", a two-week music festival that Smith organized in London during June 2005: Ono performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

On December 8, 1980, Lennon and Ono were in the studio working on Ono's song Walking on Thin Ice. When they returned to The Dakota, their home in New York City, Lennon was shot dead by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman. "Walking on Thin Ice (For John)" was released as a single less than a month later, and became Ono's first chart success, peaking at No. 58 and gaining major underground airplay. In 1981, she released the album Season of Glass with the striking cover photo of Lennon's shattered, bloody spectacles next to a half-filled glass of water, with a window overlooking Central Park in the background. This photograph sold at an auction in London in April 2002 for about $13,000. In the liner notes to Season of Glass, Ono explained that the album is not dedicated to Lennon because "he would have been offended—he was one of us." Some time after her husband's murder, Ono began a relationship with antiques dealer Sam Havadtoy, which lasted until 2001. ^[12] She had also been linked to art dealer and Greta Garbowill. ^[13] In 1982, she released It's Alright (I See Rainbows). The cover featured Ono in her famous wrap-around sunglasses, looking towards the sun, while on the back the ghost of Lennon looks over her and their son. The album scored minor chart success and airplay with the singles "My Man" and "Never Say Goodbye." confidante Sam Green, who is mentioned in Lennon's In 1984, a tribute album titled Every Man Has a Woman was released, featuring a selection of Ono songs performed by artists such as Elvis Costello, Roberta Flack, Eddie Money, Rosanne Cash and Harry Nilsson. It was one of Lennon's projects that he never got to finish. Later that year, Ono and Lennon's final album, Milk and Honey, was released as an unfinished demo. Ono's final album of the 1980s was Starpeace, a concept album that she intended as an antidote to Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense system. On the cover, a warm, smiling Ono holds the Earth in the palm of her hand. Starpeace became Ono's most successful non-Lennon effort: the single "Hell in Paradise" was a hit, reaching No. 16 on the US dance charts and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as major airplay on MTV. In 1986 Ono set out on a goodwill world tour for Starpeace, mostly visiting Eastern European countries. Ono went on hiatus until signing with Rykodisc in 1992 to release the comprehensive six-disc box set Onobox. It included remastered highlights from all of Ono's solo albums, as well as unreleased material from the 1974 "lost weekend" sessions. There was also a one-disc "greatest hits" release of highlights from Onobox, simply titled Walking on Thin Ice. That year, she agreed to sit down for an extensive interview with music journalist Mark Kemp for a cover story in the alternative music magazine Option. The story took a revisionist look at Ono's music for a new generation of fans more accepting of her role as a pioneer in the merger of pop and the avant-garde.

In 1994, Ono produced her own musical entitled New York Rock, featuring Broadway renditions of her songs. In 1995, she released Rising, a collaboration with her son Sean and his band, Ima. Rising spawned a world tour that traveled through Europe, Japan and the United States. The following year, she collaborated with various alternative rock musicians for an EP entitled Rising Mixes. Guest remixers of Rising material included Cibo Matto, Ween, Tricky, and Thurston Moore.

In 1997, Rykodisc reissued all her solo albums on CD, from Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band through Starpeace. Ono and her engineer Rob Stevens personally remastered the audio, and various bonus tracks were added including outtakes, demos and live cuts.

2001 saw the release of Ono's feminist concept album Blueprint for a Sunrise. In 2002 Yoko joined The B-52's in New York for their 25th anniversay concerts. She came out for the encore and performed Rock Lobster with the band. Starting in 2002, some DJs remixed other Ono songs for dance clubs. For the remix project, she dropped her first name and became known as simply "ONO", as a response to the "Oh, no!" jokes that dogged her throughout her career. ONO had great success with new versions of "Walking on Thin Ice", remixed by top DJs and dance artists including Pet Shop Boys, Orange Factory, Peter Rauhofer, and Danny Tenaglia. In April 2003, ONO's Walking on Thin Ice (Remixes) was rated No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's "Dance/Club Play Chart", gaining ONO her first number one hit. On the 12" mix of the original 1981 version of "Walking on Thin Ice", Lennon can be heard remarking "I think we've just got your first No.1, Yoko." She returned to No. 1 on the same charts in November 2004 with "Everyman...Everywoman...". A reworking of her song "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" from Double Fantasy, the track contained new lyrics supportive of gay marriage. Ono's latest album is Yes, I'm a Witch, a collection of remixes and covers from her back catalog by various artists including The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Antony, DJ Spooky, Porcupine Tree and Peaches, released in February 2007, along with a special edition of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band^[14].Yes I'm a Witch has been critically well-received.^[15] Another compilation of Ono dance remixes entitled Open Your Box is also due in April. ^[16] During her career, Ono has collaborated with a diverse group of artists and musicians including Peaches, John Cage, David Tudor, George Maciunas, Ornette Coleman, Charlotte Moorman, George Brecht, Jackson Mac Low, Jonas Mekas, Fred DeAsis, Yvonne Rainer, La Monte Young, Richard Maxfield, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Yo La Tengo, DJ Spooky, and Andy Warhol. In 1987 Ono was one of the speakers at Warhol's funeral.

Political activism

Since the 1960s, Ono has been an activist for peace and human rights. After their wedding, Lennon and Ono held a "Bed-In for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel in March 1969. The press fought to get in, presuming that the two would be having sex for their cameras, but they instead found a pair of newlyweds wearing pajamas and eager to talk about and promote world peace. Another Bed-In in May 1969 in Montreal, Canada, resulted in the recording of their first single, "Give Peace A Chance", a Top 20 hit for the newly-christened Plastic Ono Band. Other demonstrations with John included Bagism. Introduced in Vienna, Bagism encouraged a disregard for physical appearance in judging others.

In the 1970s, Ono and Lennon became close to many radical leaders, including Bobby Seale, Jerry Rubin, Michael X, John Sinclair (for whom they organized a benefit after he was imprisoned), Angela Davis, Kate Millett, and David Peel. They appeared on The Mike Douglas Show and took over hosting duties for a week, during which Ono spoke at length about the evils of racism and sexism. Ono remained outspoken in her support of feminism, and openly bitter about the racism she had experienced from rock fans, especially in the UK. For example, an Esquire article of the period was titled "John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie" and featured an unflattering David Levine cartoon. In 2002, Ono inaugurated her own peace award by giving $50,000 (£31,900) prize money to artists living "in regions of conflict." Israeli and Palestinian artists were the first recipients. On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2003, on the eve of the Iraqi invasion by the Americans and the British, Ono heard about a romantic couple holding a love-in protest in their tiny bedroom in Addingham, West Yorkshire. She sent the couple, Andrew and Christine Gale, some flowers and wished them the best. [2] In 2004, Ono remade her song "Everyman... Everywoman..." to support same-sex marriage, releasing remixes that included "Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him" and "Every Woman Has a Woman Who Loves Her." Ono took out a full-page advertisement in the January 5, 2008 edition of The New York Times that read simply "IMAGINE PEACE."

Relationship with Paul McCartney

Ono occasionally argued with Beatle Paul McCartney about issues such as the writing credits for many Beatles songs. While the Beatles were still together, every song written by Lennon or McCartney, apart from those appearing on the album Please Please Me, was credited as Lennon-McCartney regardless of whether the song was a collaboration or a solo project. Also, as written in Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band That Shook Youth, Gender, and the World, before Ono first met John in 1966, she was trying to contact Paul to donate some music scores that he and John had written for an exhibit. After Lennon's death, McCartney attempted to change the order to "McCartney-Lennon" for songs such as "Yesterday" that were solely or predominantly written by him, but Ono would not allow it. She says she felt this broke an agreement that the two had made while Lennon was still alive. However, McCartney has stated that such an agreement never existed. The two other Beatles agreed that the credits should remain as they always had been and McCartney withdrew his request. However, the dispute resurfaced in 2002. On his Back in the U.S. Live 2002 album, 19 Beatles' songs are described as "written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon."^{[citation needed]} However earlier albums released by both Lennon and McCartney also modified credits for Beatles songs. In 1976, McCartney released a live album called Wings Over America which credited several Beatles tracks as P. McCartney-J. Lennon compositions. Similarly, a 1998 John Lennon anthology, Lennon Legend, listed the composer of "Give Peace a Chance" as John Lennon rather than the original composing credit of Lennon-McCartney.

In 1995, McCartney and his family collaborated with Ono and Sean Lennon to create the song "Hiroshima Sky is Always Blue", which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of that Japanese city. Of Ono, McCartney stated: "I thought she was a cold woman. I think that's wrong ... she's just the opposite ... I think she's just more determined than most people to be herself." McCartney did not invite Ono to his wife Linda's memorial service in 1998.^[17]

When asked about Ono during his October 18, 2001 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, McCartney said "We haven't got the greatest relationship in the world, that's for sure. But we get along when we have to, we're okay." He later admitted that he would be unwilling to comment about the treatment of Julian Lennon on the air, fearing that it would hurt their business relationship.

Criticisms

Recent life

At the Liverpool Biennial in 2004, Yoko flooded the city with banners, bags, stickers, postcards, flyers, posters and badges, with two images: one of a woman’s naked breast, the other of her vulva. The piece, titled "My Mummy Was Beautiful", was dedicated to Lennon's mother, Julia, who had died when Lennon was a teenager. According to Ono the work was meant to be innocent, not shocking. She was attempting to replicate the experience of a baby looking up at his or her mother’s body: the mother’s pudendum and breasts are a child’s introduction to humanity.

The Dakota, Ono's residence since 1973

Some in Liverpool, including Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, found the citywide installationBBC program North West Tonight invited viewers to phone in their opinion of the piece, and of the 6,000 viewers who responded 92% wanted the images removed. Others appreciated the conceptuality of the work. Chris Brown, of Liverpool's Daily Post, wrote: "Many have loved the work… and Ono has again managed to get the eyes of the world looking in our direction." offensive. Indeed, the Ono performed at the opening ceremony for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, wearing white, like many of the others who performed during the ceremony, to symbolize the snow that makes the Winter Olympics possible. She read a free verse poem from a prepared script calling for peace in the world. The poem was an intro to a performance of the song "Imagine", Lennon's anthem to world peace. On December 13, 2006, Ono's bodyguard Koral Karson was arrested after he was taped trying to extort Ono for two million dollars, threatening to release private conversations and photographs.^[20] Recently, Ono appeared on Larry King Live along with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Olivia Harrison. Ono headlined the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 14, 2007, performing a full set that mixed music and performance art. She sang "Mulberry", a song about her time in the countryside after the Japanese collapse in World War II for only the third time in her life, with Thurston Moore; Ono had previously performed the song once with John Lennon and once with Sean Lennon and told the audience of thousands that she will never perform it again. On October 9, 2007 Ono officially lit the Imagine Peace Tower on Viðey Island in Iceland, dedicated to peace and to her late husband, John Lennon. Yoko returned to Liverpool for the 2008 Liverpool Biennial, where she unveiled "Sky Ladders" in the ruins of Church of St Luke, Liverpool (which was largely destroyed during World War Two and now stands roofless as a memorial to those killed in the Liverpool Blitz).

Kyoko Chan Cox

Kyoko Chan Cox (born August 3, 1963) is the daughter of Ono and film producer Anthony Cox, and is Sean Lennon's half-sister. Kyoko spent her earliest years surrounded by a variety of artists, musicians, and film-makers. Cox raised her alone from 1965 to 1969 after Ono left him. She divorced him in 1969. In 1971, while studying with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Majorca, Cox accused Ono of abducting Kyoko from his hotel. A large number of accusations were then made by both parents toward each other and the matter of custody. Cox eventually moved to Houston, Texas and converted to Evangelical Christianity with his new wife, who was originally from Houston. At the end of 1971, a custody hearing in Houston went against Cox. In violation of the order, he took Kyoko and disappeared. Ono then launched a search for her daughter with the aid of the police and private investigators.^[21] Ono wrote a song about her daughter, "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)", which appears on Lennon and Ono's album Live Peace In Toronto 1969. Cox had fled to Los Angeles where he lived with a friend who was associated with the Church of the Living Word. He joined the group in 1972 and then lived in various communities associated with the group in Iowa and California. In 1977, Cox left the group. In 1978 Cox and Kyoko stayed with the Jesus People USA commune in Chicago. After the murder of John Lennon in 1980, Cox along with Kyoko (then 17 years old) sent a message of sympathy to Ono but did not reveal their location. Ono later printed an open letter to Kyoko saying how she missed her but that she would cease her attempts to find her.^[22] Kyoko next appeared in 1986 when she was listed as an associate producer on a documentary film made by Cox about his involvement in the Church of the Living Word called Vain Glory. Cox resurfaced in public in the same year, but Kyoko did not. In 1994 (some sources say 1998), Kyoko, fully grown and married, re-established a connection with her mother that resulted in a 2001 reunion. Kyoko's daughter Emi also met her grandmother at this time. Although Kyoko avoids publicity, she did grant an interview where she revealed that her reunion with Ono was a very happy one, and they remain in close contact to this day. Kyoko made a rare public appearance in August 2005 at the opening of Lennon, the Musical.

Kyoko lives in Colorado. She spends her time pursuing her career as an artist.

Discography (with U.S. chart positions)

Albums

[*] = with John Lennon

• Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins [*] (1968)
• Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions [*] (1969)
• Wedding Album [*] (1969)
• Live Peace in Toronto 1969 [*] (1969) #10 (Credited as Plastic Ono Band)
• Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970) #182
• Fly (1971) #199
• Some Time in New York City [*] (1972) #48
• Approximately Infinite Universe (1972) #193
• Feeling the Space (1973)
• A Story (1974) (Unreleased until 1997)
• Double Fantasy [*] (1980) #1
• Season of Glass (1981) #49
• It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982) #98
• Every Man Has a Woman (1984) (Tribute album with various artists)
• Milk and Honey [*] (1984) #11
• Starpeace (1985)
• Onobox (1992) (Career-spanning compilation)
• Walking on Thin Ice (1992)
• New York Rock (1994) (Original cast recording: Yoko Ono does not perform on this album. It is the cast of a Broadway show performing her songs.)
• Rising (1995)
• Rising Mixes (1996)
• Blueprint for a Sunrise (2001)
• Yes, I'm a Witch (2007)
• Open Your Box (2007)

Singles

B-Side appearances on John Lennon singles:

• "Remember Love" (on "Give Peace a Chance") (1969)
• "Don't Worry, Kyoko" (on "Cold Turkey") (1969)
• "Who Has Seen the Wind?" (on "Instant Karma!") (1970)
• "Open Your Box" (on "Power to the People") {1971)
• "Why" (on "Mother") (1971)
• "Open Your Box" (on "Power to the People") (1971)
• "Listen, the Snow is Falling" on (on "Happy Xmas (War is Over)") (1971)
• "Kiss Kiss Kiss" (on "(Just Like) Starting Over") (1980)
• "Beautiful Boy" (on "Woman") (1981)
• "Yes, I'm Your Angel" (on "Watching the Wheels") (1981)
• "O'Sanity" (on "Nobody Told Me") (1984)
• "Sleepless Night" (on "I'm Stepping Out") (1984)
• "Your Hands (?????)" (on "Borrowed Time") (1984)

Compilations

• Wig in a Box (2003)

Bibliography

• Grapefruit (1964)
• Summer of 1980 (1983)
• ???? (Tada-no Watashi - Just Me!) (1986)
• The John Lennon Family Album (1990)
• Instruction Paintings (1995)
• Grapefruit Juice (1998)
• YES YOKO ONO (2000)
• Odyssey of a Cockroach (2005)
• Imagine Yoko (2005)
• Memories of John Lennon (editor) (2005)

Films

• Eye blink (1966, 5 mins)
• Bottoms (1966, 5½ mins)
• Match (1966, 5 mins)
• Cut Piece (1965, 9 mins)
• Wrapping Piece (1967, approx. 20 mins., music by Delia Derbyshire)
• Film No. 4 (Bottoms) (1966/1967, 80 mins)
• Bottoms, advertisement/commercial (1966/1967, approx. 2 mins)
• Two Virgins (1968, approx. 20 mins)
• Film No. Five (Smile) (1968, 51 mins)
• Rape (1969, 77 mins)
• Bed-In, (1969, 74 mins)
• Let It Be, (1970, ? mins)
• Apotheosis (1970, 18½ mins)
• Freedom (1970, 1 min)
• Fly (1970 (25 mins)
• Making of Fly (1970, approx. 30 mins)
• Erection (1971, 20 mins)
• Imagine (1971, 70 mins)
• Sisters O Sisters (1971, 4 mins)
• Luck of the Irish (1971, approx. 4 mins)
• Flipside (TV show) (1972, approx. 25 mins)
• Blueprint for the Sunrise (2000, 28 mins)

Notes

1. ^ Yoko Ono at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ Murray Sayle, "The Importance of Yoko Ono", JPRI Occasional Paper No. 18, Japan Policy Research Institute, November 2000.
3. ^ Newhall, Edith. "A Long and Winding Road." ARTnews Oct., 2000: 163.
4. ^ ^{a b} Munroe, Alexandra, and John Hendricks. YES YOKO ONO. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2000. (p. 233)
5. ^ Kotz, Liz. "Post-Cagean Aesthetics and the "Event" Score." October 95. (Winter, 2001) Pg. 56. 25 Dec., 2007 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-2870%28200124%2995%3C54%3APAAT%22S%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A>.
6. ^ Munroe, Alexandra, and John Hendricks. YES YOKO ONO. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2000. (p. 65)
7. ^ "Yoko Ono: Rebirth of a renaissance rebel". Asian heroes section of TIME Magazine's website. From the April 28, 2003 issue of TIME Magazine.
8. ^ Spitz 2005. p650
9. ^ Spitz 2005. p632
10. ^ "Yoko Ono Tells of Last Night With Lennon".
11. ^ "Rolling Stone: Review of Double Fantasy" (HTML). Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-02-13. 
12. ^ NOW: Yoko Ono, Feb 21 - 27, 2002
13. ^ Court Tv Online - People
14. ^ Amazon.com: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: Yoko Ono: Music
15. ^ Yoko Ono, Yes, I'm a Witch | | guardian.co.uk Arts
16. ^ Basement Jaxx, Pet Shop Boys Remix Yoko Ono | Pitchfork
17. ^ Scotsman.com News
18. ^ ^{a b} MACCA-News: ONO: `THE PRESS INVENTED MY FEUD WITH McCARTNEY` - Nov. 3, 2005 @MACCA-Central.com
19. ^ Yoko Ono claims she was misquoted over McCartney outburst - News, Music - The Independent
20. ^ Ono bodyguard accused of extortion
21. ^ Press conference with Lennon and Ono discussing the progress of their search
22. ^ Croce, Maria (April 2000) "Weekend Life: The Lost Daughter of Ono; I Thought About My Daughter Every Day of My Life" Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) from Questia Online Library, subscriber access only

References

• Spitz, Bob. The Beatles. Little, Brown, and Company: New York, 2005.
• Kemp, Mark. "She Who Laughs Last: Yoko Ono Reconsidered." (July/Aug, 1992). Option, p. 74-81.
• "Ono apologises for comment." (November 6, 2005). New Sunday Times, p. 29.
• The Rare Films of Yoko Ono: New York 65-66 Fluxus Films + London 66-67, England 68-69, London 69-71, Around the World 69-71, New York 70 - 71 and Ann Arbor/NYC 71-72 + 2000 at the ICA, London, March 2004.

Further reading

• Ayres, Ian (2004). Van Gogh's Ear: Best World Poetry & Prose (Volume 3 includes Yoko Ono's poetry/artwork). Paris: French Connection. ISBN 978-2-914-85302-6. 
• Ayres, Ian (2005). Van Gogh's Ear: Best World Poetry & Prose (Volume 4 includes Yoko Ono's poetry/artwork). Paris: French Connection. ISBN 978-2-914-85303-3. 
• Clayson, Alan et al. Woman: The Incredible Life of Yoko Ono
• Goldman, Albert. The Lives of John Lennon
• Green, John. Dakota Days
• Hendricks, Geoffrey. Fluxus Codex
• Hendricks, Geoffrey. Yoko Ono: Arias and Objects
• Hopkins, Jerry. Yoko Ono
• Millett, Kate. Flying
• Pang, May. Loving John
• Rumaker, Michael. The Butterfly
• Seaman, Frederic. The Last Days of John Lennon
• Sheff, David. John Lennon and Yoko Ono: The Playboy Interviews
• Wiener, Jon. Come Together: John Lennon in His Time
• Wenner, Jann, ed. The Ballad of John and Yoko
• Yoon, Jean. The Yoko Ono Project

External links

• Official website
• 100 Acorns - Yoko Ono's blog
• 33, 2007 Interview with Yoko Ono for Japanzine
• Instant Karma, magazine dedicated to John and Yoko. Since 1981.
• Yoko Ono fluxus debris! @ art / not art
• ::: ONOWEB: an international network of info and original projects about Yoko from our contributors
• AIU: A Yoko Ono Box An extensive unofficial Yoko Ono Site
• (German) LennOno Online News, an extensive unofficial Lennon/Ono Site
• ~ ONOVOX: spam-free discussion listserv with commented daily Yoko news.
• Yoko Ono at the Internet Movie Database
• Yoko Ono (character) at the Internet Movie Database
• "Yoko Ono Makes Old Song Gay Friendly", Associated Press article, July 8, 2004.
• Yoko Ono's Snow review by Tom Johnson Originally published on February 7, 1977
• 1995 Interview with Yoko Ono
• A conversation about the Hare Krsna mantra between Srila Prabhupada and John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison, 1969
• Nippop Profile Yoko Ono
• Photograph of John Lennon's Bloodied Spectacles
• The Dakota to The Roxy and Back, interview article from Gay City News Volume 1, Issue 16, September 13-19 2002. Retrieved from web.archive.org
• YES YOKO ONO
• John Lennon's Will, November 12, 1979
• Absolute Elsewhere: The Spirit of John Lennon
• An Interview with Yoko Ono: Yoko Turns 70
• Grapefruit Exhibition of Yoko Ono's "Instruction Paintings" at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
• Ono Performs Cut Piece at Carnegie Hall in 1965
• Yoko Ono Performs Cut Piece in Paris, 2003
• Memories of John Lennon deconstructed and contrasted with six other John Lennon biographies
• 2006 Interview with Yoko Ono
• Yoko Ono on Democracy Now!
• Yoko Ono discography at MusicBrainz
• "Blueprint For A Reprise - Interview with Yoko Ono"
• Imagine Peace

References

Badman, Keith (1999). The Beatles After the Breakup 1970-2000: A day-by-day diary. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-7520-5. 

Coleman, Ray (1989). Lennon: the definitive biography. Harper. ISBN 0-330-48330-7. 

Ray Connolly (1981). John Lennon 1940-1980. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0006364054. 

Leonard, Hal (1993). The Beatles - Complete Scores. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-0793518326. 

Lennon, Ono, Sheff and Olson (2005). Lennon Remembers: The Complete Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970. Putnam. ISBN 0-87223-705-2. 

Lennon, and Wenner, Jann (1971). Lennon Remembers: The Complete Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970. Straight Arrow Books. ISBN 1859846009. 

Lennon, Cynthia (2005). John. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-307-33855-X. 

Miles, Barry (1997). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4. 

Madinger, Chip and Easter, Mark (2000). Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium. 44.1 Productions. ISBN 0615117244. 

Pang, May (1983). Loving John. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446379168. 

Pang, May (2008). Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312377410. 

Peel, Ian (2002). The Unknown Paul McCartney. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-36-6. 

Schechter, Danny (1997). The More You Watch, the Less You Know: News Wars/Submerged Hopes/Media Adventures. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1888363800. 

Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company (New York). ISBN 1-84513-160-6. 

Spizer, Bruce (2003). The Beatles Are Coming!: The Birth of Beatlemania in America. Four Ninety-Eight Productions. ISBN 978-0966264982. 

The Beatles (2003). The Beatles Anthology (DVD). Apple records. ASIN: B00008GKEG (Bar Code: 24349 29699). 

Wiener, Jon (1995). Come Together: John Lennon In His Time. Random House. ISBN 978-0571135769. 

Wiener, Jon (1999). Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520222466.