NEWS: Yoko Ono: Yes, I'm a Witch

MUSIC: Yoko Ono: Yes, I'm a Witch

Here's an easy way to make an album, and one that will sell. The only caveat is that you need a back catalogue and a name that was made famous by your incredibly legendary husband. Ok, two caveats.

That was step one. Step two is you offer up said back catalogue to incredibly talented and hot, young artists, and ask them to rework one of your songs, and you provide them with the original vocal track.

Done. Well, then you have to release it in February on Astralwerks.

That's the Yoko Ono guide to getting your name back in to the hearts of the youth.

When Yoko picked up the phone she called Jason Pierce (of Spiritualized), The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Antony (from Antony and the Johnsons), Polyphonic Spree, Peaches, Le Tigre... you get the idea. The results are Yes, I'm a Witch an album that walks the line of remixes, duets, and covers. It's like a venn diagram in a CD. The artists were offered the background music as well, but apparently almost all just took the vocals and reworked the supporting music. Go figure.

Oh, Yoko. You got an awesome rolodex.

Still Got It

holy crap, that is an insane line up

She's lame.

OH, yes....let's not talk at all about what an incredible artist Yoko (who was a very well respected artist before she married said legendary husband) is, let's talk about her dead husband again...sheesh......she wouldn't have that "rolodex" if everyone in there wasn't in awe of her artistry.

I'm excited about this release.

why couldn't they cover "don't worry kyoko, mommy's just looking for her hand in the snow"?

--Dennis Leary

nicely said dennis, my thoughts exactly!

Holy crap, those are some killer legs. Isn't she eighty or something?

What if you could go back and jump in front of Mark Chapman so that the bullet fires instead into Yoko's body?

Do you think John would have made a career the next 30 years out of selling her stuff at auctions?

hum...
sounds like everyones opinion of Courtney Love...

apparently the peanut gallery knows more about yoko ono than john lennon ever did. without even knowing her. boy, he must have been a real dum dum.

I must add my voice regarding the insanity of said lineup.

Jesus Christ, Porcupine Tree, Antony, le Tigre..

It's like a hipster's wet dream.

Slightly reworded from a Bill Hicks joke, as usual.

Exactly.

It's always funny to see people who were barely alive when Lennon was killed trash the person who was closest to him. Dopes.

Yoko rules.

Haterz droolz.

yo, I totally agree with you to some extent.... but not one fluxus artist has ever been "well respected". Fluxus is the joke of art history, less respected than post-modernism.

I do agree though. Lennon's dead, deal with it. Yoko's doing her own thing. Right on. AND those really are some killer legs. Good grief. I hope I look that good at her age. Hell, I don't look that good NOW and I'm like sixty years younger than her.

i was thinking the same thing...
god im jealous of Yoko..how lame

I guess my opinions of Yoko are pretty much in-between other folks's. I like a little of her music, think she's a better visual/conceptual artist than musician, and yeah, to some extent she's gotten fame off of being with Lennon, but it's not like she has huuuuge fame, and if his music royalties were left to her well, 1) they were freakin married for a decade-plus, 2) he loved her, 3) he died, so what's so shocking about that?

I will say this for her music- I watched the Cavett shows they did, and her songs ("Mrs. Lennon," "What's the Use?" or whatever it's called, I'm not sure of the title) were better than John's ("Woman Is the Nigger of the World"). Also, I like "Walking on Thin Ice" and some of Approximately Infinite Universe (I mean, come on- "I Felt Like Smashing My Face Through a Clear Glass Window" rocks. It could easily fit in with the best songs from Rocky Horror).
On the other hand, yeah, John's Plastic Ono Band album is a classic album, and way better than hers.... but on the other hand, I thought hers mined the same territory as Tago Mago but in a more groove-sustained, quality way (but then, I don't like Tago Mago. I much prefer Malcolm Mooney's work with Can. I'll take Yoko's vocals over Damo Suzuki's, too).

Anyway, before people simply dismiss Yoko's artistic ability, they should check out some of her visual art, her book Grapefruit (conceptual art games, sort of in the style of those in Brian Eno's writings, but sillier and less literal), and things along those lines, even if they think her singing is crap.

...also, fwiw, think she looked hotter with long hair.


ps- I just realized, when my Comment posted up, the irony that I'm talking about Yoko with my new Profile pic up. Kinda funnay.

No... Yoko didn't make John want to put a shotgun in his mouth.


I've never like Yoko since the first time I heard her strangling a cat, I mean, sing.

Well-respected at the time. Not through the lens of history. If you can count John Cage and Ornette Coleman among yr peers BEFORE you meet yr more famous husband than yes I consider that pretty fucking cool.

Hopefully they can rework those songs into something decent. That would be a feat in and of itself.

Denis.

Stand Up is mostly in the Delivery man.

Just because John Lennon liked Yoko Ono doesn't mean anyone else has to. There's absolutely no reason to refrain from voicing distrust in her wily ways.