God help us… Yoko Ono is set to celebrate her 80th birthday with a one-time performance in Berlin.
For those who have yet to experience her live, I suggest you take a look at some of her work. One might observe that the lamentable John Lennon (though immensely talented and an exceptional songwriter) comes off as a rather weak figure, permitting his equally lamentable wife to wail into the microphone like a distressed Brontosaurus.
On Sunday, February 17, The Plastic Ono Band, who recorded three albums alongside Ono’s late husband John Lennon and included the Beatles icon in their live shows, will perform at Berlin’s Volksbühne. The band will be headed by Ono and Sean Lennon, the son of John, who worked with his mother on her 2009 album ‘My Head And The Sky’.
A retrospective showcasing Yoko Ono’s visual art will kick off at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt on February 15, with plans to tour other museums in Denmark, Austria, and Spain during 2013 and 2014. It’s a bustling year for the artist and musician; a re-release of all her albums from 1968-1985 is also anticipated for 2013, and she will be curating this year’s Meltdown Festival in London.
Recently, Ono expressed her gratitude towards Paul McCartney for asserting that she did not cause The Beatles’ breakup, thanking him for finally settling the debate, and referred to him as a “brave man.”
“I thought it was known that I wasn’t the cause of it all, yet surprisingly, many people still believed otherwise. He was very brave. So I want to say, ‘Thank you, Paul. I love you, we love you’,” she stated.
Paul McCartney had previously remarked that Ono’s relationship with John Lennon was not the primary reason for the band’s dissolution, contrary to popular belief.
“She certainly didn’t break the group up; the group was breaking up,” McCartney stated. “When Yoko entered the scene, part of her allure was her avant-garde perspective, showing him an alternative way to exist, which was appealing to him. It was simply time for John to depart; he was undoubtedly going to leave one way or another.”
Just a reminder… people will not be attending to witness Yoko Ono’s skills or to reminisce about her past glory. They will be going to see her because… she was involved with John Lennon… and that, is the most straightforward fact you will encounter all year.
by Wallace McTavish
