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Yoko Ono The Plastic Ono Band | 
| Artists: Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band
Label: Rykodisc
Category: Music
List Price: £13.99
Buy New: £12.69
as of 25/11/2009 19:28 GMT details
You Save: £1.30 (9%)
New (7) Used (1) from £10.79
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 96004
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 10414
UPC: 014431041426
EAN: 0014431041426
ASIN: B0000009RH
Release Date: June 9, 1997
Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your credit card will not be charged until we ship the item.
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| Tracks:
| • | Why | | • | Why Not | | • | Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All OverThe City | | • | AOS | | • | Touch Me | | • | Paper Shoes | | • | Open Your Box | | • | Something More Abstract | | • | South Wind |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Deserves an importance that it will always be denied April 24, 2004
D. Yates (England)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have to admit that shock and curiosity were my reasons for buying thisalbum, the only work of Yoko Ono I've heard so far. But listening to a fewshort audio clips doesn't allow you to appreciate what she has achievedhere and, I assume, with several other albums. Lyrically and sonically thealbum unfolds like a long physical emission, a breath, scream or sigh, theentire work not just sounding alive but like a template for organic life.brThings kick off with 'Why?', probably the almightiest vocal thunderclap inall of rock music: those who look beyond the Sex Pistols for thedefinition of rock n' roll rawness often refer to John Lennon's 'PlasticOno Band' as something close to the bone. While its emotional nakedness,occasional ripe language and dancing on the grave of The Beatles in 'God'may have taken peoples' breaths away, it couldn't have come close to this.And thirty-five years on, this still leaves most listeners speechless (atleast in this household). It's amazing that a woman namechecked by so manyartists, trendy even, is still making a sound like no one else on Earth.She is as inimitable as Hendrix, and within popular music she hasformulated a creative approach that, in theory at least, is just asimportant.brLyrics often stretch out one or two words to the point of their beingunrecognizable, whilst maintaining a focus and momentum that prevents itfrom collapsing into mere noise for the sake of noise. How many latterdayvocalists fail to do this even with several verses of coherent lyrics?After a few listens it becomes clear that the album is all aboutsensation, in the sense of a physical or mental rush. With standard rockinstruments and a single vocal (only treated electronically twice, and nooverdubs as far as I can hear), Plastic Ono Band managed to createsomething with an unfurling, sensual complexity I've only heard matched byRadiohead's 'Kid A', recorded thirty years later with a whole heap ofelectronics. Every environment which is best represented by music,emotion, the body, the outdoor elements, seem to be weaved together intosome visionary whole. Like another album recorded as the psychedelic erahad come to an end, David Crosby's 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', allthe territories and fascinations of that time are explored with such anintensity that words just become inadequate. Yep, the soul got out of thebox. brYou could be studious and listen to this album as a seamless blend ofZen-like formlessness, wailing pagan oratory and Western rockinstrumentation (it sounds oddly like Native American chanting at times),but that would miss the point and neutralise its real power. Despite thearty reputation that follows Yoko Ono, this is invigoratingly artless, andawesomely vital. Best listened to separately from the bonus tracks, it'san entity in itself, and a great introduction to Ono's work (I'm hooked atleast). The Rykodisc re-issue that I ordered through this website was alimited edition, beautifully packaged with plenty of notes includingsympathetic reviews published at the time of its original release. Expectsomething far beyond what the 30-second samples can show, give it yourpatience, and you'll be surprised at how easily this album reveals itselfto you. If you care much for music, you'll gain from it.
 A landmark album April 13, 2005
Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
November 9th 1966 was quite an auspicious day for John Lennon, and for the rest of the world in some small way, because when walked into London's Indica Gallery he met Yoko Ono. The lives of both were forever altered by the other, perhaps more so for Lennon as Yoko introduced him to the avant-garde art world from a perspective that was wholly new to him, and a world beyond Beatledom.brFour years later the albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band were simultaneously unleashed on Apple, the name of the label inspired by Yoko Ono, each featuring matching photos of John and Yoko under a tree on the front cover and a photograph of them as a child on the reverse. Both albums explore the themes of basics, innocence and childhood. On the John Lennon album, Yoko is credited with "wind".brJohn Lennon's first solo album after splitting from the Beatles obviously had an inbuilt importance, and probably outsold the Yoko Ono album many thousands of times over, but Yoko's was probably the more innovative and ahead of its time, and still sounds heady, fresh and exciting today.brThe album starts with the sound of a tape machine being turned on and the sizzling rhythm section of Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr begins, abetted by the sounds of John Lennon's screaming guitar in a style far more liberated than on any Beatle record. When Yoko comes in, screaming the title of the song, "Why" (the only discernable fragment of lyric on the whole album), we realize that Lennon's guitar has been cleverly mimicking and anticipating Yoko's vocal, which has an awesome ferocity and intensity, and in that moment she redefines the role of woman in music for generations to come. The following track, appropriately, is Why Not. Some of this intensity no doubt derives from the "primal therapy" of Arthur Janov that she and Lennon had undertaken prior to these sessions.brThe Plastic Ono Band accompany Yoko throughout the album with a confidence and empathetic sure-footedness that carries the listener along with them, embellished only by some evocative sound effects. Ringo plays with a freedom and swing we had never heard from him before. The sessions, at Abbey Road in October 1970, must have been something to behold and one envies the four engineers who presided.brThe Plastic Ono Band do not appear on one track, which is a rehearsal for an earlier free-jazz show at the Albert Hall on 29 February 1968. While the Beatles were recording Lady Madonna at Abbey Road, Yoko Ono had returned to London to perform her original composition at a concert with the innovator Ornette Coleman at his invitation, and on the piece AOS they are assisted by legendary bassist Charlie Haden, along with David Izenzon and Edward Blackwell. The piece demonstrates that Yoko was part of a tradition of experimental, revolutionary music before the Beatles explored any such ideas on the White Album. It was because of her return to London that she and John Lennon were able to renew their personal, musical and creative relationship, of which one of the first results was the White Album's Revolution Number Nine.brIt is a landmark album.brThe three bonus tracks on this overdue CD edition are disappointing. Only the unnecessary 44-second fragment "Something More Abstract" comes from the Plastic Ono Band sessions, whilst the previously unreleased 7:30 version of Open Your Box is a raw early version of the piece, probably recorded in September 1969, before its final tempo and structure had been established. The finished version that debuted on the Power To The People single in the UK, dates from 1971 (confusingly, the same recording was re-titled Hirake for the album Fly). The final improvisation, The South Wind, features John and Yoko at home in New York, which puts it in a different time-frame, and more properly belongs on an album like Life With The Lions. After 16 long, long minutes, we are grateful that a telephone call brings the piece to a conclusion. Far more welcome would have been the Plastic Ono Band B-sides Remember Love and Who Has Seen The Wind? which have yet to make a CD appearance
Why? Why Not! September 17, 2000
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
In 1969, a crowded Toronto auditorium full of rock rollers attending a rock roll revival (featuring some of the biggest names in rock history) patiently awaited the much-publicized debut of John Lennon's 'Plastic Ono Band'. When the band finally took the stage, they played a set of the usual rock roll favorites to which the crowd responded well. Then John turned the mic over to his new partner, Yoko... Music as the world knew it would never be the same! pFor her first solo album, Yoko divided her set between her newly created primal rock jams taking up side one and her more freeform avant-garde featured on side two. There is no question that the world was not exactly ready for the type of music this revolutionary album offered, but it did not deserve the negative response it received. Looking back on it now, this album was probably one of the most groundbreaking of its era. Here we have a woman, a Japanese woman at that, not only leading a rock band rather than just merely singing with it, but also using her voice more like a musical instrument rather than simply singing. The intense energy of the album was something that had not been experienced by most people at that time.pFrom the opening guitar screech of Why to the final end of Paper Shoes the album never loses it's creative edge. The two most powerful tracks on the album are of course the full-tilt rocker Why and the bluesy Why Not which at nearly 10 minutes never allows the listener to get bored. Greenfield Morning... is an interesting piece even if only for it's abnormally long title. In recent years, the song received a 'hats off' from fellow Japanese pop singers Shonen Knife. Their song Cycling Is Fun features the line 'I wanna go, I wanna go to Greenfield with a baby carriage...' The song itself has nothing to do with Yoko, but it was a cute salute to the woman who started the whole alternative rock scene.pSide two is equally as intense, but in a different sense. AOS, the first track is a freeform jam Yoko recorded with jazz artist Ornett Coleman and others. The other two feature the Plastic Ono Band again, but not quite a rock oriented as side one. This may be hard to take for people who aren't experienced in this type of freeform music, but it in no way makes it bad.pThe CD features two bonus tracks: an early version of Open Your Box and a piece entitled Something More Abstract. Open Your Box as it appears here seems a little more, well 'funky' for lack of a better term. It has sort of a James Brown groove to it. This is really no surprise when you think about it, Yoko was after all involved in the black civil rights movement of that era. Keep in mind, the guitar scratching on her later recording Catman gives a nod to Isaac Hayes' Theme From 'Shaft'. Something More Abstract is just what the title suggests.
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