I do not have any albums
by Yoko Ono. I do not have any
albums by John Lennon and
Yoko Ono. But I do have this
thing, Ocean Child: Songs of
Yoko Ono, a collection of
recordings by various artists
covering Yoko Ono’s songs.
I remember distinctly that
I found this album at the annual
sidewalk sale of a record store
I used to frequent, and I thought,
this looks interesting, so I brought
it home with me. I think that
the only idea a lot of folks have
of Ono’s musical output is the image
of her screaming incoherently.
That was me, too, until I got this
record. These are actual tunes, with
melodies, and interesting lyrics,
performed by the likes of
Sharon Van Etten, David Byrne,
Death Cab for Cutie, Thao Nguyen,
the Magnetic Fields guy, Deerhoof,
The Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo,
Japanese Breakfast, and a few other
artists of less renown.
It’s a weird record, but
exceedingly listenable, each
artist bringing their own thing
to the mix, so that if you’ve never
heard these Yoko Ono songs
before (I wasn’t familiar with a
single one of them), it will feel
like listening to a new song by
any of these artists. Kind of
cool. The record is mastered and
edited in a way that makes it
feel like a cohesive whole, like
someone gave a lot of thought
to progression and sequence
and how the various production
choices would sound together.
It’s quite lovely, really. Except
for the Deerhoof rendition of
“No, No, No,” which is difficult
and noisy, but absolutely par
for the Deerhoof course and
likely a faithful rendition.
Here’s a surprising contribution
from We Are KING, a band or
an artist I’ve never heard of,
but whose interpretation of a
tune called “Don’t Be Scared”
is quite beautiful and moving.
Maybe the best songs on this
record are by artists I’ve never
heard of. Some real gems here.
The Flaming Lips tune sounds
just like a Flaming Lips tune,
and the Japanese Breakfast
song sounds like a really good
song by Japanese Breakfast.
If nothing else, this compilation
rescues Yoko Ono from the sad
and malignant misunderstanding
of her as simply the gal that
broke up The Beatles and who
would often scream incoherently
in microphones. This gal wrote
good songs, and these renditions
are a worthy tribute to her true
talents, I think. It’s a record that
I’ve only spun maybe two or three
total times in five years, and I probably
won’t put it on regular rotation, but I
really enjoyed this listen, and think
it’s an album worth having, if for no
other reason, for Yoko’s sake.
Notes on the vinyl edition: Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono, Atlantic Records, 2021, black vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 