Malcolm 'Mal' Evans (27 May 1935 – 5 January 1976) is best known as the road manager, assistant, and a friend of The Beatles.
In the early 1960s, Evans was employed as a telephone engineer, and also worked part-time as a bouncer at the Cavern Club, where The Beatles performed. Their manager Brian Epstein later hired Evans as their assistant road manager - Neil Aspinall was The Beatles' first road manager. Peter Brown, one of Epstein's staff, later wrote of Evans as "a kindly, but menacing-looking young man" - Evans was tall and heavily-built - and states that he was also employed as the band's bodyguard. Evans contributed to many Beatle recordings, and appeared in some of the films they made. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, but Evans carried on assisting the band and working with them in the studio.
Evans was killed by police on 5 January 1976 at his rented duplex in Los Angeles. Officers were called when neighbors reported Evans and his girlfriend having a loud, drunken quarrel. Police believed that the air gun Evans was holding was a firearm, and shot him dead. Evans was cremated on 7 January 1976 in Los Angeles, and his ashes were sent by post back to England, but were lost.
Early life
Details of Evans’ early life are unknown, apart from his birth date. No book has been written about him although he wrote his memoirs, Living The Beatles' Legend, from which extracts were released on 20 March 2005. Anything known about him starts in 1961, when Evans married a Liverpool girl, Lily, after meeting her at a funfair in New Brighton, Merseyside. Gary Evans, their first child, was born in the same year The Beatles were the house band at Liverpool's Cavern Club when Evans first heard them perform during his lunch break. He was then living in Hillside Road, Mossley Hill and working as a telephone engineer for the Post Office. He became a committed fan, even though his musical hero at the time was Elvis Presley.
He first befriended George Harrison, who put forward Evans' name to the Cavern Club's manager, Ray McFall, when he needed a doorman. The 27-year-old Evans was accepted — even though he wore thick-framed glasses — mainly because of his burly 6 ft 6 in frame, which was an asset when holding back the numerous fans at the Cavern's door, and later as an unofficial bodyguard for them. He was later nicknamed the "Gentle Giant" and "Big Mal." In 1962, Evans wrote that it was "a wonderful year", as he had Lily (his wife), his son Gary, a house, a car, and he was working at the Cavern club.
The Beatles
Three months after starting at the Cavern Club, Evans was hired by Brian Epstein as a road manager. Evans and Neil Aspinall’s duties were to drive the van while the band were on tour, set up and test the equipment, and then pack it up again. The Beatles were being driven back to Liverpool from London by Evans through heavy fog on 21 January 1963, when the windscreen was hit by a pebble and cracked, so Evans had to break a large hole in it to see the road ahead. This was in winter, so The Beatles had to huddle up in the back with a bottle of whiskey and try to stay warm in the freezing temperatures.
Evans had many other duties. As well as acting as a bodyguard, he was sent to buy anything they needed, such as suits, boots, meals, or drinks. If Lennon said "Socks, Mal," Evans would have to rush to a local Marks and Spencer store and buy six pairs of cotton socks for him. In 1967, Evans wrote in his diaries that he "bought Ringo some undies for his visit to the doctor." The Beatles started their first European tour in January 1964, and Evans was allowed to take his wife and son with him, but was involved in a "big punch-up" with photographers in Paris whilst protecting them. Epstein’s associate, Alistair Taylor, once asked him why he was driving an Austin Princess limousine, rather than a Daimler, a Bentley, or a Rolls-Royce. The Beatles were forced to choose an Austin (as Evans explained) because they had tested every car to see how wide the doors would open as they (literally) had to "dive into the car" to escape their fans.
The Beatles were introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan in New York in 1964, and Paul McCartney remembered asking Evans "again and again" to write down McCartney's newly found cannabis-influenced thoughts about life by repeating "Get [write] it down, Mal, get it down!" Evans was as affected by the drug as everybody else, so took a very long time to find a pencil and a piece of paper. The next morning Evans gave the sheet of paper to McCartney, who noted that McCartney had dictated: "There are seven levels!" (of life, as he later explained). The Beatles attended "The Night of 100 Stars" at the London Palladium on 23 July 1964, and during the show Evans constantly supplied them with whiskey and Coca-Cola, which he delivered to them balanced on an old, wooden oar he had found backstage.
The Beatles were assisted by Evans on their American tour when they played two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1965. Epstein arranged for them all to have a four-day rest in a luxurious horseshoe-shaped house on stilts in Benedict Canyon off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. They spent their time there smoking large marijuana joints, and Evans and Lennon swam in the large outdoor swimming pool with cigarettes in their mouths, to see who could keep them alight the longest. After recording sessions in London, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr would be chauffeured back to their houses in the “stockbroker belt” of southern England, but Evans, Aspinall, and McCartney would drive to a late-night club to eat steak, chips, and mushy peas. The Bag O'Nails nightclub was one of their favorites, at 8 Kingly Street in Soho, London, as it also presented live music. In his memoirs Evans wrote: January 19 and 20: "Ended up smashed in Bag O'Nails with Paul [McCartney] and Neil [Aspinall]. Quite a number of people attached themselves, oh that it would happen to me... freak out time baby for Mal." In July 1966, The Beatles toured the Philippines, and unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos. After the snub was broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all of The Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own. At the airport, road manager Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her." Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had earned while they were there before being allowed back on the plane.
The Beatles' last concert was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August 1966, but Evans continued to run errands for them and to work with them in the studio. After recording Revolver in 1966, McCartney went by himself on holiday to France, but arranged to meet Evans in Bordeaux at the Grosse Horloge church, on the corner of cours Victor Hugo and rue St. James. At exactly the pre-arranged time of one o'clock Evans was standing under the church clock when McCartney arrived. They later drove to Madrid together, but got bored, and phoned Epstein's office in London and asked to be booked on a safari holiday in Kenya. When they arrived there they visited the Amboseli Reserve at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, and also stayed at the exclusive Treetops Hotel, where the rooms are built on the branches of trees. Evans and McCartney at Heathrow airport in 1966, after their African trip.
They spent their final night in Nairobi at a YMCA, before they returned to London. The Beatles — according to McCartney — needed a new name, and on the flight back to England Evans and McCartney played with words to see if they could come up with something new. Evans innocently asked McCartney what the letters “S” and “P” stood for on the pots on their meal trays, and McCartney explained that it was for salt and pepper, which led to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band name, although McCartney denies the rumor that Evans came up with the name by himself. They arrived back in London on 9 November 1966. Before the cover of Sgt. Pepper could be completed by Peter Blake, Evans and Aspinall were sent out to find photographs of all of the people that were to be shown on the front cover.
The Beatles and Evans flew to Greece in late 1967 with encouragement from Greek-born "Magic Alex," the director of Apple Electronics, to buy an island or a group of islands. The idea was that the whole Apple entourage would live on the islands in their own separate homes, but would be connected to each other by tunnels leading to a central dome. Evans and his family were included in the plan, but it was abandoned as being unworkable after McCartney refused to participate. McCartney had no housekeeper in 1967, so Evans moved in with him at 7 Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood, near the Abbey Road Studios. It was at Cavendish Avenue that McCartney bought his first Old English Sheepdog, Martha, and Evans wrote that he often complained about the dog fouling the beds. Evans later bought a house in Sunbury-on-Thames, which was between McCartney's house, and Lennon, Harrison, and Starr's houses outside London.
While working on the Magical Mystery Tour film, Evans wrote about his work duties:
“I would get requests from the four of them to do six different things at one time and it was always a case of relying on instinct and experience in awarding priorities. They used to be right sods for the first few days until they realised that everything was going to go smoothly and they could get into the routine of recording... Then I would find time between numerous cups of tea and salad sandwiches and baked beans on toast to listen to the recording in the control room.”
The Beatles, accompanied by Evans, flew to India in February 1968, to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, after meeting him on 24 August 1967 at the London Hilton. Evans wrote in his diary on 17 February 1968:
“The press really tried kicking down the gates into the Ashram, the Indian people on the Ashram called me half way through, but as soon as an Indian reporter told me "No bloody foreigner is going to stop me in my own country", I cooled it.”
When Apple was formed in 1968, Evans was promoted from road manager to personal assistant, although his weekly £38 salary remained the same. Evans was the only member of the Apple entourage to be invited to attend (and be a witness) when McCartney and Linda Eastman were married at Marylebone Registry Office on 12 March 1969. Evans wrote in his diary that he was due to be there at 9.45am but Michael McCartney's train from Birmingham was delayed. Peter Brown and Evans passed the register office at 9.15 and saw that there were only a few photographers and ardent fans standing in the rain, but when they left at 11.30am they were mobbed by a crowd of about 1,000 people.
Musical contributions
Evans contributed to many recordings, including lending his voice to "Yellow Submarine". Before recording it on 26 May 1966, at Abbey Road, Evans and Aspinall ransacked the store cupboard next to Studio Two for a range of instruments and implements, such as chains, a ship's bell, whistles, hooters and thunderstorm machines that were to be used on the recording. After recording the overdubs, Evans strapped on a marching bass drum and led everybody in a line around the studio doing the conga dance while banging rhythmically on the drum. Evans played single organ notes on "You Won't See Me," and harmonica, kazoo, and organ on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" McCartney explained that he showed Evans where the note was on the organ, and then nodded his head when he wanted Evans to play, and shook it when he wanted him to stop. During the recording of "Lady Madonna," Evans was sent to Abbey Road's lavatories to collect toilet paper (which was stamped with the words, "PROPERTY OF EMI"). This was used to cover hair combs, which Evans and others blew through to resemble the sound of a kazoo orchestra.
On "A Day in the Life," Evans controlled an alarm clock and counted the measures in the original 24-bar break. The intent was to edit out the alarm clock when the missing section had been filled with music, but as it complemented McCartney's piece (the first line of McCartney's section began with, "woke up, got out of bed") the decision was made to keep the ringing, although George Martin later commented that editing it out would have been unfeasible. Evans was also one of the five piano players simultaneously hitting the last chord of the song. Evans played tambourine on "Dear Prudence" and saxophone on "Helter Skelter." He played a double solo with Lennon, although neither of them was proficient on the instrument. Evans contributed background vocals and shoveled a bucket of gravel (as part of the rhythm) on "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)." Evans also contributed to the White Album outtake "What's the New Mary Jane," and hit an anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." Evans later co-wrote "You and Me (Babe)" with George Harrison, which appears on Ringo Starr's 1973 solo album.
Sgt. Pepper contribution
According to his diaries—from which extracts were released in 2005—Evans stated that he helped to compose songs on the Sgt. Pepper album. Evans wrote, on 27 January 1967: "Sgt Pepper. Started writing song with Paul upstairs in his room, he on piano. What can one say about today—ah yes! Four Tops concert at Albert Hall. The Beatles get screams they get the clap. Off to Bag after gig. Did a lot more of "where the rain comes in" [a lyric from "Fixing a Hole"]. Hope people like it. Started Sergeant Pepper. On 1 February: "Sergeant Pepper" sounds good. Paul tells me that I will get royalties on the song—great news, now perhaps a new home. On 2 February: "Recording voices on Captain Pepper. All six of us doing the chorus in the middle, worked until about midnight." Evans did not receive any royalties and stayed at his £38-a-week pay (£488.68 in current money). Keith Badman (author of The Beatles off the Record) has referred to a tape recording of Evans speaking shortly before his death, on which Evans reiterated some of the statements made in the diary. According to Badman, Evans was asked if it would be a problem that his name were not credited, as the Lennon/McCartney writing name was "a really hot item."
On film and portrait
In the film Help!, Evans plays a confused channel swimmer who pops up through an ice-hole in Austria, and on a beach in the Bahamas. The Beatles went to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India on 24 August 1967, and during their stay the photographer Philip Townsend took a photo portrait of Evans. The photo is on display in Room 32 at the National Portrait Gallery.
The Beatles asked Evans and Aspinall to find and hire the actors that they wanted to perform in the Magical Mystery Tour film, and to find an old 60-seater coach, on which they were told to paint the Magical Mystery Tour logo which McCartney had designed. Evans later appeared in the film as one of the magicians who cast mysterious spells on the passengers of the bus.
In the Let It Be film, Evans can be seen playing the anvil during early versions of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," and can be seen talking to police officers on the Savile Row rooftop when they came to stop the live performance. Before the rooftop concert, Evans placed a camera and a microphone in a corner of Apple's reception area, so that when the police came in to complain about the noise—which was expected—they could be filmed and recorded. The Beatles were often filmed by Evans during his time with them (without sound) and a collection of his recordings was later released on DVD.
Producer
In 1968, Evans discovered the band Badfinger (then known as The Iveys) and suggested that they be signed to Apple. Although not trained as a studio technician, Evans produced several songs recorded by the Iveys/Badfinger in 1969 and 1970. The most notable of these is the song "No Matter What" by Badfinger, which charted on Billboard's Top 10 in December 1970. Evans also produced some tracks for Keith Moon's solo album Two Sides of the Moon.
Allen Klein
Evans enjoyed an executive position at Apple until 1969, when Allen Klein was hired as a manager to reorganize the whole company. Evans was fired by Klein the next year, because Klein complained to Lennon that Aspinall and Evans were "living like kings—like fucking emperors", although Evans was later reinstated after McCartney, Harrison and Starr complained. On 13 September 1969, Evans accompanied John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and Eric Clapton to Toronto, Canada, for the Toronto Rock 'N' Roll Revival Concert. He later commented about the concert:
“I was really enjoying myself. It was the first show I had roadied for three years and I was really loving every minute of plugging the amps in and setting them up on stage, making sure that everything was right. Everyone wanted the show to go particularly well because Allen Klein, who had flown over, had organised for the whole of John's performance to be filmed. This was on top of it being video-taped by Dan Richter.”
Later life and death
Evans separated from his wife in 1973, and subsequently moved from the UK to Los Angeles, where Lennon had moved to live with May Pang after his own separation from Yoko Ono. Evans is credited on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album as providing "tea and sympathy."
Evans was shot and killed by the police on 5 January 1976, in his rented duplex at 8122 W. 4th Street in Los Angeles. The officers mistakenly believed that the air pistol Evans was holding was a rifle. Before his death Evans was working on a book of memoirs called Living The Beatles' Legend, which he was supposed to deliver to publishers Grosset and Dunlap on 12 January 1976. Friends said that Evans was depressed about his separation from his wife Lil Evans — who had asked for a divorce before Christmas — although he was then living with new girlfriend Fran Hughes.
On the night of Evans' death he was so despondent that Fran Hughes phoned his collaborator on his book, John Hoernie, and asked him to visit them. Hoernie saw Evans "really doped-up and groggy," and Evans told Hoernie to make sure that he finished Living The Beatles' Legend. Hoernie helped Evans up to an upstairs bedroom, but during an incoherent conversation Evans picked up a 30.30 air rifle. Hoernie struggled with Evans, but Evans (being much stronger) held onto the weapon.
Hughes phoned the police and told them that Evans was confused, had a gun, and was on valium. Four policemen arrived and two of them, David D. Krempa and Robert E. Brannon, went up to the bedroom. The police report stated that as soon as Evans saw the policemen he pointed the rifle at them. The officers repeatedly told Evans to put down the rifle (which they did not know was an air pistol). but Evans constantly refused. The police fired six shots, of which four struck Evans—killing him instantly. Evans had previously been awarded the badge of "Honorary Sheriff of Los Angeles County." Evans was cremated on 7 January 1976 in Los Angeles. The Beatles did not attend his funeral, but Harry Nilsson and other friends attended. Evans' ashes were sent by post back to England, but were misplaced and lost in the postal system. Upon learning of the lost remains, John Lennon quipped that "they should look in the dead letter file."
The Mal Evans archive
The Beatles' memorabilia is in continuous demand, but a full set of autographs by all four could be forgeries, as Evans and Aspinall used to sign many of them when Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were too busy. In 1992, Lennon's original pages of lyrics to "A Day in the Life" were sold by the Evans estate for £56,600 at Sotheby's, in London, to an unknown collector.
Other lyrics collected by Evans have been subject to legal action over the years: In 1996, McCartney went to the High Court in England and prevented the sale of the original lyrics to "With a Little Help from My Friends" that Evans' widow Lily had tried to sell, by claiming that the lyrics were collected by Evans as a part of his duties and belonged to the individual Beatles. A notebook in which McCartney wrote the lyrics for "Hey Jude" was sold in 1998 at an auction for £111,500. The notebook also contains lyrics for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "All You Need is Love". The pad also contains lyrics, notes, drawings and poems by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr, as well as by Evans.
A suitcase that Evans was carrying at the time of his death, which was supposed to contain unreleased recordings, photos and other memorabilia, was lost by the police during the investigation and became known as the lost "Mal Evans Archive". It was reported in June 2004 that an English tourist, Frasier Claughton, bought the suitcase for $36 at a flea market just outside of Melbourne, Australia, unaware of its contents. By August 2004, however, experts had determined that the documents within the suitcase were photocopies made in the 1990s and declared the supposed archive a fake.
A Hard Day's Night is the third UK album by The Beatles, released on 10 July 1964 as the soundtrack to their first film of the same name on Parlophone in mono (catalogue number PMC 1230) and stereo (PCS 3058.) The album, their fourth U.S. release, was released on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records with a different tracklisting.
First all-original album
While showcasing the development of the band's songwriting talents, the album sticks to the basic rock and roll instrumentation and song format. It is notable as the first Beatles album to feature entirely original compositions (and the only one with a song catalogue credited entirely to Lennon/McCartney). The album contains some of their most famous songs, including the title track (with its distinct, instantly recognizable opening chord) and "Can't Buy Me Love", both being transatlantic number one singles for the band. The album and film are said to portray the classic image of the Beatles, as it was released at the height of Beatlemania.
George Harrison's resonant 12-string electric guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade the Byrds, then folksingers, to plunge all out into rock & roll, and the Beatles (along with Bob Dylan) would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965. The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the U.S. market for fellow Brits like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks, and inspired young American groups like the Beau Brummels, Lovin' Spoonful, and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned material that owed a great debt to Lennon-McCartney.
The title of the album (and of the film) is said to have been the accidental creation of drummer Ringo Starr, though the phrase is used in John Lennon's contemporary book In His Own Write and was reputedly used at least once by him during the Hamburg era.
Side one of the LP contains the songs from the movie soundtrack. Side two contains songs written for, but not included in, the film, although a 1980s re-release of the movie includes a prologue before the opening credits with "I'll Cry Instead" on the soundtrack. This is also the first The Beatles album to be recorded on four-track tape, allowing for good stereo mixes. Despite this, the Compact Disc release of this album (catalogue number CDP 7 46437 2) is currently available only in mono, though many of the tracks appeared in stereo on CD for the first time with the release of the boxset The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 in 2004. "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love" both appear in stereo on the 1962–1966 compilation. "I Should Have Known Better" and "You Can't Do That" have yet to be released in true stereo on CD.
In 2000, Q placed A Hard Day's Night at number five in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 388 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
On 26 February 1987, A Hard Day's Night was officially released on CD in mono, as were three other of The Beatles' albums, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, and Beatles for Sale. Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the 13 track UK version of the album was also issued domestically in the US on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. Stereo mixes of "A Hard Day's Night", "Can't Buy Me Love" and "And I Love Her" are available on the 1962–1966 (The Red Album) CD. This album will finally be reissued in stereo on CD on 9 September 2009.
Track listing
All tracks credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Normally, Paul McCartney and Lennon would contribute a roughly equal number of songs to each album, but A Hard Day's Night is the one Beatles album on which Lennon's dominance as songwriter is by far the greater -- writing the majority of the 13 tracks on the album on his own. This is also one of two British Beatles albums, along with Let It Be, in which Starr does not sing lead vocal on any songs (although Starr sang the lead vocal on "Matchbox," a cover of a Carl Perkins song recorded contemporaneously with the songs on A Hard Day's Night and released in Britain on the Long Tall Sally EP). Side one # Title Lead vocals Length 1. "A Hard Day's Night" Lennon and McCartney 2:34 2. "I Should Have Known Better" Lennon 2:46 3. "If I Fell" Lennon and McCartney 2:24 4. "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" Harrison 1:59 5. "And I Love Her" McCartney 2:33 6. "Tell Me Why" Lennon 2:12 7. "Can't Buy Me Love" McCartney 2:14
Side two # Title Lead vocals Length 8. "Any Time at All" Lennon 2:15 9. "I'll Cry Instead" Lennon 1:49 10. "Things We Said Today" McCartney 2:40 11. "When I Get Home" Lennon 2:20 12. "You Can't Do That" Lennon 2:39 13. "I'll Be Back" Lennon and McCartney 2:20
Sales chart positions
Year Chart Position 1965 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart 1
Released: 10 July 1964 Recorded: 29 January – 3 June 1964, Abbey Road Studios and Pathé Marconi Studios Genre: Rock and roll, beat music, Rock Length: 30:30 Language: English Label: Parlophone Producer: George Martin
Singles from A Hard Day's Night
1. "Can't Buy Me Love"/"You Can't Do That" Released: 16 March 1964 2. "A Hard Day's Night"/"Things We Said Today" Released: 10 July 1964 3. "And I Love Her" Released: 20 July 1964 4. "I'll Cry Instead" Released: 20 July 1964
The American release
Soundtrack by The Beatles and George Martin Released: 26 June 1964 Recorded: 1964, Abbey Road Studios Genre: Beat Length: 29:21 Language: English Label: United Artists Producer: George Martin
Singles from A Hard Day's Night
1. "A Hard Day's Night"/"I Should Have Known Better" Released: 13 July 1964 2. "And I Love Her"/"If I Fell" Released: 20 July 1964 3. "I'll Cry Instead"/"I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" Released: 20 July 1964
The American version of the album was released on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records in mono (catalogue number UAL 3366) and stereo (UAS 6366) and contained the seven songs from the film: "A Hard Day's Night," "Tell Me Why," "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You," "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "And I Love Her," and "Can't Buy Me Love." It also features "I'll Cry Instead", which, although written for the film, was cut from it at the last minute. The American version also included four easy listening-styled instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs by George Martin: "I Should Have Known Better", "And I Love Her", "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)", and "A Hard Day's Night", each of which later appeared on George Martin's own instrumental albums released by Capitol, United Artists and Parlophone. The album went to number one on the Billboard album chart, spending 14 weeks there, the longest run of any album that year.
After EMI acquired United Artists Records, this album was reissued on 17 August 1980 on the Capitol label, catalogue number SW 11921.
Whilst the stereo version of the album included the instrumental tracks in true stereo, the Beatles' own recordings appeared as mono recordings made from the stereo releases. True stereo versions of most of the songs appeared on the Capitol Records album Something New, also in 1964. "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Should Have Known Better" finally appeared in stereo versions on the Apple Records compilation Hey Jude in 1970. The song "A Hard Day's Night" did not appear in a stereo version in the U.S. until the LP Reel Music in March 1982. The American version has yet to be released officially on CD.
Revised track listing
All tracks credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Side one
1. "A Hard Day's Night" – 2:33 2. "Tell Me Why" – 2:10 3. "I'll Cry Instead" – 1:48 4. "I Should Have Known Better" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) – 2:10 5. "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" – 1:59 6. "And I Love Her" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) – 3:46
Side two
7. "I Should Have Known Better" – 2:44 8. "If I Fell" – 2:22 9. "And I Love Her" – 2:29 10. "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) – 3:10 11. "Can't Buy Me Love" – 2:12 12. "A Hard Day's Night" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) – 2:06
Personnel
The Beatles
* George Harrison – lead guitar (six- and 12-string); acoustic and Spanish guitars; background vocals; lead vocals on "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You"; harmony vocal on "Things We Said Today" and claves on "And I Love Her" * John Lennon – lead, harmony, and background vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; harmonica; lead guitar on "You Can't Do That"; piano on "Things We Said Today" (wiped in the mixing process but always audible on the record) and tambourine * Paul McCartney – lead, harmony, and background vocals; bass guitar and piano; acoustic guitar on "I'll Be Back" * Ringo Starr – drums, cowbell, maracas and tambourine
You say yes, I say no You say stop and I say go, go, go.
Oh no You say goodbye and I say hello - hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello, hello. I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.
I say high, you say low You say why and I say I don't know.
Oh no, You say goodbye and I say hello - hello, hello. ((Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye))
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello, hello ((hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye)) I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello ((Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye)).
Why, why, why, why, why, why do you say Goodbye, goodbye, 'bye, 'bye, 'bye?
Oh no You say goodbye and I say hello - hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.
You say yes, I say no ((I say yes but I may mean no)) You say stop but I say go, go, go ((I can stay till it's time to go)).
Oh - oh no You say goodbye and I say hello - hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello - hello.
Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been lives in a dream.
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door who is it for?
All the lonely . . . . . . etc.
Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no-one will hear no-one comes near.
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there, what does he care?
All the lonely people . . . . . . .
Ah look at all the lonely people
Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1966)
Aah, look at all the lonely people. Aah, look at all the lonely people.
Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church Where a wedding has been Lives in a dream. Waits at the window Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door Who is it for?
All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?
Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon That no-one will hear No-one comes near. Look at him working Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there What does he care?
All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?
Aah, look at all the lonely people. Aah, look at all the lonely people.
Eleanor Rigby died in the church And was buried along with her name Nobody came. Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands As he walks from the grave No-one was saved.
All the lonely people, where do they all come from? ((Aah, look at all the lonely people.)) All the lonely people, where do they all belong? ((Aah, look at all the lonely people.))
Horst Fascher (born 1936, Hamburg) was a German nightclub bouncer, and a friend of The Beatles during their days playing in Hamburg, Germany.
A onetime professional boxer whose career was cut short (he had unintentionally killed a sailor in a street fight), Fascher found work in clubs along the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. When the Beatles (including original drummer Pete Best and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe) made their first trip to Germany in August 1960, Fascher befriended the young group, who played at the Indra Club and the Kaiserkeller.
As they rose through the ranks of bands playing the Reeperbahn (making five trips in all over the next two-and-a-half years), Fascher usually managed to be working at the same clubs, and for the same boss, as the Beatles. They visited him at home, and he in turn kept troublemakers away from the band. The only favor Fascher asked was to be able to sing with them occasionally onstage, which was granted; Eddie Cochran's music was a common choice.
The Beatles (with Best now replaced by Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney changing to bass when Sutcliffe departed) didn't want to make their last Hamburg visit, at the end of 1962, preferring to stay in England to promote their new single, "Love Me Do", but were persuaded by manager Brian Epstein, via Horst Fascher, who recalled later "I had to give him thirty marks under the table to make him do it." Nonetheless, the band had a holiday residency at the Star-Club (which Fascher co-ran), through the New Year.
Fascher guested with the Beatles during their New Year's Eve show, which was recorded by another Liverpool musician, Ted "Kingsize" Taylor. Years later (in 1977), the tape was released commercially as Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. A song from the album, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," features Horst Fascher's vocals. Another song, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," features his brother Fred's vocals.
Fascher remained a friend and admirer of the band years after they became famous. Some of his stories about the band's Hamburg days (and his impressions of the young Beatles) have found their way into music biographies, including Philip Norman's Shout!. His own memoir was published in 2006.
By Jonathan Cott/November 23, 1968 Do you feel free to put anything in a song?
Yes. In the early days I'd - well, we all did - we'd take things out for being banal, clichés, even chords we wouldn't use because we thought they were clichés. And eve just this year there's been a great release for all of us, going right back to the basics. On "Revolution" I'm playing the guitar and I haven't improved since I was last playing, but I dug it. It sounds the way I wanted it to sound. It's a pity I can't do it better - the fingering, you know - but I couldn't have done that last year. I'd have been too paranoiac. I couldn't play dddddddddddd. George must play, or somebody better. My playing has probably improved a little bit on this session because I've been playing a little. I was always the rhythm guitar anyway, but I always just fiddled about in the background. I didn't actually want to play rhythm. We all sort of wanted to be lead - as in most groups - but it's a groove now, and so are the clichés. We've gone past those days when we wouldn't have used words because they didn't make sense, or what we thought was sense. But of course Dylan taught us a lot in this respect. Another thing is, I used to write a book or stories on one hand and write songs on the other. And I'd be writing completely free form in a book or just on a bit of paper, but when I'd start to write a song I'd be thinking dee duh dee duh do doo do de do de doo. And it took Dylan and all that was going on then to say, oh, come on now, that's the same bit, I'm just singing the words. With "I Am the Walrus," I had "I am he as you are he as we are all together." I had just these two lines on the typewriter, and then about two weeks later I ran through and wrote another two lines and then, when I saw something, after about four lines, I just knocked the rest of it off. Then I had the whole verse or verse and a half and then sang it. I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn't work in the end [sings like a siren]: "I-am-he-as-you-are-he-as . . ." You couldn't really sing the police siren.
Do you write your music with instruments or in your head?
On piano or guitar. Most of this session has been written on guitar 'cause we were in India and only had our guitars there. They have a different feel about them. I missed the piano a bit because you just write differently. My piano playing is even worse than me guitar. I hardly know what the chords are, so it's good to have a slightly limited palette, heh heh.
What did you think of Dylan's "version" of "Norwegian Wood"? ("Fourth Time Around.")
I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, "What do you think?" I said, "I don't like it." I didn't like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn't like what I felt I was feeling - I thought it was an out-and-out skit, you know, but it wasn't. It was great. I mean, he wasn't playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit.
Is there anybody besides Dylan you've gotten something from musically?
Oh, millions. All those I mentioned before - Little Richard, Presley.
Anyone contemporary?
Are they dead? Well, nobody sustains it. I've been buzzed by the Stones and other groups, but none of them can sustain the buzz for me continually through a whole album or through three singles even.
You and Dylan are often thought of together in the same way.
Yeah? Yeah, well we were for a bit, but I couldn't make it. Too paranoiac. I always saw him when he was in London. He first turned us on in New York actually. He thought "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - when it goes "I can't hide" - he thought we were singing "I get high." So he turns up with Al Aronowitz and turns us on, and we had the biggest laugh all night - forever. Fantastic. We've got a lot to thank him for.
Do you ever see him anymore?
No, 'cause he's living his cozy little life, doing that bit. If I was in New York, he'd be the person I'd most like to see. I've grown up enough to communicate with him. Both of us were always uptight, you know, and of course I wouldn't know whether he was uptight, because I was so uptight. And then, when he wasn't uptight, I was - all that bit. But we just sat it out because we just liked being together.
What about the new desire to return to a more natural environment? Dylan's return to country music?
Dylan broke his neck and we went to India. Everybody did their bit. And now we're all just coming out, coming out of a shell, in a new way, kind of saying, remember what it was like to play.
Do you feel better now?
Yes . . . and worse.
What do you feel about India now?
I've got no regrets at all, 'cause it was a groove and I had some great experiences meditating eight hours a day - some amazing things, some amazing trips - it was great. And I still meditate off and on. George is doing it regularly. And I believe implicitly in the whole bit. It's just that it's difficult to continue it. I lost the rosy glasses. And I'm like that. I'm very idealistic. So I can't really manage my exercises when I've lost that. I mean, I don't want to be a boxer so much. It's just that a few things happened, or didn't happen. I don't know, but something happened. It was sort of like a [click] and we just left and I don't know what went on. It's too near - I don't really know what happened.
It's been a hard day's night And I been working like a dog It's been a hard day's night I should be sleeping like a log But when I get home to you I find the things that you do Will make me feel alright.
You know I work all day To get you money to buy you things And it's worth it just to hear you say You're gonna give me everything So why on earth should I moan 'cos when I get you alone You know I feel OK.
When I'm home everything seems to be right When I'm home feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah.
It's been a hard day's night And I been working like a dog It's been a hard day's night I should be sleeping like a log But when I get home to you I find the things that you do Will make me feel alright. (Ow) So why on earth should I moan 'cos when I get you alone You know I feel OK.
When I'm home everything seems to be right When I'm home feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah.
Oh, it's been a hard day's night And I been working like a dog It's been a hard day's night I should be sleeping like a log But when I get home to you I find the things that you do Will make me feel alright You know I feel alright You know I feel alright.
Yoko Ono Lennon (オノ・ヨーコ ,Ono Yōko?, kanji: 小野洋子), born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933, is a Japanese artist and musician. She is known for her work as an avant-garde artist and musician and her marriage with John Lennon.
Early life
Yoko was born to Isoko Ono, the granddaughter of Zenjiro Yasuda of the Yasuda banking family, and to father Eisuke Ono, who worked for the Yokohama Specie Bank and a descendant of an Emperor of Japan. 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 II, was open only to those descended from aristocrats (in the House of Peers) or the imperial family.
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.
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-garde artists that developed in the early 1960s. Fluxus founder George 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. 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.
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. Composer La Monte Young urged Ono to let him organize concerts in the loft, and Ono acquiesced. 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, but Ono claims to have been eventually pushed into a subsidiary role by Young. 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 human 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." 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.
Life with John Lennon
Ono first met John Lennon when he visited a preview of an exhibition of Ono's at the Indica Gallery in London on November 9, 1966. Lennon's first personal encounter with Ono involved her passing him a card that read simply "Breathe". However, according to the Japan Society press release for the "Y E S YOKO ONO" retrospective exhibition from 2000, the Ono work which Lennon saw at the Indica Gallery show in 1966 that awakened him to her was "Ceiling Painting," described as follows: "The viewer is invited to climb a white ladder, where at the top a magnifying glass, attached by a chain, hangs from a frame on the ceiling. The viewer uses the reading glass to discover a block letter "instruction" beneath the framed sheet of glass - it says "Y E S." It was through this work that Ono met her future husband and longtime collaborator, John Lennon."
Another work displayed a real apple with a card reading "APPLE." When John was told that the price of the apple was £200 (approximately £2300 or $4600 in 2007 money), he later reported that he thought "This is a joke, this is pretty funny." Another display was a white board with nails in it with a sign inviting visitors to hammer a nail into its surface. Since the show was not beginning until the following day, Ono refused to allow Lennon to hammer in a nail. The gallery owner whisked her away, saying, "Don't you know who that is? He's a millionaire!" (Ono later claimed not to know who John Lennon or The Beatles were, and there is no record proving otherwise.) Upon returning to John, she said he could hammer in a nail for five shillings. Lennon replied, "I'll give you an imaginary five shillings if you let me hammer in an imaginary nail." They began an affair approximately two years later, eventually resulting in Lennon divorcing his first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
Lennon referred to Ono in many of his songs. While still a Beatle he wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko", and he alluded to her indirectly in "Julia", a song dedicated to his mother, with the lyrics: "Ocean child calls me, so I sing a song of love" (The kanji 洋子 ("Yoko") means "ocean child").
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 Voormann, 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 and sang.
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. 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. 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. 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. She had also been linked to art dealer and Greta Garbo confidante Sam Green, who is mentioned in Lennon's will. 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."
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 anniversary 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.Yes I'm a Witch has been critically well-received. Another compilation of Ono dance remixes entitled Open Your Box is also due in April.
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 Rybczyński, 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.
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."
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." 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.
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.
Accepting an award at the 2005 Q Awards, Ono mentioned that Lennon had once felt insecure about his songwriting, and asked her why other musicians "always cover Paul's songs, and never mine." Ono had responded, "You're a good songwriter; it's not June with spoon that you write. You're a good singer, and most musicians are probably a little bit nervous about covering your songs." Ono later issued a statement claiming she did not mean any offense, as her comment was an attempt to console her husband, not attack McCartney; she went on to insist that she respected McCartney and that it was the press who had taken her comments out of context. She also said, "People need light-hearted topics like me and Paul fighting to escape all the horror of the world, but it's not true anymore...We have clashed many times in the past. But I do respect Paul now for having been John's partner and he respects me for being John's wife." At the June 2006 Las Vegas premier of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles performance "Love," pictures were taken of her and Paul hugging. They appeared again together in July 2007 for the show's one year anniversary.
Criticisms
Her relationship with Cynthia Lennon (John's first wife) remains strained. In a recent BBC interview, Cynthia Lennon said Ono's behavior toward Julian Lennon after his father's death was "shameful" and remarked of Ono's "lonely" existence in her "ivory tower". In her 2006 biography, John, (London: Hodder; U.S.: Crown Publishing) Cynthia Lennon portrays Ono as a selfish, spiteful woman. In the book she describes learning about Ono's control over John (who referred to Ono as "mother") in the period in the mid-1970s when Ono chose May Pang to be John's companion. Cynthia hypothesizes that John had a "mother complex," allowing himself to be dominated by strong women, and draws a parallel between his relationship with Ono and that with his domineering aunt Mimi Smith in childhood.
Recent life
At the Liverpool Biennial in 2004, Yoko flooded the city with banners, bags, stickers, postcards, fliers, 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 installation offensive. Indeed, the BBC 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."
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.
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).
On March 31, 2009, Yoko Ono went to the inauguration of the exhibition: "Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko" to mark the 40th anniversary of Lennon-Ono bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada from May 26 to June 2, 1969.
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. 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.
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.
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
Year Song U.K. U.S. Dance Album 1971 "Mrs. Lennon"/"Midsummer New York" - - Fly 1971 "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)" - - Fly 1972 "Now or Never"/"Move on Fast" - - Approximately Infinite Universe 1972 "Mind Train"/"Listen, the Snow is Falling" - - - 1973 "Death of Samantha"/"Yang Yang" - - Approximately Infinite Universe 1973 "Josejoi Banzai (Part 1)"/"|"Josejoi Banzai (Part 2)" (Japan-only release) - - - 1973 "Woman Power"/"Men, Men, Men" - - Feeling the Space 1973 "Run, Run, Run"/"Men, Men, Men" - - Feeling the Space 1974 "Yume O Motou (Let's Have A Dream)"/"It Happened" (Japan-only release) - - - 1981 "Walking on Thin Ice"/"It Happened" 35 13 Season of Glass (1997 re-release), Double Fantasy (2000 re-relase) 1981 "No, No, No"/"Will you Touch Me" - - Season of Glass 1982 "My Man"/"Let The Tears Dry" - - It's Alright (I See Rainbows) 1982 "Never Say Goodbye"/"Loneliness" - - It's Alright (I See Rainbows) 1985 "Hell in Paradise"/"Hell in Paradise (instr.)" - 12 Starpeace 1985 "Cape Clear"/"Walking on Thin Ice [Re-edit]" (promo) - - Starpeace 2001 "Open Your Box [Remixes]" - 25 Open Your Box (2007) 2002 "Kiss Kiss Kiss [Remixes]" - 20 Open Your Box (2007) 2002 "Yang Yang [Remixes]" - 17 Open Your Box (2007) 2003 "Walking on Thin Ice [Remixes]" 35 1 Open Your Box (2007) 2003 "[[Will I [Remixes]"/"Fly [Remixes]]]" - 19 Open Your Box (2007) 2004 "Hell in Paradise [Remixes]" - 4 Open Your Box (2007) 2004 "Everyman… Everywoman… [Remixes]" - 1 Open Your Box (2007) 2007 "You’re The One [Remixes]" - 2 Open Your Box (2007) 2007 "No, No, No [Remixes]" - 1 - 2008 "Give Peace a Chance [Remixes]" – 1 –
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 (あなたの手）" (on "Borrowed Time") (1984)
Compilations
* Wig in a Box (2003)
Bibliography
* Grapefruit (1964) * Summer of 1980 (1983) * ただの私 (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)
Original Manuscript (1965)
Posts
