Yoko Ono Lennon peace love...remixed

Her face is like the man on the moon smiling down on us all the time when it’s full, if you turn her upside down because she always seems to have her face turned upward to the sky. She pronounced my name correctly, with a soft "a" like "all," even though her assistant had just pronounced it with a short "a" like "cat."

One of my heros since an early age for her fearless creativity and compulsion to experiment, now I can understand Yoko’s preoccupation with boxes, holes, sky, and New York City. I discovered the tenderness which John found so alluring and the struggle to overcome crushing criticism and slights.

In the cut of "Fly" on the 2003 remix CD Will I/Fly, she defensively speaks of the blame and possible guilt she was accused of and feeling at having stolen John’s affections, which led to her stuttering. In the liner notes of Blueprint for a Sunrise 2001 album she eloquently writes of getting her younger brother through hunger pangs during WWII in Japan - creating delicious dishes out of clouds in the sky; of women screaming, talking through her; of Dragon Lady, the last Chinese Empress, who died disgraced and broken-hearted; that art is a way of survival.

Getting out of the box and poking holes in it are great themes in her art. Maybe she loves New York City because it is so box-like, easy to find its outer boundaries and poke through it. Can she make beautiful music? YES! Can she make irritating music? YES! Does she know the difference? I don’t know, but I don’t think she cares. I’ve heard of guys in record shops that would play her music when they wanted to clear the store. But they played her music.

We couldn’t find a Yoko website. In 40 years this multi-media conceptual artist, one of the most famous in the world, has won 2 Grammys, released 10 albums, won numerous international awards for her art installations, made films, billboards, published books, and has garnered publicity both good and bad for almost her every movement.

With new CD releases of albums she made with her late husband and former Beatle John Lennon, some with previously unreleased tracks like the 1971 banned in the U.K.?Open Your Box? and ?The South Wind? (Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band 1997), Yoko is being discovered and remixed by a whole new generation. They are dancing to ?Walking on Thin Ice? remixed by The Pet Shop Boys and some pretty famous DJs, and loving her. John was right, after all. She’s got a hell of a voice and tremendous vision. See "Discography" below.

10:32 am, December 30, 2003,

from the Dakota, NYC

Anna Hello?

Yoko Hello.

Anna Yoko?

Yoko Hi Anna. (giggles)

A Hi, I’m so delighted to meet you, thank you for calling. I’ve been a fan of yours since I was a very young teenager.

Yoko Oh wow. (giggles)

A And I sent you a condolence note when John died.

Yoko That was very sweet of you.

A I was really happy to read in all the press that was sent me that you were really delighted with all the letters that you got.

Yoko I know, that was so important for me.

A Ah, well that’s really neat.

Yoko It kept me going, you know.

A It’s been so many years, and I just read that, you know, in this past week when I was reading all this stuff about your new music which I LOVE Will I/Fly, I’ve listened to it 50 times already.

Yoko Thank you so much.

A In fact, it’s on right now. And I love the remixes of “Walking On Thin Ice.”

Yoko That’s so sweet.

A I’m really happy for you, I just think it’s…

Yoko I’m very happy too, you know. It’s great that it’s revived, you know, that stuff, because when I made it, I really put my soul in it and, you know, and it just sort of like was in a, um, a closet or something.

A Well I think it’s so ironic, but then there’s just so much that I don’t know about your life, so I don’t know if it’s ironic or not. I admired you so much because you seemed like such an unlikely bride for John, and yet he was so in love with you, and so taken with you and with your art, and he seemed to so believe in you, and that made you such a fascinating woman to me. And also, that you seem to have so much confidence, and you were so imaginative and creative. Where did you get your fearlessness?

Yoko I don’t know! (giggles)

A What was your mother like when you were growing up?

Yok: She was, you know, a nice mother. But I think it really has to do with the fact I was in so many situations like in the second World War, I was a war child and all that. That sort of experience really helped establish a kind of confronting, how to confront fear.

A Oh. Are you an only child?

Yoko: No.

A Oh. You have lots of brothers and sisters, or what?

Yoko I have a younger brother and a younger sister.

A Oh. And you were involved in the Fluxus movement, I hear. Can you tell me about that a little bit? What was it like, I mean, was it like this café society in Paris in the ‘30s, or what was it like? How did you get involved with these people?

Yoko: Well, I mean, it was more to do with that we were doing something and I was doing something, and then George Maciunas came to my loft concert or something and he was inspired to make Fluxus.

A Oh, George Maciunas.

Yoko Yeah, he’s a very important figure. He single-handedly coined Fluxus and made the Fluxus movement, but of course he was inspired by what I was doing, so, you know.

A And what were you doing?

Yoko: I was doing loft concerts.

A Loft concerts. And what music were you influenced by before you started making music? Pierre Henri, Erik Satie, Frank Sinatra, I mean! (laughs)

Yoko You know, I wasn’t…. I listened to music so much I wouldn’t know who influenced me, really. I was influenced by the whole music history, probably.

A Were you influenced by the jazz artists?

Yoko: Not so much. No, classical.

A Classical. Debussy, like the contemporaries?

Yoko: Well, I mean, you know, the good ones, the well known names like Debussy, I wasn’t really...I love Debussy’s music, but if anything I was more (cough) influenced by 12 tone composers, I think.

A And what kind of music do you and your son make? Is it experimental, I read that you and Sean…

Yoko (cough) Just one second, I’m having a very heavy cough. (silence)

Robert (Yoko’s assistant) Nice job.

A Is she alright?

R Jesus! She got the flu like a week ago because she was traveling...then she’s taking cough - she might go take some cough medicine. But, um, listen. I’m going to ask you a question. Is it possible for you to call back around 3 o’clock your time, can we do this at 3 o’clock?

A Oh sure.

R She’s gone into the bathroom (laughs).

A Are you sure you don’t want me to wait for just a few minutes?

R No, it’s fine, this way it’ll give her some time to re-, to sort of pull herself together. ‘Cause right before you called she was in the middle of doing a bunch of things, and then she stopped to do the interview, and I think maybe she thinks that she’s doing 20 things all at once, so she’d rather be able to have the time completely to devote to sitting down, to really being able to focus on the interview.

A You know, I don’t really have that many more questions. So tell her that, I really don’t. So I don’t want to impose on her, but I want to get the rest of my questions answered.

R I know. No I understand that, she wants to answer them, but she’s really - when she does an interview with people she wants to be at her best. And because she had that coughing she didn’t feel like she was at her best. She asked, ‘Do I think I would be really rude asking her please if she wouldn’t mind calling back? That way we could finish it so I could really focus on it?’ And I said I didn’t think that that would be too much of a problem.

A I totally understand. You want me to call you?

Robert This number? Call her back at this number, ‘cause I’m not going to be around. So it’s 6 o’clock our time, 3 o’clock your time. This way it’ll let her refocus.

A 3 o’clock my time.

R ‘Cause when she gives interviews she wants to be at her best form. So I think she would’ve sat with you for a while, but I think she realized she was pushing it.

A Ok, tell her I totally understand.

R I figured you would.

A I asked her what kind of music do you and your son make and that’s when she started coughing so I thought maybe, oh oh, she didn’t like that question.

R Oh no, no. Oh please, it would be very difficult to, you know, offend her. I figure she’s had a history of…It’s nice that people are being so nice to her these days ‘cause for a while she was getting lambasted.

A And you know, I want to ask her how she deals with that as a woman, as an artist. And that’s really, those are really the questions. It’s all about Yoko. I want to know about how she deals with all that.

R: Well that’s good. A lot of people don’t even get a second chance, so I think it’s kind of a great thing because now you get to sort of think and regroup about what you talked about briefly, you know what I mean? Some people, when she’s done she’s done and that’s it, so I think it’s like you can actually…

A It’s really a personal interview about the secrets to her inner strength and stuff. And I have to tell you, I’m a huge fan of hers, always, since I was young - 12, 13 years old - she’s been right up there as one of my role models. And I want my readers to know her, ‘cause I think she’s truly an amazing woman. And gets more amazing every day.

R I agree. This would really be a huge help, because she was very apologetic and she mentioned it to me when she was coughing, and I said I don’t think it’s a problem.

A Tell her that I’ve been sick too, and I know what it’s like with the coughing fit. It’s like I’ll be on the phone trying to sell an ad or something and I have a coughing fit, and I have to get off the phone.

R You know, it’s funny. She’d given an interview once and she literally had coughed once because, you know, talking a lot and sucking on a throat lozenge. People get caught up and choke or something and she’s like, oh my God, people are going to worry about me and think I’m dying of some strange disease. And I’m like, people aren’t going to think that! But because, you know, when you’re attacked so much, you just worry about that stuff, you never know. Especially when you’re inviting people into your home, even if it’s over the phone. You’re inviting people into your life, so you never know. So many interviews, people, they get along really well and things were great, and then they get these interviews and people were like, they would just completely rip her to shreds, and you’d be like, oh my God, I don’t want to do this anymore!

A: I want to show her in a way that has never been shown before!

R She’s not suspect of you or else I wouldn’t be talking with you, you know what I mean. I just didn’t want you thinking that was the case.

A Well, I’ll be waiting by the phone at 3 o’clock...

R I’ll just leave the number with her and leave it with that.

A Ok, bye.

R Bye.

3:10 pm, same day

A Hello?

Yoko: Sorry about that, sorry I had to cut out, because when, you know, after the interview with you I was supposed to meet somebody that was very important to me and all that - business-wise. But then if I had that coughing fit I couldn’t meet, so I had to, you know.

A Oh, I totally understand.

Yoko So I had to first get over that one and then go meet that, all that. It’s like everything was all...

A Oh, I totally understand, and you calling me back right now is just the best.

Yoko Ok, thank you. So now I have time for you to talk.

A First, I don’t think I mentioned this, but the questions that I’m asking you are not the same questions answered in recent interviews. I don’t want to ask you information that I already know.

Yoko Yeah, I understand.

A ...we were talking about what, you were involved with the Fluxus movement.

Yoko Yeah, I was involved with it because I was trying to create something that was very new and interesting and all that. And while I was doing that George Maciunas came to one of the shows and he loved it and so he wanted to do the same thing uptown and in more of the midtown area, which was a better location in those days, there was no other loft concerts, so nobody was…

A Some cross streets?

Yoko Chambers St. 112 Chambers St...that’s where I was doing it, I was in a loft.

A What was it like, because I’m just so interested in - was this sort of like a Beatnik thing with a spoken word? Tell me just what it was like a little bit.

Yoko What?

A ...the gatherings...tell me just what the vibe was.

Yoko No. Each concert was kind of different, but they were really far-out, that’s all. But it wasn’t a spoken word kind of thing.

A Well, like what did you do? I’m just so curious.

Yoko I mean, look, any concert if you’re not there, you wouldn’t know. I mean I can’t describe it. If you could describe it in words, why would you ask people to come and experience it.

A Ok, like what instruments were you playing.

Yoko Well, it depends on the concert. We did like 10 or 12 concerts, yeah.

A Strings, percussion. I mean that’s, like, historical, and a lot of people don’t know about the Fluxus.

Yoko Well look, if you’re going to talk, if you want to know about Fluxus, why don’t you get a book about Fluxus.

A Oh no, no, no, I don’t want to do that. I just want to know what your… but we don’t have to talk about the Fluxus.

Yoko Yeah, forget it, forget it.

A Ok, let’s just forget it. So then we were talking about what music influenced you because, I guess, really you were more of a music - music was really - and maybe dance - what was your first art form?

Yoko Music and poetry.

A I read in one of these interviews that you and your son are doing some music together, and I just wondered what that music was like, if…

Yoko My son and I went on a concert tour for this CD that I produced, and I put it out, and it’s all my songs, and my son and his friends, they were playing in it. If you want to listen to that it’s called Wising.

A So your son is very supportive of your music.

Yoko Yeah.

A What originally, back to the beginning days of you as an artist, what was compelling you to get the message to the public. Did you want people to like you, or was it the peace movement…

Yoko I was creating this - when I say music first and poetry, I was making songs with poetry with music. When I was 4 years old I went to this school for early music education for kids in Japan, so that’s why I got the perfect pitch and this and harmony and all that, and we were creating songs when we were 4. So, you know, it didn’t start, what you were thinking about when you were talking, when I was 28 or something, no.

A So it was just a medium that you grew up with and that was what you were comfortable with, and that’s all.

Yoko Yeah, right.

A So - some personal things. You are an extremely famous person, one of the top ten famous women in the world, for whatever reason. But you have experienced a lot of disappointment, sadness, rejection - surely you’ve had to struggle, maybe not financially, but I want to know: how do you deal with the disappointment and the sadness? I mean, obviously you don’t, or maybe you do, maybe you’ve gone into a dark period or… how does it affect you?

Yoko It affects me just like it affects anybody, you know, I’m a person.

A No, but you know some people will… no Yoko, you’re not like other people. You have a spirit and you keep producing things in spite of possible rejection. I mean, obviously you’re getting encouragement too because you have always had a following, and your husband was very supportive, though you were only together, what, maybe 12-15 years.

Yoko Look, the point is this: usually, most people, and I trust in the human race in this sense, it doesn’t have to be a special person, or a famous person. Take one person, put that person in an environment, in a situation, a condition, where she or he will have to become extremely strong to survive, they do.

A Or they’ll buckle.

Yoko If there’s a mother in a fire and in order to take the baby out of this closed room or something like that, she had to, she had to carry a huge, huge closet all by herself, and put it aside and then come out of something. And afterwards she didn’t know how she did it. That sort of thing, that’s happened.

A So you have an enormous amount of inner strength…

Yoko I wouldn’t say I have an enormous inner strength at all, I’m just an average person in that sense, who was put in the position where I had to muster courage to go through it.

A And you still do.

Yoko I was lucky enough to have done it.

A Does it become easier as a person becomes older?

Yoko Well it doesn’t become easier or harder, I just don’t want to have anymore of those big ones because I’ve had enough of it. (laughs)

A You know, I think everyone is really curious about your attraction to John Lennon and his attraction to you. And um, I understand that your marriage hit some rough spots but, you know, in the end, you were very much together, you know, he was very much in love with you. What do you think that is, because, you know, maybe you think of yourself as a regular gal (laughs), but you’re not!

Yoko I can’t understand why it’s so difficult to understand, there are many people, men and women, who love each other, and they’re split because of many reasons, like one man is in prison and the other’s waiting, there’s many romantic stories, and they don’t have to be famous. And you know, why did they continue carrying the love they had for each other? They just did.

A And they just did.

Yoko And we just did. And there’s nothing so unusual about it. It might look unusual since why would he fall in love with an Oriental woman or something like that, or an 8 year older woman. There’s nothing special about it, we’re just men and women.

A But it is special, I mean, regardless of whether you’re Oriental or older. A deep love like that is very special, I mean you made music together, you’re..

Yoko We were very lucky that we had so many ways of appreciating each other, and so many ways of expressing our love for each other, or to do things together. There were many things that we could do together.

A What about the whole peace movement? I also read that you did something very recently, oh, “Imagine that there was peace in the world,” a song that you released recently. In the beginning when you and John were together, you were very much with the peace movement, and there was a big movement at the time, and now there’s so much reason still to have a peace movement, but people aren’t rioting in the streets as much.

Yoko Well you know just the fact that the people aren’t marching doesn’t mean people are not thinking about it. And basically, marching is just another form of expressing your desire for peace, and some people are still doing it but it might not be as effective this time around because... it’s still effective, but the press seems to be very determined to play it down, etc. So we don’t hear about it so much, and we don’t hear that they were so effective, but they are doing it.

A Well, they are. Last year, you know, before the war in Iraq came out there were huge marches and peace marches, and the media did kind of suppress it. What do you think about that? Do you think that we’re making a couple steps backwards?

Yoko I wouldn’t say a couple of steps backwards because I think the reason why they are really trying to suppress what is happening in terms of peace movement is because it is so effective. And people who are on the other side are very, very scared about it.

(a phone rings - silence)

A Are you there? You got the phone?

Yoko I’m sorry.

A Oh ok. This thing about peace – the older I get, especially publishing this newspaper, I get so much, so many articles, just so many resources sent to me that I wasn’t aware of before, and I’m kind of thinking how could there ever be any peace when there’s this ruling class of landlords, like the whole diamond industry that was formed to finance the British Empire. How do you envision world peace? Do you think it has to start on a grassroots level where everybody refuses to pick up a gun and fight?

Yoko Yeah, exactly. I think it’s going to start being like that, yeah. People are going to start getting wiser. The little guy is most important – meaning guys and girls. It’s very important.

A ...What do you do with your time, do you create alone time, do you watch tv, what do you - do you like to be alone? I just want to know about you personally (laughs).

Yoko I wake up in the morning, about 7 or 8, depending on what I did during the night. Sometimes I get up during the middle of the night and create a song or write something or do a drawing or something like that. And so then I would have to sleep a little bit more. But still, I get up about 7 or 8 usually. And then around 9 all the people in the office come to the office downstairs and then we start to work and I try to take a walk, with a security guard of course. I take a walk for lunch to the East Side, and have a little bite, a little casual bite, come back and start working again. Basically, by 6 o’clock I’m through with all that, I come upstairs and unwind a little, reading or whatever, and um, well that’s my life.

A Are you a vegetarian?

Yoko I wouldn’t say that. I would say that sometimes I eat fish. Less and less though. And also, I don’t eat very much meat. I don’t make a point about it, I just don’t eat it.

A ...Did you stop smoking?

Yoko Well I just had to stop because I realized that Mimi Smith, who’s John’s aunt, who survived John, she was in Liverpool, both of us felt that we lost John so we became very close. She had emphysema and was operated and everything and then she came back from the hospital, and she was talking to me on the phone, and she would say something with a little silence, and then say something. And I said, ‘What is that silence?’ And she said, ‘Oh, I’m still smoking.’ And I think, this is crazy, you went to the hospital to operate because your lung is not working any more because you’re smoking, and then you come back and you’re smoking. And she said, ‘Well, I have to.’ And sure enough she (cough) passed away very soon after that, and I thought to myself, I am not going to do that to myself.

A Ah.

Yoko So that’s when I was determined to stop smoking.

A And you did.

Yoko Yeah, I did.

A And what about dreams - dreaming, like when you’re asleep and you’re dreaming. Is there a time maybe when you wake up in the morning because you’re dreaming - do you have really vivid dreams, or was there maybe a time in your life when you stayed in bed so you could nurture that dream time?

Yoko I daydream more than dream. I mean, when I get up in the morning, I think, rather than staying in bed, which makes me feel like a little bit decadent or something - I’m a very Spartan woman, so I just jump up and I start the day.

A Ah. What sacrifices have you had to make to be an artist, to do it your way?

Yoko Being an artist is not a sacrifice at all. My work in music and art actually is my security blanket, in a way. I mean, I’m holding onto my work to get through life, you know.

A Well the sacrifices that you need to make to do that, but maybe they’re not sacrifices because you see it as a privilege.

Yoko It’s an incredible privilege.

A And you’re willing to work hard at that because you love it!

Yoko And also, I don’t sacrifice my work. There’s no compromise there.

A What would you do with a warehouse full of old vacuum cleaners. I’m talking about hundreds and hundreds of vacuum cleaners piled up. If someone would say, look, you can have the building, but it’s full of hundreds of hundreds of old vacuum cleaners.

Yoko I’d just make a point of researching places where they need vacuum cleaners a lot, and then send them over.

A But they’re broken.

Yoko They’re broken?

A Yeah, they’re old broken vacuum cleaners.

Yoko It depends on how broken they are because the point is, you can repair them or you can recycle it.

A Recycle them how?

Yoko I don’t know, depends on what it looks like, I suppose, I mean.

A So you wouldn’t just throw them away.

Yoko I don’t think throwing away - it’s not an answer, it’s not a solution...I mean throwing away is not a solution and is not an answer for everything. It’s like putting it aside where you can’t see it or something. It’s an escapism attitude, I think.

A You have put out a lot of releases of CDs, whatever, vinyl...surely these remixes have been evolving for a long time, and you’ve had a following, I know that you have been criticized and such, but you have always had a following. With these remixes, did it just kind of mushroom, or is it something that’s been evolving? You know, have you been remixing your music for a long time, do you listen to your music over and over again, how did it happen?

Yoko It just happened naturally. I mean.

A Little by little.

Yoko Right.

A One person remixed it or something?

Yoko Yeah, and anybody else who wanted to do it, yeah.

A Were you hiring people to remix them and working with them?

Yoko No, it’s not like that. They came to me first, and then of course if they needed some expenses paid, but they didn’t come for money, they were just interested in it.

A All along I imagine people were remixing your songs or playing – I know they’ve been playing your songs because I know that led to the opportunity I was going to have to interview you, and I got all these CDs in the mail.

Yoko Oh, somebody’s at the door.

A Ok. (silence)

Yoko Yes.

A Oh, I’ll let you go soon. I’m just curious about the remixes. I remember hearing, seeing something printed that John Lennon didn’t listen to his own music, and I was wondering do you listen to your music? I mean...

Yoko Well, I think, first of all, that information is wrong. I think he did listen to his music.

A Oh, that’s interesting. Are you familiar with a Beatles song called “Flying”? It’s very short and it’s instrumental and very different from anything they ever did on any of their albums.

Yoko I don’t remember.

A You don’t remember it. So, I mean, do.. was this remixing, it just happened little by little, huh? Maybe over the past 5 years, 10 years, or were these people always remixing? They were always...

Yoko Not always. But there was more of that than I know, probably. I wasn’t aware of it, but I heard about it later.

A Do you listen, what music do you listen to? Do you ever put on a CD and listen to music once in a while.

Yoko I like Gypsy music, Indian music, you know.

A Mmm, Gypsy folk music, that’s very interesting. Well Yoko, thank you so much.

Yoko It was a pleasure to talk to you.

A I’m sure I’m going to think of all sorts of things that I’ll want to ask you later.

Yoko If you have anything you want to ask, call Calla. Calla’s going to come in Friday.

A Ok, thank you so much.

Yoko Nice talking to you.

A Byebye.

Yoko Ono Discography

From a Scream to a Whisper: the Musical Journey of Yoko Ono by The G-Man, ed. by AMhe beats are seductive, the synthesizers are sleek, and the vocals are lovely. It's an unstoppable combination that has resulted in packed dance floors for clubs and raves all over the world. For a new generation, this is what people think of when they hear the name Yoko Ono. But it was not always so. Although Ono is noted as a part of the Fluxus movement in early ‘60s New York for her loft concerts, she garnered her early fame in avant-garde art circles. She was controversial as well as successful, and her work was notable in visual, conceptual, and performace art. She was compelled to do ?something different? and continued that attitude in music. Few realize that she was trained in music as a child.

In the ‘60s, she stepped into an unrelenting spotlight. Whatever your view of her relationship with and 1969 marriage to John Lennon, there is no question it resulted in high profile art music. When Lennon preferred to make music with Ono than with the Paul, George and Ringo, Ono became #1 on the world’s hit list, although Ringo did play with their Plastic Ono Band in the ‘70s.

Interacting with recording studios fused every element of Ono’s art with nearly every category of sonics, including musique concrete, spoken word, chants, worldbeat, pop, electronica, and even punk. Some say she was the founder of that movement - her banshee wails had undoubtedly not been heard before.

Starting with 1970's Plastic Ono Band and continuing at least through Blueprint for a Sunrise in 2001, Ono often created music that was as challenging, esoteric, and "out there" as anything ever recorded. In fact, she performed live with Mr. Free Jazz himself, Ornette Coleman, one track of which appears on her first album. Lennon and Ono continued to perform and record music together until his death by gunshot in 1980.

But the latest phenomenon is that DJs and electronic pop artists started remixing her songs, and in the last year and a half a number of world-class artists are making grooving tracks from her original songs and vocals. The club-friendly cuts on Walking on Thin Ice are a prime example, the song originally appearing on the Double Fantasy album and receiving #4 and #10 ratings by two sources. The song is remixed 10 times on the album - genuine trance and dance hits here by such remixers as Pet Shop Boys, Orange Factory, Danny Tenaglia, Rui Da Silva, Felix Da Housecat, Peter Rauhofer, and FKEK. On a more ethereal and ambient level are the tracks on Will I / Fly, which presents mood-altering remix masterworks from John Creamer and Stephane K. (Both the Walking and Will I discs are availble at www.twistedamerica.com.)

Yoko Ono, artist. Yoko Ono, voice-as-freaky-saxophone. Yoko Ono, rave fan's delight. She has even made recent appearances at The Roxy on both coasts, wailing in a microphone while the DJ spins her remixed music. Look for more single releases plucked from Ono’s enduring career, and check out previously unreleased tracks like “Open Your Box” on the rerelease of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band featuring Lennon and Ringo Starr - although banned on the radio in the UK in 1971, it would sure make a hit today! And did I mention she was born in 1933?

Yoko Ono Discography

NOTE: This list is not all-inclusive. Yoko Ono has appeared on many artist's albums, from The Beatles to George Harrison to Julian Cope to Morgan Fisher. In addition, re-releases often package her contributions to other albums under her own name. For example, Live Jam, the second disc from Some Time in New York City, is available as a Yoko Ono album on its own.

Titles and release dates are often problematic, as Two Virgins is now called Unfinished Music #1 and Life With the Lions is now called Unfinished Music #2. For complete album notes, it may be best to Google her name and the album name at the same time.

Yoko Ono:

1970 Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band rereleased

as a CD in 1997 with 3 previously

unreleased cuts inc. “Open You Box”

1971 Fly

1973 Feeling the Space

1973 Approximately Infinite Universe

1981 Season of Glass

1982 It's Alright (I See Rainbows)

1985 Starpeace

1995 New York Rock [Original Cast]

1995 Rising

1997 A Story

2001 Blueprint for a Sunrise

Compilations/Box Sets/Remix Albums:

1969 The Wedding Album

1992 Onobox

1992 Walking on Thin Ice

1996 Rising Mixes

2003 Walking on Thin Ice CD, 2x12, + addit. vinyl

2003 Will I / Fly CD & 12”

With John Lennon:

1969 Two Virgins

(rereleased as Unfinished Music #1)

1969 Life With the Lions

(rereleased as Unfinished Music #2)

1972 Some Time in New York City/

Live Jam

1980 Double Fantasy Ono received a Grammy as

a producer on this album, rereleased

as a CD in 2000

19? Live Peace in Toronto

1984 Milk & Honey rereleased as a CD in 2001