Yoko Ono<\/a>\u2019s 1973 song \u201cWhat Did I Do!\u201d He added, by way of explanation, \u201cIt\u2019s been long enough that we no longer bear a grudge for them trying to break up the Plastic Ono Band.\u201d The quip resonated with most of the fans and other musicians \u2014 geezers and hipsters of all stripes \u2014 pressed up to the stage outside Los Angeles\u2019 the Broad museum for \u201cYoko Only: A Night Celebrating the Music of Yoko Ono.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tOno, 93, was not in attendance at the event, but it was a varied and star-studded tribute to her work. Performed mostly with the world\u2019s coolest house band in Yo La Tengo, the 19-song set saw iconoclastic singers and musicians add their own flavor to Ono originals. The setlist ranged from the avant-garde (\u201cAOS\u201d \u2014 the original done by Ono in 1970 with Ornette Coleman Quartet) to bona fide hits like 1981\u2019s disco tune \u201cWalking on Thin Ice\u201d to the painfully personal \u201cNo, No, No,\u201d a guttural reaction to her husband\u2019s murder the year prior.<\/p>\n
\n\tYo La Tengo turned into a five-piece for the evening thanks to Wilco member and guitar virtuoso Nels Cline and Cibo Matto\u2019s Yuka Honda. The latter curated the event, hand-selecting performers and often songs, also playing keyboards throughout the night. The concert was presented in conjunction with the museum\u2019s ongoing special exhibition, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tTuneyard\u2019s Merrill Garbus kicked things off with \u201cWe Are All Water,\u201d adding to Ono\u2019s lyrics about \u201cChairman Mao and Richard Nixon\u201d some timely references to villains whose names rhyme with Rump and Titler. The playful \u201cTabeti\u201d (\u201cI want to eat\u201d in English) was staccato and percussive, delivered with perfect verve by Deerhoof singer Satomi Matsuzaki. Both songs, like much of Ono\u2019s musical and visual work, underline and encourage community, humanity, and creativity in everyone while simultaneously excoriating a pervasive malevolence.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tOno\u2019s songs proved as diverse as the artists tackling them. Bikini Kill\u2019s Kathleen Hanna joined Sleater-Kinney\u2019s Corin Tucker for an impassioned \u201cNo, No, No.\u201d Backstage, pre-gig, Tucker expressed thoughts no doubt shared by many of the women participating: \u201cYoko Ono was just so ahead of her time and so influential to my generation, the riot grrrl generation,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cShe was a direct influence for us of someone who was, like, no filter. Music is about expressing yourself and about being who you truly are and putting out these ideas into the world. That was a huge impact on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tHanna and Tucker performing Ono\u2019s \u201cNo, No, No.\u201d Tucker called Ono \u201cso influential to the riot grrrl generation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Hamilton\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tIndeed, Ono is a household name, though often considered a musical outlier, as her approach to music and singing \u2014 like art \u2014 has remained singular. If some in the Broad crowd might have been hard-pressed to name more than a song or two of Ono\u2019s, or had only a passing acquaintance with the 1964 feminist performance art Cut Piece and other highlights in her seven-decade career in favor of her collaborations with John Lennon, it didn\u2019t matter. Ono\u2019s influence is myriad.<\/p>\n
\n\tEspecially captivating performances came thanks to Sylvan Esso\u2019s take on \u201cSisters O Sisters,\u201d singer Amelia Meath embodying the whimsical empowerment of Ono\u2019s 1972 ditty. Meath was likewise vibrant, potent but never performative on \u201cWalking on Thin Ice,\u201d likely the show\u2019s best-known song.<\/p>\n
\n\tCello and saxophone (from musicians Maggie Perkins and Shiroishi, respectively) augmented numbers including the unhinged \u201cAOS,\u201d rendered by composer and jazz singer Theo Bleckmann. At one point Bleckmann joked, \u201cSing along if you like,\u201d his idiosyncratic style proving an ideal fit to capture Ono\u2019s original musical conversation with Ornette Coleman. When the song delved into a cacophony as loud as Bleckmann\u2019s green patterned suit, the crowd was at once laughing and holding their ears.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tChicago\u2019s Finom \u2014 Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham \u2014 did Ono proud with an often operatic drama and feral vocalizing on the plaintive, short on lyrics, long on emotion \u201cWhy\u201d (2018). The duo was equally compelling on the boldly orgasmic \u201cKiss, Kiss, Kiss,\u201d from Lennon-Ono\u2019s Double Fantasy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tIn marked contrast, Ono\u2019s gentler songs worked equally well in the set, with New York multimedia artist Emi Helfrich offering a compelling stillness augmented by acoustic guitars on \u201cRemember Love.\u201d The 1969 gem, wrought with acoustic guitars, was originally the B side of \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d from John Lennon\/Plastic Ono Band. (Helfrich had more in common with Ono than anyone else on stage: She\u2019s Ono\u2019s granddaughter, her mother being Yoko Ono\u2019s daughter Kyoko Ono Cox.) Helfrich also performed \u201cHiga Noboru,\u201d a song that Honda describes as carrying \u201ca quiet yet immense gravity,\u201d and that was exactly the tone and mood Helfrich achieved.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tWainwright wore tinted shades during his performance in homage to Ono\u2019s signature look.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulian Hamilton\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tA \u201csad\u201d song and a \u201cpissed off\u201d tune were on tap for Wainwright, who wore dark glasses, he said, in tribute to Ono\u2019s own face-shielding specs. The bittersweet, timeless \u201cI\u2019m Going Away Smiling\u201d was one Wainwright said always made him cry, and was beautifully intimate with Perkins on cello, cinematic without being maudlin. Ono\u2019s original recording, from 2009\u2019s Between My Head and the Sky<\/em>, also featured Honda, while a fan-beloved cover of the song by Iggy Pop in 2012 confirms its sumptuous composition. Equally well-crafted is \u201cWhat a Bastard the World Is,\u201d a sad turned mad, powerfully human narrative with 1973 lyrics \u2014 \u201cAnd all of us live under the mercy of male society \/ Thinking that their want is our need\u201d \u2014 that regrettably still resonate.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tBikini Kill\u2019s Hanna, hair piled high, fist in the air, introduced the final number culled from Ono\u2019s large, disparate catalog, commenting on the \u201croller coaster of emotions\u201d invoked by the evening\u2019s song choices. The predominantly female all-star ensemble created a joyous assemblage onstage to perform \u201cWoman Power,\u201d first released in 1973. As a singer, Ono\u2019s vocal approach and tone may not be traditionally crowd-pleasing, but her wishes and hopes for humanity have resonated across the decades. As Hanna, Tucker, and company sang Ono\u2019s lyrics \u2014 \u201cYou may be the president now\/You may still be a man \/But you must also be a human \/So open up and join us in living\u201d \u2014 the sold-out crowd was on board, though not as fervent in a hands-raised, fist-thrusting unity as one might hope for, given the intent and clear follow-through of Ono\u2019s life and art.<\/p>\n
\n\tStill, as the audience streamed out of the concert courtyard, earlier words from Finom lingered. The duo were among the most instructive in their stage banter \u2014 a quality Ono surely would appreciate \u2014 reminding the audience to \u201ccelebrate the creative courage\u201d of the evening\u2019s honoree, and encouraging the throng to \u201cChannel your inner Yoko!\u201d As the performers hugged onstage, positivity and connectivity were decidedly in the air. Ono, likely asleep across the country New York, would have been proud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019d like to dedicate this to the Beatles,\u201d Yo La Tengo guitarist and singer Ira Kaplan said from the stage, introducing Yoko Ono\u2019s 1973…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":70186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>