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Yoko Ono on John Lennon, Clubbing and War: Give Peace Another Chance
“Yoko Ono was so important for taking John Lennon from being that Beatle-in-a-suit pop star to becoming the John Lennon that everyone reveres today. She was the one who told him he should do something worthwhile with his fame. She was years ahead of the British public and it’s only now, thirty years on, that people are realising, ‘Hang on a minute, she was right’.”
Crushed amongst the camera crews and clubbers watching Yoko Ono’s recent performance at Nag, Nag, Nag, S Express/ superstar DJ Mark Moore admits he was blown away by the 70 year old artist’s presence
“In my eyes Yoko is still exactly the same Yoko, she’s one of the last of a dying breed,” says Mark.
“She’s a person who stuck to her convictions and sat out on a limb and I think to myself, ‘How many people are sitting out on a limb today?’ In most people’s eyes she was this weirdo who did strange art and strange music and she had to cope with that mob mentality attitude against a weirdo- let’s burn the witch. She was an outsider and underdog in a strange kind of way and they tore her to shreds.”
Not at the London club date, but equally enthusiastic about Yoko’s legacy is Keir from avant garde electronic experimentalists The Black Dog.
“She should be recognised as one of the world's most accomplished conceptual artists, but she married a guy more famous than her, so she's screwed,” he says.
“I think many artists recognise and credit Yoko for her influence and inspiration, though ironically it will probably take decades for this to reach public consciousness, and final media recognition. I doubt this troubles Yoko, though, as with any truly innovative artist she is more concerned with the work than the profile it receives.”
For Yoko herself, however, what does concern her beyond her art is the issue that she’s become irrevocably linked via some of John Lennon’s most popular songs, namely war, or more accurately peace. At the Nag show, she’d been roundly cheered when holding up a placard declaring ‘Imagine Peace’ and chatting to Skrufff’s Jonty Adderley the next day, she’s both passionate and fearless.
“We have to keep on protesting and we have to avoid staying at home being scared or just raising your fist in your mind to the politicians,” says Yoko.
“They don’t care about us, they’re not thinking about anyone else, they’re thinking about their own ideas and we have to be like that too, instead of just watching the TV news which is fed to us. We have to stop being constantly angry about politicians who don’t listen to us. I think we should create our own power, a power from the people, to create a beautiful powerbase internationally. To achieve that, we need to reach out horizontally, not vertically. If we behave in the way of saying ‘Daddy, listen to me!’ then Daddy will come down on us.”
That a 70 year old multi-millionaire born into Japanese royalty has the energy and even inclination to still fight the West’s war mongering leaders is pretty impressive, as is her willingness to promote the re-release of her seminal New York club record, Walking On Thin Ice. Recently remixed by superstar producers The Pet Shop Boys, Danny Tenaglia, Felix Da Housecat and Francois K, the 1979 track became one of Larry Levan’s anthems at the Paradise Garage, ironically during the period Yoko herself stayed away from clubs, as she mourned the 1980 murder of John Lennon. Two decades on, though, she’s as happy to talk about John as she is her renewed love of clubbing.
“Club culture is it; it’s the only thing that’s really alive, in a way. People dance and they connect with their bodies through dancing, which is so important- body to body.
Skrufff (Jonty adderley): What did you make of Nag Nag Nag as a club?
Yoko Ono: “I felt that we connected with the crowd and touched base and it was great. I kept saying give love a chance when I was on stage because I felt that feeling in the club, I felt a big love.”
Skrufff: What do you think of today’s club culture?
Yoko Ono: “Club culture is it, it’s the only thing that’s really alive, in a way. People dance and they connect with their bodies through dancing, which is so important- body to body. That connection used to exist in rock & roll during its early days but rock & roll has got more sophisticated over the years, with stadium gigs and big events where you see what’s going on giant video screens because the stage is so far away. It’s a different game so it’s so nice to be in a small place where you’re all together exchanging vibes. My artwork has also always had an audience participation side to it and clubbing definitely has that aspect where everybody participates with the music in a very active way. It’s good, I love it.”
Skrufff: You’re 70 years old, an age when many others are taking it easy, what drives you to still go to clubs?
Yoko Ono: “I think it’s like magic, it’s beautiful. I like the particular vibe you find in clubs, I’m really drawn to it, probably because I’m on the same wavelength. It’s always like that, isn’t it? When you walk into something, you walk in there because you agree with the vibe. It’s as simple as that. I also feel that I went through sexism and racism in the past and I survived, though now I’m facing ageism, I suppose. But I don’t feel it, I’m just me. I’d like to say to others feeling scared about clubbing, it’s good, it feels beautiful, you shouldn’t be scared of it. Somehow my world is lighter now, my senses are sharper and more acute and dancing has a lot to do with it. Even in the 70s, John and I would say ‘it’s so important to move your butt (body) through dance’. Poetry of course is important and we managed to put the poetry together with music so it reached a wider world. Poetry is just reading but when it’s combined with music, it travels further. Now we have to do it with the body. Dancing is so important, we can dance together; that’s the key.”
Skrufff: What is Walking On Thin Ice about specifically?
Yoko Ono: “It was one of those songs that came from above, it was very strange and a prophetic song. After I wrote that song and recorded it, suddenly my life changed and became like walking on thin ice. Nowadays, all of us are walking on thin ice and it’s a very strange thing. We have to somehow get through it and come out on the other side. It’s a kind of song that brings your true emotions out.”
Skrufff: You held up a board at Nag last night saying the slogan Imagine Peace, you also campaigned heavily against the Iraq war before it started, what do you make of the situation now?
Yoko Ono: “We still have to carry on. When the Vietnam War was happening, it took over two and a half years before people started protesting whereas now we’ve started to protest before the war so that’s pretty good. We have to keep on protesting and we have to avoid staying at home being scared or just raising your fist in your mind to the politicians. They don’t care about us, they’re not thinking about anyone else, they’re thinking about their own ideas and we have to be like that too, instead of just watching the TV news which is fed to us. We have to stop being constantly angry about politicians who don’t listen to us. I think we should create our own power, a power from the people, to create a beautiful powerbase internationally. To achieve that, we need to reach out horizontally, not vertically. If we behave in the way of saying ‘Daddy, listen to me!’ then Daddy will come down on us.
Skrufff: How do you create a beautiful powerbase?
Yoko Ono: “We should really create a mutual understanding that will make us come together. The more clearly we understand things, the faster we can come together. The only thing that’s stopping us, and this is something that we have to fear, is fear itself, and confusion and ignorance. We’re all partly ignorant because they’re confusing us, they’re blocking people’s understanding and they’re very effective at doing it, it’s working for them. We need to exchange ideas, to tell people ‘actually, did you know that this is happening?’ then through it all, we can finally have the right picture of what’s going on. That’s very important. And what’s going on is an enormous thing.
The plan that is laid out in front of us, is an enormous one and somehow, I’m sure we can make everything better and make it well. That’s because, when you’re thinking peace and you’re at peace yourself, you’re already part of the peaceful world. What it means is that each one of us is a being who has an unlimited power. So there are billions of us with unlimited power but what is stopping us? The only thing that’s stopping us is those things that they feed us; fear, confusion and ignorance. There are specific ways of reaching each other too. I’ve just put together a project, for example, called ‘Peace Event with John Lennon’.”
Skrufff: You survived the infamous fire storms of Toyko during the Second World War in 1945, when the Allies bombed the city and killed hundreds of thousands of people, what was that experience like?
Yoko Ono: “People used to say to me ‘Don’t talk about the Second World War, because that will date you’ whereas these days I’m almost regretful that I don’t know about the First World War. It’s great to know and the fact that I experienced that war is very important in my life. There were times during the war when I couldn’t find food for my younger brother and sister and I’d be travelling from village to village to find food for them. It was scary.”
Skrufff: How was the bombing experience itself?
Yoko Ono: “They always say ‘We don’t kill civilians’ when they bomb cities, Fuey! no, of course they do! Every night there’d be a siren then the bombers would be flying overhead and we’d have to rush into the bomb shelters and in the shelters we’d be praying as the bombs went ‘Boom! boom! Boom! as they landed. The bombs would penetrate the earth and the shelters were built in the earth so you’d really hear them ‘ Whoom! Whom! Whom! getting nearer and nearer, then fading away as they passed, like music. Then we’d come out of the shelters saying ‘We live for one more day, we’ve got one more day, it’s great’. That’s how it was- every day there was a chance we could have been killed.”
Skrufff: During the early 70s you and John were the highest profile peace protesters in the world, what happened to all the people who seemed highly conscious in the 60s?
Yoko Ono: “The thing is, we’re all human and humans have a tendency, which is actually a beautiful tendency, to block things out. Even now, people don’t want to know about the Iraq war because it’s so painful, so they don’t want to turn their TV on, which in a way is good. John and I are both war children (born during war) and in that sense we always had a real fear about war, and its uselessness.”
Skrufff: Much of the rest of the world outside America sees the Bush administration as the ‘bad guys’, do you ever think about leaving New York?
Yoko Ono: “I think of it from time to time but I have my little apartment there, which I love and that’s how it is at this point. That’s my powerbase in a way, my little studio where I have my deck and computer, which overlooks the park (Central Park). It’s a comfortable workspace that I’ve created for myself. If I go somewhere else, then that involves me using up a lot of energy so as of now, I’m still happy with where I am. It sounds strange to say ‘happy’ but it’s true.”
Skrufff: Did you used to go to New York clubs like Studio 54 back in the 70s?
Yoko Ono: “We never did because as John used to say ‘we’re two people who are proud to have never been to Studio 54’, because all of our friends used to go. We were people then who preferred to make a cup of tea and read books at home. In the 80s I was still in shock after John passed away. People used to say to me ‘do you know they’re playing Walking On Thin Ice in clubs’ but I’d be like, ‘that’s nice’ but it was in my peripheral vision at the time.”
Skrufff: I’ve always though the song Woman had a premonition vibe in it, would you agree?
Yoko Ono: “Oh yes, and what about Watching the Wheels? There were lots of premonitions in lots of the songs. The things he said to me, made me feel (afterwards) almost like he was preparing for it. It made it easier for me in some ways afterwards (after John Lennon’s death).”
Skrufff: John touched millions of people with his music and accomplished an enormous amount as an individual, can anyone do the same with the right motivation?
Yoko Ono: “John is still alive in all of us. Each and everyone of us has a certain power and energy and inspiration from John and we’re all connected in that way, So John is here. As John said, this is not a time when one hero can solve everything. The situation is so complex. John had to jump out of where he was to create an enormous power base. All of us are part of him as he is part of us.”
Yoko Ono’s Walking On Thin Ice is released on April 21 on Mind Train Records/ Parlophone.
http://www.instantkarma.com (Yoko Ono’s Peace Event for John Lennon: ‘This is a call for all countries and their people who wish for World Peace.You, the carrier of good tidings, be proud, swift and wise. By being in peace, you are already part of the peaceful world’)
By: Jonty Adderley (Skrufff.com)
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