That Fucking Yoko Ono
a quick argument by jep which will hopefully explain some of the anger he expresses to the famous widow in other articles.
I do not hate Yoko Ono for her art. I like it, I think it's good. She has about three ideas which she's been milking forever, but who doesn't?
And I do not hate Yoko Ono for her involvement with John Lennon: that's nobody's business but theirs.
And the age-old charge of her "breaking up the Beatles" is a stupid simplification of the situation, based plenty on sexism and scapegoating.
I hate Yoko Ono the Pop Musician, because it is here that she is the worst kind of egotistical, coat-tail riding weasel. She had nothing whatsoever to offer to rock and roll, but pushed her way hamfistedly into Lennon's projects (not without his blind consent, to be sure) and diminished them in every case. Her artistic input is comparable to that of the student here in TO who puked paint onto famous canvases in New York: she wrecks things. A reasonable person would realize the pitiful nature of such a public piggy-back ride, would be humiliated by it.
In response to arguments like mine, people (Lennon included) argue that Ono was a classically trained musician on her own, before John. But firstly, classical piano training doesn't necessarily qualify someone to rock; secondly, if she actually "had it," wouldn't it show up sometime? She's not burying her great music under interesting ideas: she doesn't have any great music. As for her occasionally popping into the dance-floor charts: the law of averages clearly state that if the wife of John Lennon tried hard enough for thirty years to have a hit single, even Yoko could have a small one.
I hate Yoko Ono's handling of Lennon's legacy: the opportunist posthumus releases like Menlove Avenue; the revisionist handling of the classics (the remastered Lennon catalogue which compromises entirely the integrity of those works) the revision of the Live in New York film to show more Yoko.
I hate the late-critical deification of Yoko Ono, the ass-kissing "yeah, I get it!" laurels laid at her feet at each release. She may be a strong woman, but strong women are not all good people. She may have broken ground, but that doesn't mean she has musical talent. Divine broke ground too, but nobody's calling Divine a genius.
Do I wish Yoko ill? No. But let's be clear here: on her own she is a very minor player. When she puts her fingers into Lennon's work, she's a meddler. She should not be encouraged.