Customer Reviews

Onobox

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm astonished at how many people come here to expound aimlessly as to their extremely qualified hatred of what they consider to be pretentious anti-music.
Well we all know what people like you think. You are the majority, and you've made it quite clear througout the years that you are incapable of liking this material.
If all you can do is sit around writing error-ridden reviews seething with all-caps rants of your hatred, I would tell you kindly to shove something....in a place that I'll leave you to guess, since that's the language of the people.
Do you even realize that it really DOES take talent to squeal at such high levels which resemble eerily accurate guitar-feedback? Could you do that, please? Like, really?

...I somehow thought not.

Of course you say "But that doesn't mean anyone wants to hear that!" Well you're right my friend! I'll give you that.
But art is inherantly self-indulgent, and if you despise it, it's yours to despise...but obviously, someone like her, intelligent and observant in those lyrics that people like you couldn't hope to write...Why would she consistently come out with music clearly in a style that causes people to despise and mock her until they speak of her as though inhuman? Could it be that people really do have drastically different tastes?
Trust me: people like us think your normal pop/country radio music sucks.
In the words of....someone famous...."How you like me now?"

This, my friends, is Yoko Ono's body of work.
Like it or not, this is her passion, and what an unstoppable passion it is. No one does it quite like her.

Thank you.

This tastefully packaged and well-documented box set clocks in at a mammoth six CDs, which may seem somewhat self-indulgent for an artist at best on the fringes of the mainstream. However, its existence in the marketplace does not oblige anyone to purchase it. If they were to, though, I imagine they would consider it a one-stop purchase, meeting all their Yoko Ono needs, collecting all the albums and stray singles in one extensive package.

All the most commercially important tracks such as Walking On Thin Ice, Woman Is The Nigger of The World and Open Your Box are here, along with a fair number of rarities such as Japanese singles and unreleased album sessions and out-takes. Yoko Ono has supervised remixes of a substantial number of the tracks, adding notes of explanation on each CD. Along with printed lyrics and essays, a thorough discography has also been supplied, and from this it can be seen that the tracks representing each album have been extensively revised, with running times sometimes extended, as with O'Wind (Body Is The Scar Of Your Mind) or Woman Power, sometimes severely shortened.

Paper Shoes and Midsummer New York both lose several minutes, for example, and Mind Train, over 16 minutes long on the album Fly, is here shorter even than the single edit, at under four minutes long. Some 27 album tracks have been dropped altogether, though her unreleased 1974 album A Story is included on the sixth disc.

Plastic Ono Band B-sides Remember Love and Who Has Seen The Wind? that have yet to make a CD appearance are not included though others duplicated on albums are given space.

Over the six CDs we see Yoko gradually shifting from the avant-garde wordlessness of the Plastic Ono Band period, to the more conventional song-based approach of 1980s albums that all employed session musicians. The Plastic Ono Band served her extremely well instrumentally and on a proto-funk piece like Open Your Box predated the work of innovators like Betty Davis by several years.

The box set opens with a two-minute No Bed For Beatle John, extracted from Unfinished Music No. 2 - Life With The Lions, recorded in November 1968 and the only piece on the entire box set to predate the Plastic Ono Band. Even the free-form 1968 avant-garde piece AOS included on the album Plastic Ono Band has been dropped, as if she did not exist musically before meeting up with Beatle John. The fact that she did is acknowledged by Sonic Youth, one of many outfits to admit to her influence, who recorded Yoko's Voice Piece For Soprano from 1961 on their album Goodbye Twentieth Century, and also Scream Piece on Sonic Youth 4. Other artists who bear testimony to her pioneering feminist individuality include Bjork, the Pizzicato Five, Kate Bush, Yo La Tengo and the B 52s. This box begins to explain why, despite being maddeningly incomplete in some respects and perhaps too fulsome in others.

This box set is wonderful. I wonder if any of the one star reviews here were written by people who actually listened to the entire box set.

Today marks 21 years that I have been a Yoko fan. I started listening to her shortly after my 12th birthday. I was drawn to her because of my own childhood and she helped me through some very horrible times. I had a horrible life at home growing up. I had no voice to speak my truth, but I could turn on Yoko's music and she would speak my truth for me. The truth can hurt, be painful, and upsetting. She was the voice that could speak my pain until I was old enough to speak it aloud for myself.

The textures in Yoko's work are the textures of life. There are soft, gentle love songs that calm and soothe. There are rock tunes of pure bliss with John rocking out to accompany her. There are songs of pain, but there are also songs of hope.

Anyone who wants to experience life in all its facets, should experience Yoko's songs through this box set. As John sang, "Gimme some truth."

Like all the finer things in life, the music of Yoko Ono is an acquired taste. To those with the cultured palate to appreciate Yoko's music, the 6 CD Onobox is a delicacy worth it's price and more.

The Onobox scans the career of the always controversial Yoko Ono from the early days of "No Bed For Beatle John" to her 1985 release 'Starpeace'. The music is divided into 6 different eras of her career: 1) "London Jam", featuring her more freeform avant garde and rock jams from 'Plastic Ono Band' & 'Fly'; 2) "New York Rock", featuring most of 'Approximately Infinite Universe'; 3) "Run, Run, Run", featuring the 'Feeling The Space' LP with some previously unissued tracks from those sessions; 4) "Kiss, Kiss, Kiss", featuring the Yoko tracks from 'Double Fantasy' and 'Milk and Honey' as well as some 80's unreleased tracks; 5) "No, No, No", featuring tracks from her 3 solo 80's LP's; and finally 6) "A Story" featuring the unreleased LP of the same name as well as two Japan only singles and two tracks from 'Sometime In New York City'.

The box set itself is also very nice. It features a wonderful sketch of Yoko on the inner box and samples of sheet music from "Walking On Thin Ice", Yoko's biggest hit to date. The liner notes, most written by Yoko herself, gives the listener/reader a chance to see into what was going on during the times of the recording sessions. The Onobook features many photos of Yoko, John and Sean plus complete lyrics to all songs (for those of us who love to sing along). This is a MUST for Yoko fans (even if you have the original LPs or the reissued CDs) if just for the previously unissued cuts alone. Don't miss it!!

Her lyrics are some of the best ever written. Her vocal style I find enchanting. She is honest in ways most artists are scared be and her reward for that is really touching the people who take her music to heart. I am so glad I gave her music a chance because over the years it has just continued to mean more to me the more I play it. Thank you Yoko!

Where would artists like Kate Bush, Bjork, the B-52s, and so many more be without Yoko having been there first? Answer: nowhere. And artists like Alanis Morisette, Fiona Appel and Meredith Brooks could take a lesson page from Yoko's book of artistic angst.

A consummate artist, innovator, humanitarian and social commentator. A beautiful human being. And probably a big part of the reason why John Lennon became the John Lennon whose passing we mourn.

Yoko has the sweetest singing voice I have ever heard! I love every song on this collection!
John Lennon was the luckiest guy in the world, because he was married to Yoko!

A truely fantastic retrospective.

A note to enthusiasts - some of the mixes on these discs are different than on the Ryko album reissues.

A daunting challenge, this album is not for those that want their lyrics empty and their women to be wallflowers. Six CDs of love, hate, and politics. Start with her Plastic Ono Band album if you are a novice, buy this once you are hooked.

So... you're browsing Amazon... if you're like me there's nothing so remarkable about that. I mean, browsing Amazon is like a hobby nowadays. The song samples are like a sonic encyclopedia. So, therefore, if you're here you're probably half-curious about whether the horror stories about Yoko are true and you're half-thinking that (maybe) if you make the big investment on this giant anthology then it'll contain all the stuff from all the albums and you'll get all of Yoko in one for-sale package. I thought the same thing; because, on first look it appears that they're all here but you're just not sure and you're certainly not gonna check. Well I have. The long-and-short of it: you get 12 non-LP tracks but in exchange you LOSE 27 LP tracks see the next paragrapg for which ones). You'll also lose the album art and the sequencing from the original albums. To me, that seems like a lame deal since half of her LPs are for sale here used for under five bucks on a good day. Do what I did: Search Yoko Ono in music and save a link to each album in you favorites under a folder named, like, Used Yoko, and check there for used deals every week. That's how I got all the LPs. After awhile you figure out which one are never for sale used under $7: Season of Glass (SOG) , Approximately Infinite Universe (AIU), Double Fantasy (DF), Milk and Honey (MAH), Fly (F), Feeling the Space (FTS), Plastic Ono Band (POB), The Wedding Album (TWA), Live Peace in Toronto 1969 (LP), and Sometime in New York (SINY) and which ones always (or sometimes) are: Two Virgins (2V), Life With The Lions (LWTL), Rising (R), Rising Mixes (RM), Blueprint For A Sunrise (BFAS), Starpeace (S), A Story (AS), and It's Alright (IA). The title abbreviations will be used later to signal you to which album every track on Onobox can be found on. I did this as a space consideration singe I didn't want this review to be super long. Please note that some tracks marked as Non-LP can be found on comps and imports, but buying two pricy imports is almost like buying the Onobox. This brings us to the portion of the review where I list where each track can be found. For most of you, this information is immaterial, so if you're that type of person, just skip to the last paragraph. Each track is separated by a semicolon (;) and the abbreviation after the song (right before the semicolon) refers to the album title...those abbreviations can be found earlier in this paragraph, with two exceptions. Walking on Thin Ice (WOTI) is the compilation made from this box. It has one song that you can't find on nay album and you can usually get it for $2 but if you're gonna buy this, there's really no point unless you want to use the liner notes to house the CDR you burn these 11 exclusive tracks onto. That's my plan, since I already got the Onobox. The other Abbreviation is on the Onobox-exclusive tracks. They're marked with the abbreviation ONOBOX so you can find them easily.
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You lose: aos POB; "something more abstract" POB; ms. lennon F; hirake F; airmale F; you; fly F; between the takes F; will you touch me F; song for john AIU; air talk AIU; I learned to stutter/coffin car FTS; wake up IA; I see rainbows IA; turn of the wheel SOG; mother of the universe SOG; I love all of me S; children power S; rainbow revealation S; king of the zoo S; remember raven S; sky people S; you and I S; it's gonna rain S; starpeace S; imaine S.
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DISC ONE: no bed for beatle john LWTL; mind holes F; o'wind (body is the scar of the mind F; why POB; why not POB; greenfield morning I pushed an empty baby carriage all over the city POB; touch me POB; paper shoes POB; mind train F; open your box POB; toilet piece/unknown F; don't worry kyoko TWA, F, SINY, LP; telephone piece F; midsummer new york F; The Path ONOBOX; don't count the waves F; head-play (medley of you-airmale-fly) ONOBOX; is winter here to stay AIU. DISC TWO: yang yang AIU; death of samsara AIU; what did I do! AIU; approximately infinite universe AIU; what a bastard the world is AIU; catman (the rosies are coming) AIU; I want my love to rest tonight AIU; shiranakatta (I didn't know) AIU; peter the dealer/deeler AIU; I felt like smashing my face in a clear glass window AIU; winter song AIU; kite song AIU; now or never AS, AIU; what a mess AIU; I have a woman inside my soul AIU; move on fast AIU; looking over from my hotel window AIU; waiting for the sunrise AIU. DISC THREE: growing pains FTS; yellow girl (stand by for life) FTS; coffin car FTS; warrior woman ONOBOX; woman of salem FTS; run run run FTS; if only FTS; a thousand times yes FTS; straight talk FTS; angry young woman FTS; potbelly rocker ONOBOX; she hits back FTS; men men men FTS; it's been very hard FTS; mildered mildred FTS; left turn's the right turn ONOBOX. DISC FOUR: walking on this ice SOG, DF; kiss kiss kiss DF; give me something DF; I'm moving on DF; yes I'm your angel DF; beautiful boys IA, DF; open your soul to me ONOBOX; every man has a woman who loves him DF; hard times are over AS, DF; don't be scared MAH; sleepless night MAH; o'sanity MAH; your hands AS; let me count the ways MAH; forgive me my love ONOBOX; you're the one IA; there's no goodbye ONOBOX; have you seen the horizon lately AIU. DISC FIVE: I don't know why SOG; mindweaver SOG; even when you're far away SOG; nobody sees me like you do SOG; silver horse SOG; no no no SOG; toyboat SOG; she gets down on her knees AS, AIU, SOG; extension 33 AS; never say goodbye IA; spec of dust IA; my man IA; it's alright IA; let the tears dry IA; dream love IA; hell in paradise S; I love you earth S; in cape clear S; goodbye sadness SOG. DISC SIX: a story AS; loneliness AS, IA; will you touch me AS, SOG; dogtown AS, AIU, SOG, etc.; it happened AS; tomorrow may never come AS, IA; winter friend AS; heartburn stew AS; yes, I'm a witch AS; yume o moto ONOBOX; o'oh WOTI; namyohorengekyo ONOBOX; we're all water SINY; joseijoi banzai ONOBOX; sisters o sisters SINY.
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I felt it was my duty to write a few words, as this is the last Yoko Ono review I will likely write. Yoko Ono reviews are mainly used to review and critique her as a person, and not her music. You know how I know? That caterwauling and shrieking and screaming that is supposedly all of her recordings is actually only found on a handful of the many recordings, namely, POB, F, LWTL, LP and that's it! All the rest sound like variations of John's recordings, Walls and Bridges and SINY come to mind. I would only ever recommend to you one of her recordings that you could get for under five. The first album I bought was POB which I bought because I thought it was going out of print. I definitely got ripped off because I got it for $22.00 at a place on Broadway in NYC but I'm not mad because I got most of the other ones for a steal. The used for cheap ones I recommend for you guys is A Story. It's her last album of the seventies...recorded in 1974, during the same lost weekend where John recorded Walls and Bridges and Rock and Roll. Most of her recordings have that easy listening/lounge act sound that you find on Walls and Bridges. When I heard it for the first time...I thought "THIS is Yoko Ono?!?" I too assumed she was some shronky witch. I really bought POB as a gag record and I laughed it before I liked it. Beyond that album...my other favorite albums are LWTL, POB, FTS, AIU, and SOG but they are of course expensive. But, duh, that's why people don't sell them... because they like them. One final word...Yoko isn't an artist that if you catch her on the wrong album, you might not like her (like Sonic Youth). She's more of an artist like Beat Happening (who I like) that you're more like to hate altogether than to have a good introductory album. My rationale in recommending a cheap album is that, hey, three dollars is like a latte or two slices of pizza! That's not really much of a risk. I will recommend to you two things, first, shipping is usually $2.50 per record, so when you see a used record offer add on $2.50 to the price to figure how it would stack up to a used CD store and second buying used CDs on Amazon is far safer than buying used from a place like Gemm or Ebay because if you buy used on Amazon, you can pay with your credit card straight to Amazon and that's a lot more secure than giving your credit card number to some guy who you don't know or buggering with paypal. That's it. I hope you liked it. If mot, you're clearly a horrible person. Ha.