Customer Reviews

Unfinished Music #2: Life With The Lions

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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

While John and Yoko's first album "Two Virgins" got plenty of attention because of its nude album cover photos, their second album "Life With The Lions" only got scant attention. The album is a continuation of John and Yoko attempting to present their lives together as art.
The opening track "Cambridge 1969" was recorded live at Cambridge University during an unusual avant-garde jazz concert. For 26-minutes, Yoko is heard screeching, screaming, cackling, howling and doing who knows what else while John Lennon brutalizes his electric guitar with atonal feedback behind her. This piece continues in this fashion for much of its duration. It's only towards the end that some additional help comes along. Percussionist John Stevens and Sax player John Tchicai join John and Yoko during the last six minutes. After Yoko shuts up and John turns off his amplifier, the two other John's continue playing alone as the piece fades out.
The second half of the album was recorded at Queen Charlotte Hospital in London where Yoko was pregnant but ultimately suffered a miscarriage. "No Bed For Beatle John" consists of Yoko (with John in the background) putting various press articles on the couple to music. It is sung in a the style of a Gregorian chant.
This is followed by "Baby's Heartbeat", a five-minute tapeloop of the heartbeat of John and Yoko's unborn child who was miscarried shortly after this recording was made.
Next up is the self-explanitory "Two Minutes Silence". This was obviously influenced by composer John Cage's piece entitled "4:33" which sounds exactly like "Two Minutes Silence" only longer.
The album closes with "Radio Play" which is 12 and 1/2 minutes of someone rhythmically shutting a radio on and off while playing with its tuner. If you listen carefully, The Beatles "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" comes through on the radio. Also, John Lennon can be heard in the background making phone calls.
Like "Two Virgins", "Life With The Lions" is more of a collectors piece than an enjoyable listening pleasure. It is worth listening to however.
The remastered Rykodisc CD includes two additional pieces recorded at Queen Charlotte Hospital. "Song For John" is a somber piece featuring Yoko singing with John playing acoustic guitar. "Mulberry" is a 9-minute piece in which Yoko repeats the word "Mulberry" over and over with different inflections while John plays an abstract slide guitar.

What do you hear when you put "Life With the Lions" in your stereo? Well, first comes "Cambrige 1969", an extraordinarily long jam with John simply abusing guitars to produce feedback as Yoko screams and yells for about 26:30. The you hear a soft ballad, sans-instruments, about John losing his hospital bed, and various other things going on in the lives of John and Yoko. Then "Baby's Heartbeat", wisely followed by "Two Minutes Silence." Finally (for the old version) "Radio Play" a piece where John speaks in the background as Yoko flips through the various stations on the radio, producing one-nanosecond bursts of sound along the way. Two bonus tracks follow on the new version, "Song for John", and "Mulberry". "Song for John" is as close to a normal song you will find on "Lions," where "Mulberry" is more of the Avant Garde. When you know the story of the album, it is so much more interesting. Basically, Yoko is pregnant, due in February. She goes to the hospital for observation with John at her side the whole way. (He loses his bed and has to lie on a sleeping bag, however.) Well, Yoko's baby is miscarriaged. I do not know when it happened, that would change a lot about track #3, "Baby's Heartbeat." Laughing at the beginning of the track would suggest that the baby was alive at the time of the recording, but either way, it is a very sad, touching expirience. They may have had so much hope for the baby, only to have it flushed away. "Baby's Heartbeat" may have become a gift for the baby, instead it stands as a memorial. This CD is a lot of noise, however it was definitely structured. This is the most interesting of the three experimental albums, simply because of the intrigue involving the miscarriage. Did they know, or not? Could they possibly have released the sound of their baby's heart beating, if they knew it was dead? If you listen very closely to this album, open-minded and -hearted, it is sure to make you very sad. Of course, however, most will just toss it aside as "crap."

Track by track:

1. "Cambridge 1969" -- Yoko sings free jazz (in the same manner that people play it on wind instruments). The sounds she makes are absolutely astonishing. How does she do it without frying her voice? How does she overcome physiological barriers? If you know how to listen to a pitch or timbral curve, she not only calls and responds with her own phrases, she calls and responds with John's feedback guitar. I once spoke to John Tchicai about this track and he smiled really wide and recalled it very fondly, so they must have been having fun. He also informed me the performance went on much longer without John & Yoko (John & Yoko's sets blended with Tchicai and John Stevens), typical for free jazz performances. Check Alan Silva's "Seasons" for a 2 hour and 26 minute big band freakout -- something really astonishing and scary if this floats your boat.

2. "No Bed For Beatle John" -- Funnily enough the chants in this song are catchy enough that I find myself sometimes humming the melody to this song. This is a nifty trick. I wonder what John & Yoko were thinking about as they were reading these newspaper accounts.

3. "Baby's Heartbeat/Two Minutes Silence" -- I've always thought these tracks went together. You hear John and Yoko shuffling to get the microphone onto Yoko's belly to record the heartbeat, and you hear it churning along like a Hafler Trio track. And suddenly it quits just as you've hit the point that George Clinton calls "where repetition becomes sacred." The vigil for the loss of the baby in the two minutes silence gives you plenty to ponder as the track passes and you hear the ambience of your surroundings.

4. "Radio Play" -- this is an interesting artistic statement -- a glimpse into John & Yoko's every day life, but there's a barrier in between you and them -- someone playing with a radio. Sometimes my ears strain to hear what's on the radio, sometimes it's fascinating to try to hear what John & Yoko are doing at the time. But the point that there *is* a barrier doesn't go unnoticed.

5. "Song For John" -- what a pretty, sad song, full of images. Countless movies play in my mind upon hearing.

6. "Mulberry" -- As Yoko holds her tones quietly, repairing her voice from the frying she did with other pieces such as "Cambridge 1969", John plays (with) a dobro. I like the contrast between John's busy sounds and Yoko's controlled, quiet chanting of the word "Mulberry." This track is quite like some of Fred Frith's more experimental guitar pieces or Sonny Sharrock's early records.

There's plenty to like about this album. I just wish more people got what they were trying to do. Having big ears for free jazz (which I do) helps.

Side One
1.Cambridge 1969- 26:30
Introduced by Yoko, she says:
"This is a piece called Cambridge 1969".
This is the very first solo preformance as a Beatle, and includes John doing feedback from his guitar with Yoko doing her own thing. Her first screech lasts almost 45 second and this is a really good song. After that are screeches and feedback incessantly. There are two other preformers in this song they are John Tchicai on saxophone and John Stevens on percussion. The other two preformers listed appear toward the end of this piece, and in fact preformed for longer but this was faded out.

Side two:
No Bed For Beatle John- 4:45
John had been staying in a bed at the hospital to be with Yoko, but the bed was more urgently required for a patitent, and John resorted to a sleeping bag. This track includes John and Yoko reading out loud passages from various newspaper reports of this event in a "singing" style. Also they read reports on the "Two Virgins" cover.

Baby's Heartbeat- 5:10
A recording of Yoko's unborn baby. John can be heard at the beginning preparing the mic and says, "O.K. i'm ready

Two Minutes Slience- 2:00
Just what it says!

Radio Play- 12:35
The radio noise is a harsh "chopping" noise which is Yoko repeatedly turning the radio quickly on and off. In fact it is not really apparent it is a radio until about the 11th minute. Various snatches of conversation can be heard, although they are difficult to hear beneath the irritating radio noise. About one minute in, John can be heard making a phone call. First, he checks the number with Yoko, then you can clearly hear him ask the operator to get him "Ambassador 5973 please". After asking is Anthony, John discuses keeping files of Esher data together, and instructs the callee not to "mix up all that stuff".

Yet another Lennon/Ono masterpiece. This time the album includes actual music. But listen to the sonic soundscapes as well, like Radioplay and Baby's Heartbeat. Awesome stuff!

Yes, it is an acquired taste. But if you taste it long enough, you will want more!

Play it on headphones. Simply awesome.

Their second masterpiece.

A++ all the way. Althought I like the first one slightly better.

Probably the most avant garde, adventurous work ever released by a major label, this is a mind expanding, terrifying album. From the epic Cambridge 1969 (running a wonderfully epic 26 1/2 minutes), the creepy No Bed for Beatle John, and the John Cage tribute Two Minutes Silence (it is NOT the best song on the album because Yoko shuts up, as some reviewers have said), it's an album you are not likely to forget. Reportedly, it was made after Yoko's miscarriage, accounting for the agony. The stuff that nightmares and pain are made of. Yoko's vocals on this album are some of her best work. John's distorted guitar compliments them superbly (especially on Cambridge 1969). This is the best of the "Unfinished Music" albums (Two Virgins and Wedding Album being the other two).

Being a John Lennon fan I bought this on vinyl years ago. Boy do I feel like a sucker. There is no music on this - just John & Yoko's pretentious avant-garde "art". Anyone who claims to enjoy this is either lying or just nuts. If Lennon had not been a Beatle then this would never have seen the light of day. Save your money for actual music.

This record is great (note: I have not heard the bonus tracks). The two lps that bookend it, Two Virgins and The Wedding Album, are only curiosities for the Lennon and / or Ono fan. They scantly merit a second listen, despite the brilliance of much of the work of both these artists. However, this album contains their first great musical collaboration. I bought this about twenty years ago and knew that it possessed an intensity rare in recorded music. Obviously not for Ono-bashers. If "Cambridge 1969" grabs you, then check out their last recorded work together, 1980's brilliant "Walking On Thin Ice" to note the similarities and differences. With all the free music online, the free sound samples here and at other online stores (and all the reviews here), it's unlikely you'll be buying this wholly unaware of what to expect. In way that's a shame: I had no idea what I was getting when I was 16 and brought this home, only to have my mind blown. But on the bright side, those of you inclined to dismiss this sort of thing as drivel have plenty of warning that this is not going to remind you of "Not A Second Time" but will more likely leave you screaming "Not a second time!" But if it sounds interesting to you, check it out. And if you love it like I do, don't get too excited about hearing Two Virgins or The Wedding Album; compared to this they barely exist.

I bought this on vinyl when it was first released in 1969. The best song is still "Two Minutes Silence." [Yes, it is two minutes of total silence.] Bonus tracks add nothing to this experimental album. It was painful to listen to thirty years ago; it's still painful today. After listening to this you'll need to wash your ears out with John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band or Imagine. This one is for completists only.

This is a very good album. The best songs on this album are Cambridge 1969, Baby's Heartbeat, and Radio Play. Please get this album and listen to these three songs first.