Unfinished Music #2: Life With The Lions

John Lennon, John Lennon & Ono Yoko, Yoko Ono, Bob James

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 3, 1997)
• Original Release Date: May 26, 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B0000009RF
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,865 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Cambridge 1969

2. No Bed for Beatle John

3. Baby's Heartbeat

4. Two Minutes Silence

5. Radio Play

6. Song for John [#][*]

7. Mulberry [#][*]

Editorial Reviews

From the Label

Life With The Lions creeps sideways into the details of Yoko's miscarriage.

Yoko & John's second release of sound art. "I make sounds to look at. This I know from Yoko. I live in her shadow."--THURSTON MOORE (Sonic Youth)

Recorded 1969.

Product Description

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. Vall. 2007. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Volume Two of John and Yoko's Life as Art., July 23, 2003

By	Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Call it Two Virgins Volume 2, January 26, 2004

By A Customer

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.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Least Obvious of the three experimental albums., December 7, 1998

By A Customer

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."