Only Squares Hate Yoko

No. She was not just a famous dude's girlfriend. No. John did not introduce her to music. And No, she did not break up the Beatles. The squareness of anti-revolutionary culture suffocated the Beatles. It was you, dude. KNOW THIS.

Let it be known: if you dis Yoko in front of me I will snap at you. Not only because Yoko Ono was an accomplished artist before she even set eyes on John Lennon; not only because she was hell of ahead of her time. Because I see it as part of a larger problem: marginalizing women in music and art to the position of girlfriend/groupie.
Lady Yoko is the "high preistess of happenings." Dig.
Yoko was all up on the NY art scene in the late 50s: her loft was a hotbed of performances and art frequented by the likes of John Cage, LaMonte Young and other hip illuminaries. She began collaborating with George Maciunas in NY and together they sparked up the Fluxus movement - an international avant-garde movement that remains challenging and influential. She met JL cuz she had been flown in to London to perform Cut Piece (which she released as a film in 1965 - just one of the 11 she directed during the 60s), and was setting up her accompanying exhibit at a London gallery when that bespectacled dude walked in. Check out this essay on Ono by Robert Palmer. So dudes. Educate yourself or I will drunkenly blow up at you at some smoky nightclub situation. I will gesture wildly and point at you. I might even spill a little bit of my drink on you. Just be ready.

Her FluxFilms are great; I saw most of them recently at a Fluxus exhibit. EXAMPLE: Bottoms, 1966 (5:30 long)


Moral of the story: You squares better stop hatin'.