by On February 16, 2010, Eric Clapton joined Yoko Ono on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to celebrate her 77th birthday and to make a joyful noise with her Plastic Ono Band.
I love this image from the performance. Clapton is clearly shocked/awed/amazed/bemused by Yoko’s classic screaming-as-singing while her son, Sean, is obviously used to her raggedy voice and just plays along.
Yoko has always been a treasure — though some found her more junk than jewels.
I like her ongoing avant-garde aesthetic that keeps her performing live at age 77 even though she never really found any mainstream success of her own.
The lesson in Yoko Ono is to believe in yourself and don’t let others redefine you. Your life is yours and you belong only to your talent. The only master worth obeying is the one within that bids you on to create sound and change Art and remake the ordinary.
That reminds me a lot of the musician Jandek — 59 albums and not much mainstream success — and he definitely doesn’t let anyone push him to do things their way! I’m working my way through his albums to get to a proper review.
That’s a great reference point, Gordon. I find Leonard Cohen unlistenable as a singer and performer, but his songs are incredibly deep and rich — he almost ruins his songs, though, by singing them himself!