Jody Denberg: Who originally saw this project (AIU note: Every Man Has A Woman, the tribute album from 1984) through to its completion and why the concept of other people doing your songs?

Yoko Ono: Well, Sam Havadtoy mainly did this. Sam and Elliot Mintz - you know who Elliot Mintz is, an old family friend, and Sam was a family friend too, so both of them sort of decided that the idea should be picked up again.

JD: Why the idea in the first place? I mean, I like all these songs, but I also like the original versions as well.

YO: (Laughs like a shy girl) Well, thank you very much. Thank you. But you know, John was very astute about anything in the record world. He used to say, "If somebody covered your song, they're going to understand it. They're going to know that soul is going to communicate and they're going to know that you are a writer." And of course, in those days, who would think of covering Yoko Ono. So it was just a sort of talk between us. Then he used to always say, "Well, look, why don't I cover your song?" And I felt that it might be a good idea, but at the same time I just wanted to maintain my independence in a way. I also felt I had a certain way of singing that suited the song, and John agreed with that but he thought it was a good way of bringing out my songs or letting my songs circulate.

JD: When you and John came back to making music in 1980, except for a couple of songs like Kiss Kiss Kiss or Walking On Thin Ice, your work had less of that experimental nature than say earlier things like Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band or Fly. Was that a conscious effort your music to have a broader appeal?

YO: Yes, it was a very conscious effort, especially because it was with John. I didn't want to be the one who ruined his chance in a way, y'know.

JD: When you listen to artists today, or even back in 1980, could you hear your influence? I know I could hear the influence of Yoko Ono on some newer artists like the B-52s or Lene Lovich.

YO: That's what John used to say. Now I'm very glad he heard all that in 1980, and he was very, very happy about it all. He was the one who reported to me: "Listen to this!" And I was very happy about that. But you know most people say well, aren't you overjoyed and all that. It was such a long time ago when we were doing those things, and at the time that you do something, if you get a response, it's great! But it was almost around the time that I'd forgotten about it.

JD: Now this new album... All the songs on Every Man Has A Woman are from your previous albums. Several from Season Of Glass and It's Alright and also things dating back to the early 70s. Do you have in the works right now some new material that you are going to record?

YO: Yes, I'm planning another album.

JD: Do you write songs constantly? Is that your job, to write songs?

YO: Well, I don't think of it as a job. I think of it as a joy.

JD: Your original artistic background was in conceptual and performance art, and currently you have been doing pop albums. Do you ever feel like you might go back doing something like you used to do, or maybe even making live appearances, musical or otherwise?

YO: Logistically it's a bit difficult now, I think...

JD: Are you going to make a video for Every Man?

YO: Yes, there'll be a video for Every Man and for Sean's It's Alright.

JD: I once read that you were involved with doing a TV documentary for Johnny Carson's production firm.

YO: Yes, that's in the works.

JD: I remember when you and John in 1972 were doing films, Fly and the avant-garde film with all the people's buttocks in it, and now its the video age and everyone's so cool "Oh we're getting into video" and it's turned into a commercial medium. You guys were doing it for the pure art form way back then.

YO: Around Double Fantasy John and I were saying, "No more of that ten years too early stuff". We want to communicate now. But I think Double Fantasy was a bit too early, maybe. I don't think people understood it so well. It took maybe six months or so.

JD: The album was only out a month or two before John died, which made it very hard to gauge how people truly reacted to it, if they weren't colored by their sorrow at the time.

YO: I know. Before the sorrow I think the reviews said John and I together weren't that good. They were sort of saying, "Do we have to hear these love songs?". But when you listen to Double Fantasy now, you'd realize that it's not just all love songs, really.

JD: No, especially songs like I'm Losing You and I'm Moving On or Give Me Something. Now Give Me Something was something that really reminded me of when John made the comment "Your pain was very hard to take because you presented it so well" or something.

YO: I really like I'm Losing You a lot. That one was hard to take, because it was expressed so well, pain-wise.

JD: And I'm Moving On. Did you suggest to the various artists on Every Man Has A Woman which song might be good? Like Rosanne (Cash) and Nobody Sees Me Like You Do. Or did these people approach you?

YO: Well, it worked in different ways. Harry (Nilsson) chose all the songs himself. Rosanne Cash - the minute somebody said we might be able to to get in touch with her, I immediately thought Nobody Sees Me Like You Do because it was so her. Strangely enough, everybody were saying "Somebody has to do Walking On Thin Ice, now who do you want" and I said Elvis Costello. They said "Elvis Costello, it doesn't sound right." I just thought he could do it. Now, it seems like Elvis liked Walking On Thin Ice and that's the only sort of song of mine that he went out of his way and bought a single.

JD: He had Allen Toussaint produce that, and he's a great New Orleans producer, and it brings out more of the funk side of what you were doing with that song.

YO: I think it's gorgeous. It's beautiful.

JD: Recently you auctioned off several personal items of yours and John's. Was there a piano in there?

YO: Well yes, there was a piano and many other personal items.

JD: You have been living in that house with memories, and you definitely have a life of your own that's here in the present. Is selling these items an effort to put the past behind you a little bit?

YO: It's not so much that... Because of the series of things that happened since John died and I had to learn a lot. I didn't know there was so much to learn! With John and I together we felt we had pretty much found out about life. And I'm just amazed that I'm still learning. There was so much sort of stealing and all sorts of things went on, and I thought that one of the reasons was that I'm hoarding. And we have to learn to share things with other people. It was sort of hard, but I thought it wasn't hard hard in a sense of, it's not like bleeding. I made a point of not being a masochist, but still trying to give something that meant to us. So there's a fine balance there.