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 yoko
ono live at pitchfork | |||
By Mikihiko Hori I flew to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival to attend the all-day event and to listen to cutting-edge Indie bands. But my main intention was to see the performance of the headliner for the evening, the woman I've been admiring since I was a little boy: Yoko Ono. July 14th was such a nice sunny, hot, but breezy day, and I was highly anticipating seeing Yoko's performance again. When I arrived at Union Park before noon, literally thousands of people had already lined up around the park, waiting for the gates to open. When I joined the end of the line, I could see the roof and backside of a stage inside the park. Before long, when I was just standing there, I started hearing an unfamiliar song with a familiar voice, singing through the breeze: "We're dying in a city ... It sure did sound like ...Yoko. When I stared at the stage, I could see that the band was rehearsing and that there was a figure wearing black clothes and a white hat singing on the stage. My presumption became totally true when I heard the next line a bit later: "We're dyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" That was indeed Yoko Ono and she was rehearsing on the stage! I could hear that Yoko kept singing "I'm Dying" on "Rising" for a while, adding her trademark vocalization. I was thrilled to just be able to see her from afar, even before the gates opened. After a little break, Yoko started singing another song: "Snow
falls silent Even from a distance, I could recognize that Yoko's vocal was in great condition, and I could hardly wait to see her performance that evening. After she sang "Snow Falls Silent" briefly, she got off the stage, and got in a black Mercedes, and left the site. A few minutes after noon, the gates for the park finally opened and all these anticipating fans rushed in. At the entrance of one of the gates, I saw a few female staff members of the "Pitchfork" were giving away Yoko's "ONOCHORD"flashlights and postcards to everyone who came to the concert.
Thousands of flashlights and postcards were there in the cardboard boxes for free distribution. I saw that many people took the "ONOCHORD" flashlights and played with them. That was really fun to watch. Inside the huge park, there were three stages set up at different locations, and various bands were already playing on each stage. The age range of the crowd was mixed, but predominantly youngsters, like early twenties, and I was hoping that these kids would stay to see Yoko's gig as well. According to the program distributed at the entrance of the gates, Yoko's performance was planned at the Aluminum stage, 9PM. After the Virginia Beach-based heavy hiphop band "Clipse" finished their performance around 8PM, most of the young crowd left to see other bands at different stages, but, gradually, the site started generating the crowd for Yoko. I saw guys wearing T-shirts that said, "You Are Here" or "Mind Train", so definitely there were a bunch of Yoko fans there. Before Yoko's gig was about to start, and while Yoko's band members were preparing for the performance on the stage, the "ONOCHORD" flashlights and postcards were handed out by the staff standing in front of the stage. Hundreds of "ONOCHORD" flashlights and postcards were literally "flying" through the air. Now, I was really ready for Yoko. I'd been standing on the ground more than five hours, anyway! Around 9PM, when the park was covered with a mantle of darkness and the audience's anticipation of Yoko's appearance reached its highest, a familiar female voice filled the air: "Just for a moment, let's remind each other about love." While the sounds of a heartbeat echoed in the dark, I noticed that Yoko's ONOCHORD documentary had been projected on the screen to the left of the stage. I was standing at the center of the very first row, leaning against the fence, which was placed a few yards away from the stage. When I looked back, I saw the crowd intermittently flashing the ONOCHORD flashlights, imitating Yoko's gestures in the film: "The message I LOVE YOU in ONOCHORD is: The sight was breathtakingly beautiful and looked as if the stardust was blinking right in front of my eyes. It is said that when we see the twinkling of the stars, we are actually seeing lights that glistened one billion years ago. I wondered, if one billion years from now, someone on a different planet - who could be our offspring who migrated to another planet from the Earth - might be able to see the glistening lights emitted by us with love. So touched and caught up in the spirit of the moment, in spite of myself, I told the guy standing next to me, with whom I had been chatting earlier, "I love you." He gave me an awkward smile, not knowing how to respond. Then, I said the same thing to the lady who was standing beside me, and she said, "I love you, too." In the "ONOCHORD" film, while flashing a flashlight, Yoko says: "I
do it to men ... and they are all like ... shy. I guess Yoko is right.
New song When the "ONOCHORD" documentary ended with the echoes of the lines from Yoko's song, "Give Peace A Chance 2004", the audience screamed and applauded. Yoko finally appeared on the stage, following the band members. Yoko was all in black - a beautiful black shirt, sheer around her arms and upper chest, black trousers, a black hat, and of course, black sunglasses. She was also wearing a long white scarf with the shapes of black hearts in print that hung around her neck. Yoko looked simply stunning. I have never seen a woman in her seventies looking so chic. Yoko greeted the crowd in the park and stated that she was pleased to be in Chicago. Then, she said, looking totally relaxed as usual, as if she was having a conversation at a restaurant or something, that she was going to sing a song "dedicating to Chicago" that she had just written two days ago. She mentioned, "that's the kind of thing we used to do in the 70's. You would just come with the song that you were writing in the house or something." Then she introduced Stephen Trask, who was the music director of the band and who also played the keyboard. Yoko has worked with Stephen Trask before, when she sang the song, "Hedwig's Lament/Exquisite Corpse" for the "Wig In A Box" CD (2003). The CD was based on Trask's musical soundtrack, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", about a transsexual rock star named Hedwig. Yoko launched the first song, the one she was rehearsing earlier in the day, with only Stephen Trask's keyboard accompaniment. The lyrics of the song went like this: "We're
dying in a city When one finds treason This
is the body of silent tears This is the body of silent tears This new song Yoko just wrote with a nostalgic melody and apocalyptic lyrics was so beautiful it reminded me of another song, "Where Do We Go From Here" on "Rising". Listening to the lyrics, the image of the city of Hiroshima came to my mind, where the whole city became wreckage after the Atomic Bomb was dropped and they said no plant would grow in thirty years because of the radiation. Then, without intermission from the previous opening song, Yoko started singing "I'm Dying" with heavy bass sounds: "We're dyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiing...." Yoko kept screaming the stuttering sounds that were not structured enough to call words. It was the sound of fear and desperation. It was as if the people Yoko was singing about - or shall we say, "channeling" - were on the verge of death and surviving by screaming out loud: "We're dyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Yoko was moving all over the stage from left to right, literally, expressing urgency and desperation. With heavy riffs of the guitar sounds, the song ended. The crowd applauded Yoko's performance. With the above two songs, Yoko showed a glimpse of reality in the world - a story of warzone. Even at this moment, someplace on the globe, people are crying, screaming, and running around in fear caused by wars. Those songs might havebeen inspired by Yoko's own "original scenery" - the one she witnessed when she was a little girl, running around in the middle of the night through the Tokyo air raid by U.S. bombing during World War II. After the song, Yoko said, "We're all together, right?" Next, while the heavy heartbeat sounds filled the space, Yoko started a monologue by a woman: "I
had to do it This was the line from "I Want You To Remember Me", a song Yoko was inspired to write after hearing the news of a domestic violence by which a husband killed his wife. Yoko also played the male part: "You want
out Yoko was singing and screaming in this tune, using her whole body, trying to show what every woman has to go through in society, governed by violence of men. This is a story of another warzone - a battlefield at home. Yoko turned into music a woman's scream uttered while she was being beaten to death. "No
shadow was left of me At the end of the song, Yoko whispered in Japanese over and over again: "Tasukete
... (Translation: As the song progressed to the end, Yoko's voice was also getting smaller and smaller as if the woman Yoko was playing in this song was in her last breath. Instead of swearing at the man, calling out, "fuck you, you motherfucker," her last words before her death were simply: "I want you to remember me" After singing three songs with a theme of "death", Yoko said she would sing one of her old songs. Yoko said, the song was made for her daughter who had disappeared from her life when she was 5 or 6 years old. Not knowing her daughter's whereabouts or if she was alive or dead, she kept wishing that her daughter " would hear my voice somewhere." Yoko also mentioned that this song was for everyone. With the heavy guitar riffs, the song "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)" started. The reason why I put the subtitle, "(Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)" here is because she sang that line clearly. "Don't
worry Mummy's only looking for her hand in the snow ..." The way she sang was pretty similar to the way she did with John Lennon at the 1969 Rock and Roll Revival in Toronto, which can also be heard on the album, "The Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace in Toronto 1969" (1969). She screamed and kept saying "don't worry " as if she was trying to wipe off worries from the audience's hearts, like a mantra. Yoko sang "Don't Worry, Kyoko" for maybe about 3 minutes or so. According to Yoko, " people said 'Don't Worry, Kyoko' was very heavy " when it came out, but comparing it to "I'm Dying" now, " 'Don't Worry, Kyoko' sounds very romantic. " Yoko continued, " we don't have to worry. We are gonna survive, " and introduced another Yoko masterpiece, "Rising". With heavy drumming sounds as the background, Yoko started singing "Rising". "Listen
to your heart Have courage After Yoko did the improvisation with
her voice modulation during the song, she spoke in Japanese in the middle of the
song. What she said in Japanese was a little prayer and sounded something like
this. ( Translation: Yoko also assured in the middle of the song that "we will survive together," and then she ended the song. Next, the sound of a nostalgic guitar solo started. This was the intro of "Snow Falls Silent". Yoko decided to sing a "winter song" in the middle of summer. "Snow
falls silent The last word of each line in this song trailed away with heavy echoes and reverberation. Imagine the snow is falling in the park in the middle of July to cover the wounds on the ground or sorrow in people's hearts. "I miss you ... This short song ended with the sound of the wind blowing.
Thin Ice After the snow covered the park conceptually by Yoko's singing a snow song, another "winter song" started. Yes, it was "Walking On Thin Ice". "Walking on thin ice "Walking On Thin Ice" was written when Yoko got inspired looking at Lake Michigan in Chicago. The song finally came back to Chicago where it was born twenty some years ago. In the middle of the song, Yoko started her regular voice modulation, where you can hear the "ice, ice, ice, ice ..." riffs on the record. Then, she clearly stated the "little story" about a girl: "'I
knew a girl After Yoko finished singing "Thin Ice", she mentioned her hesitation to sing this song on stage but this time around she decided to "do it".
Mulberry Before Yoko started her next tune, she asked her band, "is this time for 'Mulberry'? Great. Where is my partner?" Man, "Mulberry" was the last song I expected to hear during this gig, so I was utterly overjoyed by her announcement. Then, Yoko mentioned how the idea of this song was conceived: as a little girl in Japan during World War II, when she had been evacuated to the countryside and food was scarce, she found mulberries in a field. The scenery of the mulberry field was so beautiful ("the field was spreading out, the sky was still blue, but the sun was going down on the other side of the mountain") and it almost looked like a "van Gogh painting". Yoko started picking up the mulberry fruits for her younger brother and sister and took them home. "So I did the 'Mulberry' song with John," Yoko said, "and then after that, Sean did it. And then after that, Thurston did it." And now, she said she would do it with Thurston Moore again. The mysterious special guest and Yoko's partner she was referring to a minute ago turned out to be Thurston Moore. Yoko said that the song "Mulberry" was so special after she performed with John, Sean, and now again, Thurston, that she would "stop here" and not perform the song with anyone any more. Thurston Moore came along running to the stage as cool as a blast. He picked up the guitar and started playing all these "noises," whereas Yoko kept saying "Mulberry, Mulberry ..." in the beginning of the song, and then, as you already know, she started uttering all these un-word "noises," with only Thurston's guitar accompaniment. Thurston's helluva gut-wrenching guitar sound was a perfect match made in heaven with Yoko's vocal, and it was like a duet. Thurston bent over his body and knelt down while playing the guitar and reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. The "noises" Yoko and Thurston made together echoed in the dark park and it lasted approximately eight minutes. My jaw dropped and I could not even say a word. Listening to "Mulberry", my feeling of shock I had was the same when I heard "Cambridge 1969" on "Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions" (1969) or "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)" and "John, John (Let's Hope for Peace)" on "The Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace in Toronto 1969" (1969) for the first time. It was as if I was witnessing a history. Damn, I will never forget it. After Yoko and Thurston finished playing, they hugged each other. Then, Yoko gave us the behind-the-scenes story of how this song came about. Yoko said all these noises in the "Mulberry" song are by-products of the noises Yoko heard as a girl when "they were bombing in Hiroshima and Tokyo was burning." The audience applauded Yoko like crazy.
Mind Train Thurston Moore stayed for the band to continue playing with Yoko. Then, the band started the familiar sound riffs: it was one of my favorite funky Yoko tunes, "Mind Train". "dub,
dub, dub, dub, The "dub, dub" lyric always makes me think that it is about the sounds of a heartbeat. "33 windows shining When Yoko finished singing, she mentioned that "'Mind Train' is something like musicians love. John loved it. Sean called me and said, 'you better do 'Mind Train''," and that all she has to do was just keep saying, "dub, dub ..." while the musicians played. We laughed. Yoko was quite funny.
War is over! If you want it Then, Yoko said, "we're gonna do something with you." Yoko started singing, "War is over! If you want it," and asked us to repeat the words as the way she sang it. We responded back to Yoko, "War is over! If you want it." This was like a "call and response" type of music, a very catchy tune sounding like a jingle. "War is over! If you want it War is over! If you want
it War is over
now! Yoko raised her arm and waved it while we were singing together. When I looked around, the audience imitated Yoko and raised their hands and kept singing. It was such a beautiful sight. I hoped that all the wars on the globe would stop immediately with our powerful singing. As soon as Yoko finished the song, she shouted, "I love you!" The audience screamed back to her saying the same thing, "I love you, too!" And then Yoko said, "I'm sure we are going to survive," and left the stage with the band members.
Encore After Yoko left the stage, the audience kept roaring and started chanting her name in chorus: "Yoko! Yoko! Yoko! ... " We definitely wanted more. Pretty soon, Yoko came back to the stage. Then Yoko announced that she
was going to play "Don't Worry, Kyoko" again. In addition to her voice
modulation, Yoko kept saying "don't worry" over and over. Listening to Yoko chanting, "don't worry," I could not help but think where does such strength in Yoko come from? Yoko's life was not always glamorous, and she had to go through all these ordeals you could not imagine - rejection, humiliation, deportation, exploitation, you name it. Nevertheless, here is a woman who still strongly says " don't worry " to us and "YES" to life, in spite of it all. When the song ended, Yoko greeted the crowd with a big smile and said, "don't worry," and then disappeared into the darkness.
Tapestry Thinking back about Yoko's gig, it was as if looking at a "life story" on a tapestry, so to speak. My interpretation about this gig is that the story started with showing savage elements of life that involve "death" ("Unknown titled song - Silent Tears -", "I'm Dying", and "I Want You To Remember Me"), then re-establishment of hope through desperation ("Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)" and "Rising"). After that, "winter" came along symbolizing that nothing can be changed ("Snow Falls Silent" and "Walking On Thin Ice"), but no matter how long "winter" seemed to be, "spring" - a change - would come ("Mulberry"). Then, in order to break through the walls, like "spring" comes after "winter" by all means, you simply have to move on by using a vehicle called "mind" ("Mind Train") so that any darkness will fade away ("War Is Over! If You Want It" and "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)"). I have seen Yoko's live shows several times but the "Pitchfork" show was definitely one of the best. Yoko's message through this show, I would say, was simply, as she said over and over again during her performance, "don't worry, we will survive together." All wars in history end. So the next step we can do is to create the world in which there will be no more war at all. Look, a world filled with only peace is coming, just around the corner! So, like Yoko said, instead of "worrying" and spending time with negative thoughts, let's IMAGINE PEACE.
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Unknown titled song - Silent Tears -
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