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Scene report: Yoko Ono interview
At an age where it’s more common to be contemplating hip replacement surgery, Yoko Ono has had six No. 1 dance singles on the Billboard charts. Yet another noteworthy chapter in a fairly epic life. As Ann Magnuson said, “She’s a living haiku.”
KUT jock Jody Denberg interviewed Ono before several hundred people Friday morning, following a short film highlighting her confrontational and frequently very funny art and of course her life with John Lennon. After joking that Ono may be the only person Willie Nelson hasn’t dueted with, Denberg spent roughly an hour talking about music, art, activism and, of course, the possibility of parts of Ono’s home country are threatening to melt into the Pacific following the recent earthquake and tsunami. She said most of her loved ones weren’t immediately affected but:
“I think the fact that we don’t have enough love and concern for the planet is doing something,” Ono said.
Denberg noted that Lennon’s guitar work with the Plastic Ono Band and other projects the two collaborated on was much freer than his sound in the Beatles.
“I think he was competing with my voice,” Ono half-joked.
The two surveyed a life in art that included “yes” painted on a ceiling, a “this is not here” sign and a cinematic meditation of the human behind.
Mid-discussion, Ono wondered if she was losing the crowd dwelling on the avant-garde: “I’m sorry, is this boring?”
“Three hundred and sixty-five butt cheeks isn’t going to bore anybody,” Denberg replied, or cracked.
There was time to plug her tweets, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, her work with son Sean and her SXSW showcase Saturday night but, alas, no time for audience questions. Nonetheless, wearing a white hat, black suit and sunglasses, the woman that so many people wrongly blamed for breaking up the Beatles was utterly charming. If this woman can’t get the world to give peace a chance, we’re doomed.”
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