Remember Love: The Yoko Ono Appreciation Thread | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Great idea Expert Textpert, now I finally get a chance to prove that I’m no “Yoko Hater”.  While you most certainly have a deeper appreciation for her art than I do, I have the utmost respect for her as a woman.  I’m most convinced that if it weren’t for Yoko Ono coming along when she did, John wouldn’t have made it to 30, let alone 40 years old.  John was at a “sink or swim” junction during his journey across that stormy sea of drugs and it was Yoko’s taking hold of the ship’s wheel that prevented him from being “lost at sea” (“Yes I’m Lonely, Wanna Die”).  It’s not that Yoko even gave him anything to live for but showed him the pathway that he’d long lost sight of, a “pathway” that was first introduced to John by his best friend Stuart Sutcliffe in which he could channel all of the pain he’d experienced in life into his art.  Life with The Beatles had strayed John far from this path, and although this “unfulfilling” life inspired him to new creative heights, it was killing him inside and he wouldn’t have lasted much longer than Brian Jones had he kept up the “beneath this mask I am wearing a frown” act.

Yoko Ono helped strip away the façade that was “Beatle John”, and unfortunately that didn’t sit very well for the masses who worshipped “Beatle John”, but it was a necessary undertaking for him to stay alive through to the 70’s.  I find it rather selfish of us Beatle Fans to point out to the “Lost Weekend” with May Pang as some sort of point in history where “John was finding himself”, I know it was lovely to see the picture of him and Paul sitting poolside in Malibu for those of us who’d long dreamed of a Beatle reunion, but it’s only a f**king picture!  He was “lost” without Yoko and even Sir Paul McCartney realised it, he was regressing onto that same pathway of self-destruction almost instantly without Yoko Ono.  John had given us more than enough of his soul and Beatle Fans just wanted more, more, more.  Okay, Beatlemania is a very real occurrence so it’s somewhat understandable, but it just had to end and we should be thanking Yoko for her “intervention” and not vilifying her for it.

I even credit Yoko Ono for preserving the Beatles’ “Myth” and not allowing them to reduce their legacy to that of The Rolling Stones by continuing on long after they shoulda called it a night.  I’ll try and remember Yoko’s “eulogy” as best I can for I haven’t read it in awhile and don’t even remember where I read it (Nicholas Schaffner’s ‘Beatles Forever’ maybe?) but it always stuck with me and went something like this:

The Story of The Beatles is much like the Story of The Golden Temple

One day the builder of this Magnificent Temple stared hard at its Beauty

He began to wonder what it would look like many years from now

As he pondered the prospect he began to worry much

He then proceeded to burn down his Glorious Temple for he couldn’t stand the thought of it deteriorating with age

And that’s why The Beatles will always remain a Beautiful Myth

Because they ended before they deteriorated

I think that she’s bang on here, I know we all like to make our imaginary compilation albums when mixing all the best Solo Beatles’ tunes into different albums that they may have released had they kept on going, but do any of us compile their worst post-Beatles recordings onto one album?  If we were to do this, it’d make The Rolling Stones’ ‘Black and Blue’ or ‘Dirty Work’ albums seem like ‘Abbey Road ‘.  While Yoko’s “burning down the temple” was most unpleasant to watch and listen to, it absolutely had to happen and we should thank our lucky stars for Yoko Ono to help John set the fire…:-) 

Expert Textpert said 
I’m always impressed by the people Yoko manages to work with.  It shows that she is still a relevant counter-culture figure, perhaps in a way that Paul McCartney is not (I think Paul is still relevant to mainstream rock and pop culture, but not the counter-culture).
 

Most definitely, Yoko’s had numerous number ones on the Dance Charts, several of her songs are staples in the underground club scene, especially throughout Europe.  Paul & Yoko would be at complete opposite ends of the spectrum here.  I’d have to say that Paul’s shown some potential recently with the ‘Appreciate’ track from ‘NEW’ but he’s got a long way to go if he hopes to seriously compete with Yoko on the dance floor.  It’s much like with Hamburg’s “counter-culture” that Paul was a little more on the outside looking in on while John & Stuart would indulge.  Yoko has influenced a significant part of this “counter-culture” on many levels, not much different than the way Paul has influenced a generation or two of “pop-culture”….:-)