John Lennon’s first of three experimental albums made with Yoko Ono, Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins featured a controversial nude photograph on its front cover.
I don’t think I actually heard all of Two Virgins; just bits of it. I wasn’t particularly into that kind of thing. That was his and her affair; their trip. They got involved with each other and were obviously into each other to such a degree that they thought everything they said or did was of world importance, and so they made it into records and films.
The album was recorded in an all-night session at Kenwood, Lennon’s home in Weybridge, Surrey. Lennon invited Ono over on 3 May 1968, the date which marked the beginning of their relationship.
Although married to Cynthia Lennon, he had become intrigued by the Japanese artist whom he had first met on 7 November 1966. The pair were in regular contact between those dates, and Lennon’s invitation to Ono came while Cynthia was on a two-week holiday in Greece.
Two Virgins, as it later became known, was a spontaneous recording made in Lennon’s music room, which was situated in the attic of Kenwood. The recordings included vocal improvisations, birdsong, amplifier feedback, distorted instruments and other sound effects.
The tapes also contained renditions of nursery rhymes, music hall songs and novelty piano tunes. An outtake from the recordings, unofficially known as ‘Holding A Note’, has also been issued on bootleg releases.
When we got back from India, we were talking to each other on the phone. I called her over, it was the middle of the night and Cyn was away, and I thought, ‘Well, now’s the time if I’m going to get to know her any more.’ She came to the house and I didn’t know what to do; so we went upstairs to my studio and I played her all the tapes that I’d made, all this far-out stuff, some comedy stuff, and some electronic music. There were very few people I could play those tapes to. She was suitably impressed, and then she said, ‘Well, let’s make one ourselves,’ so we made Two Virgins. It was midnight when we finished, and then we made love at dawn. It was very beautiful.
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner
Two 78rpm discs were also incorporated into the recordings. The first was ‘Together’, written by George Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, was released in 1928 by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, and featured Bix Beiderbecke on cornet.
The second was ‘I’d Love To Fall Asleep And Wake Up In My Mammy’s Arms’, the b-side of Fred Douglas’s 1921 single ‘Margie’. The music was written by Fred E Ahlert, and the words by Sam M Lewis and Joe Young. The snippet used on Two Virgins was retitled ‘Hushabye Hushabye’, a phrase from the song.
Lennon’s childhood friend Pete Shotton, who had been at Kenwood when Ono arrived, later claimed that he had made several of the tape loops with Lennon. The recordings were made on two-track tape using a Brennel machine.
Even before we made this record, I envisioned producing an album of hers and I could see this album cover of her being naked because her work was so pure. I couldn’t think of any other way of presenting her. It wasn’t a sensational idea or anything.After Yoko and I met, I didn’t realise I was in love with her. I was still thinking it was an artistic collaboration, as it were – producer and artist, right? We’d known each other for a couple of years. My ex-wife was away in Italy, and Yoko came to visit me and we took some acid. I was always shy with her, and she was shy, so instead of making love, we went upstairs and made tapes. I had this room full of different tapes where I would write and make strange loops and things like that for the Beatles’ stuff. So we make a tape all night. She was doing her funny voices and I was pushing all different buttons on my tape recorder and getting sound effects. And then as the sun rose we made love and that was Two Virgins. That was the first time.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
hard to belive such a fuss was made over john and yoko’s 2 virgin’s album! some of john’d best work were his solo albums
The cover! it was a LP, I have it, vinyl from 68, the cover is great! a fantastic statement from John Lennon. Mind you, he had the world in the palm of his hand at the time, but decided to break down his moptop image and go public with “two virgins”! a brave statement. The music? didn’t he said that “avant garde” was french for bullshit? he didn’t give a flying monkey about this collage! but it was the blueprint for the great “revolution #9”
“Hushabye Hushabye” is in fact “I’d Love To Fall Asleep And Wake Up In My Mammy’s Arms”, written by Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young (words) and Fred E. Ahlert (music) in 1920 and performed by Fred Douglas in 1921.
This is the first time I’ve seen the correct composers credited for this track anywhere! All of the discographies I’ve seen (if they list “Hushabye Hushabye” at all) credit it to Ono/Lennon). So thank you for setting the record straight!
Hello Tony…don’t know if you’ve had any previous contact with this website or Joe, the proprietor, but either way I’m sure he’s thrilled to see you visiting (as are we all!)
John remarked that the outrage vis-à-vis the controversial album cover was not related to the uncensored nudity, but the fact that he and Yoko were unattractive in the nude.
I have thought that the title “Two Virgins” was somewhat misleading, given that they were already married to other spouses and had a child each at the time that they recorded it. I’ve listened to it on YouTube and the sounds consist of piano, birdsong, tape loops, organ, mellotron, dialogue between John and Yoko, screaming from John and Yoko, John dropping the f-bomb (clearly his favourite swear word, as he used it a lot during his lifetime), 78rpm shellac records and random sound effects.
TBH, I’m not surprised that the album didn’t sell, given its uncommercial and highly experimental content
It’s still better than an album iv got by Wishbone Ash
Unlike Rolling Stone mag’s overly effusive review, I didn’t like the album itself as found it too self indulgent. Nevertheless, I have the brown paper bag pull off version of it. I found unfinished music with the baby’s heart beat as more of an artistic creation and thought the wedding album was the height of self centered self indulgence. I bought all of these albums upon their release, however, as had begun my Beatles collecting in earnest then. For more experimental Lennon related work, I far preferred Yoko’s late seventies singles, possibly called outtakes and her work on double fantasy.
I haven’t listened to it but once or twice but made my older sis drive across town to only store that carried it in my area and buy it for me. I have the vinyl with pull off brown sleeve.
The nudity was not the only taboo flouted by the cover. This was not just a nude couple–this was a nude mixed-race couple. In 1968, inter-racial relationships were not as accepted as they are today; in the U.S., inter-racial marriages had still been illegal in several states as recently as 1967 (when the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia overturned the last state laws banning “race-mixing”)–only one year before this album was released.
Also, World War 2 was a fairly recent memory, and there was still a lot of resentment toward the Japanese in America and Britain. In “Skywriting by Word of Mouth,” Lennon describes some of the hate-mail he received: “Didn’t I remember Pearl Harbor? Hadn’t I seen “Bridge on the River Kwai?'” I knew people who had lived through WW2–soldiers and civilians–who never got over their hatred for the Japanese. (“Two bombs weren’t enough!”) I have a Paul McCartney fan magazine from 1976 (NOT authorized by him) in which an author casually quotes people referring to Yoko as “that lousy g**k”) and “that J*p c**t.” [Not censored in the original.] The author didn’t seem to disagree with the sentiments.
I wonder how much John & Yoko, as one of the world’s most visible inter-racial couples, helped the public get over that taboo.