A message from Yoko Ono
NewsMessage received on social media:
Dear Paul, Happy 80th Birthday and many, many more! From a partner in Peace… love, yoko
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How lovely.
The rift between Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney which at one time seemed destined for the courts was surely healed when they appeared together at the first night of “Love”, the stunning Cirque du Soleil production set to Beatles music at The Mirage in Las Vegas. This was back in 2006. Allied to Cirque’s usual superb artistry, the surround digital sound remastered by Sir George Martin’s son, Giles, sounded amazingly fresh and alive. It’s perfectly appropriate that she should have congratulated Sir Paul on his birthday.
It was not a particularly exciting collection of circus acts compared to several other CduS productions many of which I have seen in 1990s and 2000s, but it certainly looked lovely as usual and it was indeed a pure pleasure to hear all those great songs they used in the show, most of them very skillfully remastered and beautifully amplified by the sound equipment of such truly high quality – quite possibly the finest available around that time a couple of decades ago.
Yoko One is a lovely and caring human being.
In my years at PolyGram Records (1980s), she signed the first contract after John’s death to release his last recordings (“Double Fantasy”).
On the day she came to the offices to sign the contract, she wanted to meet everybody. All the workers. She went from the executive floors down to the lower floors and personally went to every desk and shook the hand of every worker – accountants working on preparing royalty statements, the staff of the art department, etc. She chatted with them and personally thanked everyone for their work.
I had an ongoing relationship with Yoko, as I needed her permission for use of John’s recordings.
Once, New York State was preparing a short film to be shown in high schools about AIDS education. They wanted all the popular artists of the day to appeal to the planned audiences.
One of our biggest rock bands – named after the lead singer – refused to participate in an AIDS project. He didn’t want to be associated.
Yoko gave permission – for free – and asked what else she could do. She made a huge contribution to Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
It was always a joy to speak to her – she was very “hands on” as far as the control of John’s music.
She also made some albums for us, and – best of all – there was a 50th birthday tribute album to honour her contributions as a songwriter. Many rock/pop artists “covered” Yoko’s songs – the ones everybody is afraid to listen to – which made one realise what a gifted songwriter she is. The artists included John, Sean Lennon, Roberta Flack, Harry Nilsson, Rosanne Cash, and – rather memorably – Elvis Costello covered “Walking on Thin Ice”. For those who cannot appreciate Yoko’s vocals, please seek-out this album (“Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him”) to discover her songs. Sadly the album was not released on CD, or if it was it was never reissued. Many of the recordings can be found online.