Yoko Ono in Five Songs - The Strange Brew

The upcoming book, Listen… The Musical Universe of Yoko Ono (coming in 2027) is an extension of Madeline Bocaro’s biography, In Your Mind – the Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono. The author will dive even deeper into Ono’s musical journey. Yoko’s life is an unfinished symphony. This will be the first complete assessment of Ono’s music – made with and without John Lennon. There will be interviews with many of the iconic musicians who have collaborated with Yoko over the years, and others who have been influenced by her work.

On the occasion of Ono’s 93rd birthday this year, here are the author’s favorite songs.

Remember Love (1969)

‘Remember Love’ is Yoko’s beautifully delicate Yoko’s acoustic song, on the B-side of ‘Give Peace a Chance.’ This was one of the first proper songs that she had ever written. It was recorded in the same hotel room on the same night as ‘Give Peace a Chance’ during John and Yoko’s second Bed-In for Peace in Montreal. John’s guitar melody is similar to that of The Beatles’ song ‘Sun King’ on Abbey Road.

Sean Lennon spoke to David Fricke about ‘Remember Love’ on Sirius XM radio during a birthday tribute to his mom in February 2021 on The Beatles Channel…

“There is a sweetness and hesitance in her voice, which vanishes very quickly when she starts making her own albums like POB or Fly. How intimidating it must be finding yourself in a world-famous couple celebrity relationship with a Beatle – having the bravery to jump head first into songwriting. For her, it must have been daunting… I feel like you can hear it in her voice. It’s an appropriate and natural hesitance. Her husband is arguably the most famous songwriter in the world. There’s something sweet and brave – and something remarkable in the context of how she’s going to develop.”

‘Listen, the Snow is Falling’ – B-side of ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ (1971)

Images of snow are present in many of Yoko’s delicate songs, having the same calming effect as a snowy day, slowing down our minds and blanketing the world in silent serenity. She asks us to listen to the sound of one hand clapping. A meditation. This song shimmers like sunlight upon snow.

Listen, the snow is falling all the time
Listen, the snow is falling everywhere

A wonderful description of the song: “If a bonsai tree covered in snow and a haiku had a baby, it would be this song.” The tape echo on her voice makes the B-side sound magical. NME stated that Yoko told pianist Nicky Hopkins to play the notes delicately. “Pretend that it’s snowing, and that snow is melting on your fingertips.” The electric piano is doctored to sound like a celeste. Sound effects (“Feet in the Snow” and “Strong Wind”) are layered upon each other. The lyrics encompass belief systems and concepts …Between your god and mine / between your head and my mind…

For her upcoming book about Yoko’s music, Bocaro asked iconic drummer Jim Keltner in 2025 what his favorite song is. His reply,

“One of my favorite songs of all time… remember I’ve played on so many songs by so many artists for so many years. This is pretty profound for me – my favorite song by anybody is Yoko’s ‘Listen, the Snow is Falling.’ We did a version of that with Nilsson that makes me cry. That’s her baby. It explains who she is. She’s not only an avant-garde imaginative, wonderful unique artist. She can write a song to touch you deeply. Her imagery is so beautiful – sky, wind… everything being art, everywhere. You hear a little song like that, and it’s magical.”

There are some wonderful cover versions (two by Stephen Emmer in 2016), and by Galaxie 500 in 1990. Harry Nilsson also made a great recording, released posthumously on his album Losst and Founnd in 2019.

‘Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)’ – single & album track from Fly 1972

This is an incredible rocking free-form desperate plea from a mother to her young daughter (who was kidnapped by Yoko’s ex-husband). Yoko mailed an acoustic demo to her daughter Kyoko, accompanied by a moving letter, explaining that she wrote the song to show Kyoko that she still loved her, during their months apart. Bocaro was the first to ask Kyoko about her impression of the song.

“‘Don’t Worry Kyoko’ came out when I was six. I remember receiving the single… It was a turbulent time. My mother and my father fought a lot. I was an anxious child. I was very honored that my mom wrote and sang a song for me… Even as a little kid, I knew it was a great song and that my mom was showing her love to me through the song. But the song did not assuage my anxiety.”

The studio version, (on the album Fly) was recorded in London, in October 1969 with Lennon on rhythm guitar / Eric Clapton on lead guitar and Ringo Starr on drums. It was first issued on the B-side of Lennon’s ‘Cold Turkey.’

The Fly version borrows the opening guitar riff to The Everly Brothers’ ‘Wake Up Little Susie,’ replicated by John, and repeated by himself and Eric Clapton throughout Yoko’s song. Bob Dylan used the riff on ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ in 1965. It’s also in Johnny Winter’s ‘I’m Yours and I’m Hers’ (which The Rolling Stones performed live at Hyde Park in 1969). You can hear it in a slower groove on Little Richard’s ‘Green Power’ (1971).

The fully recorded track is 9:09 – twice as long as the album version, which is edited to 4:55. A two-minute version of ‘DWK…’ was made during the Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album sessions in 1970, using a droning tape loop from George Harrison. John sings along with Yoko.

‘Don’t Worry Kyoko…’ is now highly acclaimed. There are cover versions by The B-52s, Tater Totz, Yo La Tengo and others.

Yoko and her daughter Kyoko eventually reunited in 1997 – seventeen years after John’s death.

Sisters O Sisters (1972)

The opening lyrics to Yoko’s feminist anthem speak of ecology; the loss of our green land and clean air.” The sing-along tune urges women to stand up, unite and use their wisdom to fight for freedom and a new world. (John: “It’s not about nuns!”). The song has a fast reggae beat. Lennon was an early adapter of reggae. Bassist Gary Van Syoc said in 2015,

“This was one of the hardest bass parts I ever had to play. Thankfully, I had been investigating reggae for about a year.”

‘Sisters O Sisters’ has a magnificent synth-string arrangement by Ron Frangipane (an accomplished producer who played keyboards on, and arranged the bubblegum hit song ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies. He also arranged the strings on ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ and on several tracks on Yoko’s 1973 album, Approximately Infinite Universe). The string arrangement is buried in the mix, which lends a magical quality, along with Yoko’s ethereal, youthful vocal. On the recently released Power to the People ultimate box set (2025), the revealed isolated strings are glorious!

Walking on Thin Ice – single, 1981

Yoko Ono released this chilling single just two months after John Lennon’s death) in1980. It was the last song that she and John were working on during the Double Fantasy sessions. John loved the song so much that he wanted to release it as a Yoko single, with a song of his own on the B-side. Yoko didn’t think it was a wise idea.

The night before he was murdered, John listened to the song all night long. He predicted that it would be Yoko’s first No. 1 hit. Yoko was shocked when John’s prediction came true in 2013, when a CD of ‘Walking on Thin Ice’ remixes became her eleventh No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart. She said in 1984,

“I wanted to push it a little further, experimentally. So I was thinking about Alban Berg, in one of his operas, you know, where a drunk is going ‘ahaahaahaa.’ sort of saying things in a way that the emphasis is all wrong, distorted.”

On the groundbreaking song, John Lennon and Earl Slick provide scathing guitar lines to this story about risk, repercussion, fragility, life and death. While recording, the beautiful Lake Michigan flashed across her mind. This sparked her idea for the chilling spoken part about a girl walking across the lake. Yoko is that girl, falling through the ice. She questions her own conscience in the lyric, I wonder if she knew about it. The song’s unsettling lyrics suddenly became a shocking and sad reality. John was carrying a tape of ‘Walking on Thin Ice’ when he was murdered. John did not stop playing the tape all day and into the night.

Yoko told Rolling Stone in October, 2010,

“… It was unlike him that he took so much time on it… When I woke up on Sunday morning, he was still playing it as he looked over the park. I knew the song was a good one. … Only recently, it occurred to me that maybe John was aware of the song in a different light.”

Yoko’s vocal inspired countless new artists in many genres, especially the B-52s. The most beautiful version of the song is a remixed vocal/string arrangement in a stunning video released on her birthday in February 2016, by ONO/Tenaglia (Maestro Version) from the ONO CD Yes, I’m a Witch Too.