Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions
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| Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions |
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| Studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono | ||
| Released | 9 May 1969 | |
| Recorded | November 1968 and 2 March 1969 |
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| Genre | Avant-garde | |
| Length | 50:56 | |
| Label | Zapple Records | |
| Producer(s) | John Lennon and Yoko Ono | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| John Lennon and Yoko Ono chronology | ||
| Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins (1968) |
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions (1969) |
Wedding Album (1969) |
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions is an experimental album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 and the successor to 1968's highly controversial Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins. The title parodies the BBC radio drama Life with the Lyons, which had been a favourite of Lennon's.
The album features an extended and improvised recording entitled "Cambridge 1969", recorded on 2 March at Cambridge University, before a live audience. The piece consists of Yoko Ono's vocalizations accompanied by imaginative guitar feedback from John Lennon. Saxophonist John Tchicai and percussionist John Stevens join John and Yoko towards the end of the piece. The remainder of the album was recorded on a cassette tape in their suite at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London during November 1968, where Yoko Ono would suffer the couple's first of three miscarriages. "No Bed For Beatle John" consists of John and Yoko setting press clippings about themselves to music in an acapella chant style. "Baby's Heartbeat" is in fact a crude recording of the ill-fated child's actual palpitations. This is followed "Two Minutes Silence" which is exactly what its title implies, not necessarily a nod to composer John Cage's 4'33", but an aural picture of the actual miscarriage. The album closes with "Radio Play" which is nearly 13-minutes worth of radio static along with brief moments of John Lennon making phone calls in the background. Incidentally, The Beatles song "Ob-La Di, Ob-La-Da" comes through amidst the static on the radio during this recording.
The album's front cover photo was taken while Ono was bedridden at Queen Charlotte's with Lennon by her side, while the back cover was a news photo of Lennon and Ono leaving Marylebone Police Station, after their arrest for hashish possession on 18 October 1968. (The back also carried a 'quote' from Beatles producer George Martin: "No comment.")
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions failed to chart in the UK, but managed a #174 peak in the US; Lennon told the media later they'd sold about 60,000 copies in the States. (He and Ono were disappointed that Apple Records in the UK hadn't given any promotion to the album, or included it in any advertising.)
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions was initially released on the Apple Records subsidiary label, Zapple Records, but was reissued through Rykodisc in 1997 with two previously unreleased bonus tracks, "Song For John" and "Mulberry". These two tracks stem from the Queen Charlotte Hospital recordings - the source for the second half of the LP.
Given the small issue it is unclear, outside of collectors, how many original albums (US and Japanese (cover and disc)) are still extant.
[edit] Track listing
All pieces by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
- "Cambridge 1969" – 26:29
- "No Bed For Beatle John" – 4:41
- "Baby's Heartbeat" – 5:10
- "Two Minutes Silence" – 2:00
- "Radio Play" – 12:35
- "Song For John" - 1:29 (CD Bonus Track)
- "Mulberry" - 8:47 (CD Bonus Track)
| Yoko Ono |
|---|
| Studio albums |
| Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band | Fly Approximately Infinite Universe | Feeling the Space | A Story Season of Glass | It's Alright (I See Rainbows) | Starpeace Rising | Blueprint for a Sunrise |
| With John Lennon |
| Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins | Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions Wedding Album | Live Peace in Toronto 1969 | Some Time in New York City Double Fantasy | Milk and Honey |
| Compilations |
| Walking on Thin Ice | Onobox |
| Other Albums |
| New York Rock | Every Man Has a Woman | Yes, I'm a Witch | Open Your Box |
[edit] Personnel
- Yoko Ono - Vocals.
- John Lennon - Vocals, Guitar, Feedback, Radio
- John Tchicai - Saxophone (Track 1 Only)
- John Stevens - Percussion (Track 1 Only)
- Mal Evans - watch (Track 1 Only).
- John Ono Lennon II - Heartbeat (Track 3 Only).
[edit] External links
- "No Bed For Beatle John" and "Radio Play" at Ubuweb
