John Lennon and Yoko Ono may be the most famous married couple in the history of rock and roll—even, perhaps, of American music. The two met in 1966 at a London art gallery and they were married in 1969. Many blamed Ono’s presence for the breakup of The Beatles, but as many saw in the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021), that just wasn’t the case.
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During the course of their relationship, prior to Lennon’s murder in 1980, they collaborated on a number of art pieces, demonstrations, protests, and songwriting. Below, we dive into three songs that the two wrote together.
[RELATED: Remember When: John Lennon and Yoko Ono Stage Bed-ins for Peace]
1. “Oh My Love,” John Lennon
Written by John Lennon, Yoko Ono
This song was released in 1971 on Lennon’s famous solo LP, Imagine. Lennon had originally toyed with the song and some different lyrics as his former Fab Four band was working on the 1968 LP, The White Album. “Oh My Love” was also the final song Lennon added to Imagine. The piano and acoustic-driven song is sweet, somber, and reflective. The track, which also includes guitar work from former Beatle George Harrison, is about a new sense of clarity Lennon feels, perhaps thanks largely to his relationship with Ono. On the song, he sings:
Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes are wide open
Oh my lover for the first time in my life
My eyes can see
I see the wind
Oh, I see the trees
Everything is clear in my heart
I see the clouds
Oh, I see the sky
Everything is clear in our world
2. “Cambridge 1969,” John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Written by John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Released on the experimental 1969 album, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, by Lennon and Ono, this song includes a strange primal scream from Ono over some distorted guitar. It transitions into several odd movements, almost like an audible avant-garde one-woman play. The track, which is the entire first side of the LP, also lasts for some 26 minutes. The year prior, the couple released the first volume of this kind of experimental work, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (the album cover for which showed the two completely naked). But here on this long song, the music is like a psychotic break, caveman screams combined with electric feedback.
3. “No Bed for Beatle John,” John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Written by John Lennon, Yoko Ono
A much shorter track than the one above, “No Bed for Beatle John” was also on the 1969 LP, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. On the song, Ono sings in falsetto about Lennon, taking the “lyrics” from press clippings about their relationship. Of the music, the former Beatle said upon its release, the tracks are “saying whatever you want it to say. It is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know, however he feels like then. What we’re saying is make your own music. This is Unfinished Music.” This song, along with all of side two of the LP, was recorded in a hospital after Ono’s miscarriage—tabloid rumors said Lennon didn’t have his own bed. On the song, she sings:
No bed for Beatle John!
Beatle John Lennon lost his hospital bed yesterday to a patient
It happened at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London
Where John was keeping vigil in the room
Where his girlfriend, Yoko Ono
Is being kept under observation
When he realized his bed was needed for an urgent case
John sent out for a sleeping bag
And last night
He was once more happily kicked out alongside Yoko
In the sleeping bag
Photo by John Rodgers/Redferns
