On January 2, 1969, more than 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins were seized by police at Newark Airport in New Jersey. The album was confiscated since the cover photograph featured full frontal nudity violated pornography laws. Their debut release was the first of three experimental albums the two worked on during an all-night recording session on May 19, 1968, at Lennon’s Kenwood home, which ended in his then-wife Cynthia came home from a vacation in Greece to find them both sitting wearing matching white robes.
“After Yoko and I met, I didn’t realize I was in love with her,” said Lennon. “I was still thinking it was an artistic collaboration, as it were—producer and artist, right? My ex-wife was away, and Yoko came to visit me. 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 made a tape all night.”
Lennon continued, “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.’”
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Brown Paper Bag
Released in November 1968, the album became known more for its cover than Lennon and Ono’s music. The image was photographed using a time-delay camera set up by Tony Bramwell at Ringo Starr’s apartment on Montagu Square in London, where Lennon lived with Yoko after leaving Cynthia.
The image shows the couple standing side by side nude with a back cover showing them turned around and looking over their shoulders. “We were both a bit embarrassed when we peeled off for the picture, so I took it myself with a delayed-action shutter,” recalled Lennon. “The picture was to prove that we are not a couple of demented freaks, that we are not deformed in any way, and that our minds are healthy. If we can make society accept these kind of things without offense, without sniggering, then we shall be achieving our purpose.”
To avoid any controversy, the label released the album in a paper sleeve resembling a brown paper bag with a circular cutout showing only the couple’s faces.
“It just seemed natural for us,” explained Lennon. “We’re all naked really.”
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins never charted in the UK, peaked at No. 124 in the U.S., and was followed by Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album in 1969.
Sissy Spacek: “John, You Went Too Far This Time”
For six months before its release, Lennon worked on convincing his Beatles bandmates to clear the release of the album. After its release, a then 19-year-old actress Sissy Spacek, under the pseudonym Rainbo, released a song in response to Two Virgins with her novelty song, “John, You Went Too Far This Time” and her mixed emotions over the revealing album cover.
Everything you asked of me, I did, John
From holding hands to living in a sunlight submarine
And you were something special when you said, John,
That you had more disciples than the man who was too green
Now I gaze in awe before that picture
My mind retires to the place it was before you came
I love the things you showed me up til now, John
But since that picture, I don’t think my love will be the same
The song wasn’t a success, and Rainbo’s singing career ended before it got started, which was a blessing in disguise for Spacek, who explored acting more, starring as an extra in Andy Warhol‘s 1970 film Trash before landing a bigger role in the thriller Prime Cut in ’72 and her 1976 breakout in Carrie.
Spacek returned to singing, recording the soundtrack for the 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter, which earned her an Academy Award for her role as Loretta Lynn, then released her debut album Hangin’ Up My Heart in 1983.
Photo: John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Bank St. home in the West Village. (Thomas Monaster/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
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