Yoko Ono developed quite a divisive reputation throughout the late 1960s and beyond, but one rock icon always had a soft spot for the shrieky singer.
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Blame it on people’s intense admiration for The Beatles, general misogyny, an artist sharing her art with the world before the world is ready, or a complex blend of all three. But Ono became the scapegoat for many people’s unhappiness about the fate of the Fab Four, often blaming her for the band’s dissolution. Even after the band itself refuted these claims, people still held on to the theory.
One rock ‘n’ roller wasn’t interested in the tabloid fodder that the press often turned Ono into. He viewed her as a true musical revolutionary in the 1960s, and decades later, rock ‘n’ roll’s evolution would prove him (and Ono) right.
The Rock Icon Who Loved Yoko Ono and What She Stood for Musically
Yoko Ono was one of many musical stars who were a part of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. The concert film featured footage of performances that took place on December 11 and 12, 1968. In addition to the Rolling Stones, the concert featured such chart-topping acts as Eric Clapton, The Who, Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithfull, John Lennon, and, of course, his then-fiancée, Ono. The latter two musicians formed a one-shot supergroup called The Dirty Mac, which also included Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Mitch Mitchell on drums.
Ono’s contributions to the Rock and Roll Circus were admittedly strange. The Dirty Mac only performed two songs on the film, one of which was Lennon’s “Yer Blues”. During that number, Ono wrapped herself in a stretchy piece of black fabric and sat on the ground for the duration of the song. The second song The Dirty Mac performed, “Whole Lotta Yoko”, sounds exactly like the title would suggest. Featuring Ivry Gitlis on violin, the bluesy rock jam included plenty of shrieks, wails, and cries from Ono—the very sound that garnered her such a divisive reputation in the first place, besides her proximity to The Beatles.
It might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but Pete Townshend certainly liked it. “There really is an irony,” he later said. “What do we have today? We don’t have Yoko. But we have The Darkness, which is roughly the same thing, really, except Yoko has a brain. The Darkness has Spandex trousers and an incredible arch and an astute sense of show business marketing.”
Townshend praised The Dirty Mac’s performance, including Ono’s “wailing.” “It was just great,” The Who guitarist said. “Only she could get away with it.”
Even the Caterwauling Singer Knew She Was Ahead of Her Time
Regardless of whether anyone knew it at the time, Pete Townshend was ahead of the curve when it came to his appreciation for Yoko Ono. The rock icon knew that the singer, no matter how shrill or abrasive, was onto something. And besides, didn’t every new iteration of rock ‘n’ roll receive blowback from the purists locked into their old ways? In the decades that followed her time with John Lennon, Ono started to develop a new reputation. One that painted her as a pioneer for the avant-garde, passionate, and brash. Countless artists living in the fringe areas of their respective genres have cited her as a major influence.
“I sometimes think, ‘Why did it take so long?’” Ono admitted to the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “But I wasn’t really trying to make people understand it then. I suppose I was being an elitist about it. But now that people are appreciating it, it makes me very happy.”
Photo by Bettman/Getty Images
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