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Yoko Ono has inspired many bands. This Broad tribute show proves it
Yoko Ono performs at Cafe OTO on March 22, 2014 in London, England.
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Dave J Hogan
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Getty Images
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Yoko Ono is having her first solo retrospective in Southern California, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, at The Broad in downtown Los Angeles.
As part of the survey of her career, a special tribute concert, Yoko Only, featuring artists inspired by Ono, including Yo La Tengo, Tune-Yards and other musicians spanning genres and generations is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8.
If you only know Yoko Ono because of that whole Beatles thing ...
The 93-year-old Ono has been a major avant-garde art figure since the 1960s. In one of her most famous works, long considered a cornerstone of feminist art, Ono sat on stage as audience members cut away pieces of her clothing.
Her experimentation spills over into music
In the late 1960s, Ono formed a band of sorts with John Lennon, originally as a conceptual art piece for a show. The Plastic Ono Band featured a rotating cast of members including some jaw-dropping names: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon.
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Plastic Ono Band
On Dec. 11, 1970, both Ono and Lennon released their respective debut solo albums — John Lennon/Plastic Ono Ban and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band.
Lennon's version — musically stripped down and lyrically raw — was lauded by critics at the time.
Ono's version — where vocal experimentation took center stage — was panned. Here's what music writer Marissa Lorusso said of the album for NPR in 2021.
"You hear Ono's voice wailing the song's title, Why, over and over — frenzied, intense and often nearly indistinguishable in tone from the guitar."
In the decades since its release, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band has found new appreciation, particularly among musicians the likes of Kim Gordon and Yuka Honda.
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'Yoko Only'
About the concert
Location: East West Bank Plaza at The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles
Date: Saturday, Aug. 8, 7:30 to 11 p.m.
- Purchase tickets
About the lineup
The music of Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band will be performed by:
- Yo La Tengo with Nels Cline and Yuka Honda
- Featured artists: Theo Bleckmann, Finom, Dave Harrington, Emi Helfrich, Satomi Matsuzaki (Deerhoof), Maggie Parkins, Patrick Shiroishi, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Sylvan Esso, Tune-Yards and Rufus Wainwright.
Honda, half of the 1990s New York duo Cibo Matto, is the tribute concert's guest curator.
"Everyone from Tune-Yards to Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof to Sylvan Esso, Yo La Tengo, Rufus Wainwright — they all cite Yoko as a major influence on them as artists," said Ed Patuto, The Broad's director of audience engagement, who reached out to ask Honda to participate.
"Her music and her lyrics oftentimes have that poeticism. Yuka has done arrangements that really do this work justice," Patuto continued. "We're gonna introduce Angelenos to Yoko the musical composer."
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