Yoko Ono and Her Influence on John Lennon
The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of Yoko Ono’s influence on the Beatles and particularly on John Lennon. Yoko and John met each other at Yoko’s exhibition of visual art in 1966, and not coincidentally, the band’s life has essentially changed. The Beatles stopped their public concerts and deepened into the studio work with more “anfractuous” music. Lennon as the non-formal leader of the group was the main initiator of these changes.
First, it is worth noting, that John was in continuous state of exploration and interested in something new that was over and above. Yoko is an avant-garde artist with very original ideas. They found each other not only as a man and woman, but as artists who think and see the art similarly. Before Yoko’s appearance, there was a quartet with George Martin, and her entry to their studio started the confrontation between John with Yoko and the others.
Since then, John began his experiments with music with his new capacity. Beginning from “Revolver” and “The Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and further, in so called “White album”, he appeared to be a protean musician. Especially he showed it in his avant-garde song “Revolution 9”. In 1968, John and Yoko released a scandal and very avant-garde album without any real music “Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins”. In 1969, they spent their honeymoon promoting peace by giving interviews staying in bed in Amsterdam and Montreal hotels, which was called “bed-in”. All these events could not appear without Yoko’s ideas.
Yoko separated John from the group, and as a self-sufficient artist he began his new career without Beatles. He started his experiments not only with music but also with drugs.
Yoko had a great influence on John as well as on the Beatles’ history. Anyhow, that was not one-sided bad and destructive influence. Everything was destined to happen, with or without Yoko, she was just an accelerator.