Woman: The Incredible Life of Yoko Ono

by Alan Clayson, Barb Jungr, Robb Johnson

"This riveting exposé of Yoko Ono covers her early life growing up as the eldest daughter of a wealthy Japanese family and her personal experience as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the World War II. Detailed are her move to New York for schooling during the 1950s, her first marriage to a composer, and her early days as an experimental artist in London during the early 1960s. New light is shed on her initial meeting with John Lennon and their 13-year relationship, and the rebuilding of her life after his tragic murder. Her life as artist, musician, businesswoman, and mother are explored from her youth to the present."

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Art

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Alan Clayson (Dover, England, 1951) is of a late 1970s vintage of composer-entertainers that also embraces the likes of Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson, Elvis Costello and John Otway. While he is still making regular concert appearances, he has become better known as an author of around thirty books - mostly musical biography. These include the best-sellers "Backbeat" (subject of a major film), The Yardbirds and The Beatles book box.

He has written for journals as diverse as The Guardian, Record Collector, Ink, Mojo, Mediaeval World, Folk Roots, Guitar, Hello!, Drummer, The Times, The Independent, Ugly Things and, as a 'teenager, the notorious Schoolkids 0z. He has also been engaged to perform and lecture on both sides of the Atlantic - as well as broadcast on national TV and radio.

From 1975 to 1985, he led the legendary Clayson and the Argonauts - who reformed in 2005, ostensibly to launch Sunset On A Legend, a long-awaited double-CD retrospective - and was thrust to 'a premier position on rock's Lunatic Fringe' (Melody Maker).

As shown by the existence of a US fan club - dating from an 1992 soiree in Chicago - Alan Clayson's following grows still as well as demand for his talents as a record producer, and the number of versions of his compositions by such diverse acts as Dave Berry (in whose backing group, he played keyboards in the mid-1980s), New Age Outfit, Stairway - and Joy Tobing, winner of the Indonesian version of Pop Idol. He has worked too with The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Twinkle, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Mark Astronaut and the late Screaming Lord Sutch among many others. While his stage act defies succinct description, he has been labelled a 'chansonnier' in recent years for performances and record releases that may stand collectively as Alan Clayson's artistic apotheosis were it not for a promise of surprises yet to come.

Reviews

[Juls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yoko Ono is more than John Lennon's wife and this book tells her life in intimate detail. She's an incredible artist, a completely original mind, I only wish more people knew that. Recommended read, it really sparks your creativity!

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the book hoping it would make me not hate her. It did not succeed.

[Novall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Title here should read: Diligent dimwit and diabolical debutant debuts heroin-infused debacle into infamy and misfortune.

Reading this morass became the second inquisition - discarded the tome midstream rather than becoming engulfed by this fabricated farce.

A rather biased and misleading interwoven account of an unethical, opportunistic gold digger.

Simply stated: the book is sanitized propaganda to clean the incredibly sorrow life of a maladjusted, one-dimensional, borderline sociopath (a.k.a. Avantgarde artist) and long-time Heroin addict.

Example: Yoko did not break up the Beatles, however, she broke up a marriage. No person with healthy ethics, managed morals, and a sense of self worth would separate a married man from his wife and son!

Example: John's Aunt Mimi on Yoko -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayoMG...

In an attempt to disguise the problematic lack of character in the subject person, the narrative here only serves to emphasizes the obvious fact that the creativity within pop-rock music in the 1970s would have been more emotive were Yoko to have remained married to one of her previous husbands.

Then again, who can blame her first two husbands for any divorce details against Lady Yoko McBeth?

By comparison, there are accurate citations and credible biographical material on Yoko's person and character and her mismanaged life provided by the various insightful references found in The Beatles and the Historians: An Analysis of Writings about the Fab Four.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Woof, this was not good. The Rob Johnson section was interesting and had some great points about Ono, Lennon and the political scenes that they had been a part of and Barb Jungr, a singer herself, had great points to make about western music and non-western vocal praxis. But Alan Clayson? He doesn't even seem to care much for Ono's work, begging the question, Why would you write a book about someone who you clearly had so little interest or respect in? His tone is loathing and cynical, his sentences and syntax convoluted, his use of adjectives pointed and demeaning. Yuck.

[Chhanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is the woman. May be she is not woman, she is the Human being, we dreamt to be. A complete human with full of art sense, aesthetic mind, music, poetry, philosophy everything. It seems to me that she shaped John Lennon to be John Lennon. Without her he would be a popular pop singer but not the activist singer for what he is mostly adored. Even Imagine is influenced by Yoko Ono's Grapefruit writings. I loved reading the book, to know Yoko, to know her conceptual arts, music, plastic ono band, his philosophy and her thinking. She is a complete person, a woman I always wanted to be.

[Bill Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a BIG fan of Yoko sine I first heard her and became acquainted with her feminism and incredible internal strength, in 1973. While this book tells me much I already knew, there is lots of stuff I didn't know. And it isn't overly critical OR pandering to her. EXCELLENT book!

[Grace Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book about Yoko Ono’s life. She seems like a largely misunderstood person.

[Bria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yoko was a wild woman. I’ll leave it at that

[Erin Tuzuner · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rendering of such an interesting subject could have been due to the multiple authors, but as such, was sloppy and a bit condescending. Yoko Ono deserves better.