The band that made Yoko Ono realise “my time had come”
The image most of us have of Yoko Ono is an artistic visionary with searing confidence, bridging time, space, and sonic convention with her effervescent ability to stand her ground.
But the truth of the matter is this: who do we always think of standing alongside her, even years and decades after his death? John Lennon. For better or worse, her relationship status with the most prolific Beatle was undeniably what has made her a timeless cultural icon for the ages – of course, it’s not like she would ever want to shake that, but it does sometimes leave very little room for her true star command to shine.
However, this is not to say that she felt as though her relationship with Lennon ever held her back in life. Indeed, it was very much the opposite, which occurred in a moment struck with inspiration when both she and her musical maestro husband needed it most. Although many people would rather the portrait be painted in a contrary light, the reality was that the 1970s were beset with troubles for Lennon, and his career was on a shakier peg than most would care to admit.
But, as it turned out, his secret weapon had been staring him in the face all along, as it was Ono who was the ultimate key ingredient towards revitalising his career and helping it step back from the brink. Although it obviously transpired to be a tragic swan song marking the end of his life, Lennon’s final album Double Fantasy was the true reckoning of his revelation that he and Ono could be a true shared musical force, shifting the weight of him being the sole central star that it was more of a carried load.
Ono confirmed as much in later years, when she told Songfacts in an interview in 2013, shortly after she had turned 80 years old. For obvious reasons, the milestone occasion was the prime opportunity for her to look back on the scores of her life and take stock of the most pivotal moments, one of which came when she reflected on the band that propelled Lennon into making music again.
“Listening to The B-52’s, John said he realised that my time had come. So he could record an album by making me an equal partner and we won’t get flack like we used to up to then,” emphasising just how clearly that mixed male and female line-up had on both an introspective and stratospheric scale, as it encouraged the couple to have one last go as real equals in the musical landscape. What a final hurrah it would turn out to be.
Of course, the inspiration from The B-52’s was an aesthetic muse far more than it was a sonic one: you can hardly claim ‘Rock Lobster’ and something like ‘Beautiful Boy’ are sung from the same hymn sheet. But nevertheless, there’s no way to overstate how vital their influence still was, as without the model of a mixed gender musical success, it might never have made Lennon realise that the most important person in his life had been quietly waiting in the wings for his entire turbulent tenure, finding the moment to take to the stage.
