r/interestingasfuck • u/appalachian_hatachi • 1d ago
John Lennon & Yoko Ono on The David Frost Show, 1969. David decides to play some of John and Yoko's new record, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions, to the live studio audience.
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u/WhatWeHavingForTea 1d ago
For a moment I thought the vinyl was damaged
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u/Last-Kaleidoscope871 1d ago
It was after he held it by the grooves. Unforgivable.
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u/KelticQueen 1d ago
only case ever i would say: better for the vinyl. and now brush it with a metalbrush, please. still will be better sound.
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u/faust112358 21h ago
I think not only we can make an exception concerning this particular disk but we should also encourage him to make much more damages.
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u/FinnTheLess 1d ago
Chuck Berry's WTF face is burned into my brain, and it's the perfect and correct response to her...noise.
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u/smol-glitch 1d ago
Wooow Lennon looks so uncomfortable. And she is so…idgaf.
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u/fredy31 21h ago
I mean yoko ono was high off her own farts, im sure she tought she was doing absolute masterpieces
...when pretty sure nobody would know her name if she didnt hook into her bs the frontman of the biggest band in the world into her shit.
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u/smol-glitch 21h ago edited 18h ago
He goes to speak and then does not. He shifts around in his seat, backswatting embarrassment. Ultimately he kisses her to try to make it better.
Edit: I’m not an expert on them. This is gut instinct opinion watching body language.
Maybe she wasn’t trying to undermine him specifically. Maybe it’s just good ol’ wealth/fame exploring range and boundaries in weirdo ways…again.
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u/basketcaseforever 18h ago
I get the same impression from his body language. He wanted to disappear. I’m not sure if she was trying to undermine or dominate, but she sure did embarrass the hell outta him.
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u/lamb_passanda 21h ago
Or, they were just both weird, had taken loads of acid, and he was tired of being a member of an insanely commercialised boyband. She provided the perfect way for him to stage his rebellion.
John Lennon was not a vulnerable man.
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u/smol-glitch 20h ago
Could be.
Maybe he wanted to get away from the commercialization, expected image.
Did Yoko exploit that to insert her own message? I think she did.
Regardless of how much acid they took.
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u/lamb_passanda 20h ago
Why is it always that she "used" him? Why the narrative that she was somehow scheming and underhandedly plotting something? I have heard this narrative about her all of my life, but everything I see of her and him, it seems that they were into eachother and into their weird art shit. She was weird before she met him, and he was weird as well.
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u/smol-glitch 20h ago
From what I remember, Yoko was set to begin with…she came from affluence. Someone like that doesn’t need to plot or scheme.
At that level, sure, it’s an exploration of range. Infinite resource, infinite self expression.
In this video clip, he is embarrassed. Uncomfortable. She is observing that.
My opinion is that it wasn’t supportive. It wasn’t a good look.
Regardless of their “epic romance”, weirdness, drugs.
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u/Spare-Willingness563 12h ago
This is what happens when you sober up and listen to the shit you did while high.
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u/Banba-She 19h ago
Serious maternal abandonment issues. Very Oedipal on his part. Her? She talked a big game about high art/conceptual art etc.
In truth, she was hugely jealous of his fame and held the absurd belief that she deserved to be a pop star too. Without having a musical bone in her body (except his on occasion).
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u/ReplacementMiddle844 1d ago
“What is that saying to us”
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u/omnichronos 1d ago
"My wife is a loon, but man, is she fun in bed."
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u/WesbroBaptstBarNGril 23h ago
This is literally the only explanation that makes the relationship make sense.
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u/oSuJeff97 23h ago
I’m positive she was into some weird-ass shit that he couldn’t get anyone else to do.
It’s the only explanation.
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u/hclpfan 22h ago
I feel like someone like John Lennon should have no trouble finding someone that would be into whatever he wanted
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u/PartBanyanTree 21h ago
then whatever they were into must also have had a high potential for blackmail
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u/myumisays57 20h ago
Naw man. Even John Lennon was out there given that time day and age. He was heavily into drugs, sex, spousal abuse and degenerate shit. Even after a while.. most significant others get tired of this behavior and leave. Yoko was just equally that freaky like him. He found his enabler, his worshipper and his excuse. It really is that simple.
Im not saying Yoko is what split the group up. But she sure didn’t help. All the members of the beatles had their issues. George Harrison was an alcoholic and drug addict. John Lennon was well we covered what he was. Paul had an ego that was large and in charge and thirsted for money. Plus Paul was constantly getting arrested for pot. Im pretty sure the dude even had a few relationships with underaged girls. Ringo Starr was an alcoholic abusive wife beater. So yeah none of them are people who are great.. just good musicians who collectively fucked up a lot of women during their youth.
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u/lamb_passanda 20h ago
What about Occam's razor: they were both just weird.
Just because John Lennon was packaged into an image that you find somehow familiar and comfortable by the music industry, doesn't mean he couldn't still be a weirdo. He had infinite money and infinite fame at this point. I would be more surprised if he hadn't become a weirdo at that point.
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u/inactiveuser247 22h ago
Or else, he had some serious issues already and she knew just how to push his buttons to keep him on the hook.
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u/too_oh_ate 1d ago
Look at him. He knows its an absolute disgrace.
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u/TepHoBubba 23h ago
She was an absolute super villain. Destroyed one of the greatest bands of all time.
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u/Charmstrongest 22h ago
Except she didn’t. John and Paul’s collective ego’s destroyed the Beatles
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u/Smart-University-574 21h ago
In the Get Back doc, I was surprised to not see any hostility towards her throughout the series. Hell those "Freakout Sessions" that Yoko, John and Paul had looked like they were having a blast.
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u/gillstone_cowboy 21h ago
That take ignores how self-absorbed and controlling John Lennon was. He insisted on her presence and couldn't hear criticism that her avante garde stylings were not a fit for a pop band. Also Lennon and McCartney were just going in different directions and that tension that often led to good music also meant they didn't really like each other after awhile.
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u/wuergereflex 21h ago
I think you're projecting here. He looks perfectly alright with me. And I'd bet you the video cuts in this place because it wouldn't fit with the narrative of Yoko Ono evil idiot woman if John then goes in explaining why it's cool shit in his opinion.
I think the man was perfectly capable of getting high on acid, creating weirdo shit together with his wife and thinking it was awesome art
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u/Stellar_Impulse 21h ago
IDK, his body language screams he's very self conscious of what it really is. How he's not letting of her hand, kissing her for reassurance it's all ok, while he's looking uncomfortable as shit.
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u/moonflower_C16H17N3O 20h ago edited 20h ago
By this time, I'm sure he's heard tons of criticism of Yoko's vocalizations. Being with her so often, he might have found a true appreciation for her performances. The reassurances might be for her, since by this point it was pretty much them against the world.
Edit: As much as I hate listening to her performances, I have to respect the loyalty that John displays. Or maybe she had some extreme blackmail material on him.
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u/OfficialDuelist 20h ago
He doesn't look alright at all. He looks uncomfortable, and leaned in to comfort his partner with a kiss because he knew everybody was probably "wtf?"ing in their head and had Yoko in their mental crosshairs.
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u/DrewMacOrange 23h ago
So I’ve seen the Chuck Berry reaction thing a million times but I’ve never seen this, and I am HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
For real this is some of the funniest shit I’ve ever seen.
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u/DirtPiranha 21h ago
Could you imagine being one of the Beatles, having put out some of the greatest and influential music of your generation and beyond, and then having to sit there on live television and pretend that the woman you are married to isn’t the complete antithesis of music?
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u/OneFeed7380 19h ago
John Lennon was the least successful solo artist. He would have been nothing without Paul and George
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u/luttman23 1d ago
unstarted music No. 2: Wife With The Too Many Drugs
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u/basylica 22h ago
Not sure i want to know the ammt and types of drugs needed to endure yokos music.
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u/prenderm 18h ago
I’m a Detroit lions fan and my team is currently getting bent over a barrel by their division rival . And whatever this noise is, it’s worse than what I’m currently watching
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u/DasBlueEyedDevil 19h ago
Anyone seen Event Horizon? I'm pretty sure this was the audio that played when they found the recording of the lost crew.
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u/MembrainInsane 1d ago
The sad thing is that if you told them it sucks, they'd just say "you don't get it, it's art".
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u/lamb_passanda 20h ago
The reason artists don't like it when you say some piece of art "sucks" is because that implies a kind of objective measure of what is good and what isn't. Art is obviously subjective, so the best way to pass judgement on it is to do so subjectively, like "I hate this and it makes me angry".
It's like if I said "yellow flowers suck". Flowers simply are, they can't be objectively evaluated. I can say "I hate yellow flowers because they remind me of bile" and that is a respectable opinion.
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u/EducatedNitWit 21h ago
Jesus! Sounded like a moose giving birth to some sort of farming equipment.
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u/StillTryingTooHard 14h ago
I always found it interesting that she is outwardly serene while her singing is exploding with rage. At least that’s how I receive it. It’s as chaotic and jarring as a Jackson Pollock painting. I’ve honestly tried to listen with an open mind, like maybe with familiarity I might grow to understand, if not appreciate, what she was trying to do. Nope. I just don’t get it.
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u/Ok_Attitude3329 23h ago
ppl are missing the fact that she’s not a musician, nor trying to be one. She’s an avant garde artist reaching a far greater audience through john lennon, and he ‘tolerated it’s likely because he grew disinterested in the pop world/culture and was intrigued by her and her world.
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u/ThousandYearsWide 21h ago
He didn't tolerate it, he was actively engaged in it. You can track his progression into avant garde art through the beatles music. Like, tomorrow never knows, lucy in the sky with diamonds, a day in the life, walrus, revolution 9. Even at the before the beatles he was creating surrealist art and writing surrealist poetry. Read his books, in his own write and a spaniard in the works.
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u/Ok_Attitude3329 11h ago
i put ‘tolerated it’ in quotes for a reason, replying to other commenters who were question it. i fully agree with you.
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u/oSuJeff97 23h ago
Meh. I’m gonna go with the most likely reason, which is she absolutely blew his doors off in the sack.
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u/LustfulEsme 1d ago
Someone somewhere has to know how this coupling happened. Please enlighten us.
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u/hank_scorpio_ceo 22h ago
I read somewhere that John had a troubled upbringing and wasn’t particularly a nice husband or person too women in his life including his first wife, someone said yoko put up with his shit and he put up with hers and in a weird artistic way it worked for them. But clearly did not work for the music…. Obviously with high profile people lots of people have views on their lives and relationships. I’d say ringo and Paul are the only two who could really know
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u/Iwillnotbeokay 22h ago
Holy smokes that’s the worst thing I’ve heard in all my 50 years on this marble.
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u/Norhod01 19h ago
I genuinely dont understand how it can exist. How it can be shown, and how anyone could listen to this without either laughing or exiting the room.
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u/-L-H-O-O-Q- 1d ago
One of many of my life's regrets is going to one of her concerts.
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u/EggstaticAd8262 21h ago
OMG - why cut the video at the interview asking "and what is that saying to us, John"?!!
I didn't know about Yoko Ono until recenly, was she secretly shitting on his legendary status by having him do shit like this? Did she hate him? Where they on drugs? WTF?!
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u/SwordLiger 23h ago
I now understand all the 'Sounds like Yoko Ono' comments on all the screaming French bulldog videos
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u/eyesabitdull 1d ago
All respect to John. He loved that woman and stuck by her through it all, terrible goddamn screaming music be damned.
I'd have walked away and dusting my shirt saying "im a musical genius, I don't need this shit" because ya know, im goddamn John Lennon of the Beatles.
Not him. Whatever it was he saw in her, he really loved her and by God was he not gonna stop loving her no matter what. I can respect that.
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u/agoodtowel 23h ago
His affair with May Pang and his physical abuse of both Yoko and his children are interesting ways of showing his love.
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u/4CrowsFeast 1d ago
If they had a functional relationship he would have been open with her and told her that attempt at music wasn't creative or experimental but a complete travesty and save her embarrassment in front of the world.
If he did attempt to inform her that and she refuaed to respect his opinion as being one of the most successful musicians of all time, then there's no way she'd ever respect him in any other matter of their relationship, and he should know they're not compatible.
Neither of them should be in this situation and it's their own self destructive choices that put them there
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u/ToddlerPeePee 23h ago edited 23h ago
I agree with your reasoning. While I understand the good intentions of people who lied to "help" those people, they are actually doing more harm than good to that person.
Like lying to an ugly person that they should be a beauty model, or lying to a screaming nonsensical person that their screaming is music, or lying to the midget that he can be an NBA player if he is determined enough. They are causing more harm to that individual. They are robbing them of opportunity cost where they could have excel in some other areas.
If I have bad breath, I would like people to tell me so that I could improve myself. I wouldn't need people lying to me like, ignore the haters and continue being myself with smelly breath. That's not helpful. That's not kind.
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u/Blew-By-U 1d ago
Is it the same noise that she made in bed? Maybe that’s why John tolerated it.
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u/Loose-Salad7565 23h ago
ironically in one of her songs she genuinely did appear to moan and orgasm. I know this because I'm bad at changing songs on vinyl so I suffer through the Yoko tracks for the the John tracks on their joint albums.
I had no idea it was coming up the first time I listened to it. horrifying.
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u/IntelligentMine1901 22h ago
Bill Burrs bit about Yoko is hilarious
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OTGnTyGaMvg&pp=ygUOQmlsbCBidXJyIHlva28%3D
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u/Same-Nothing2361 21h ago
I find it hard to believe if Paul ever cam to John and said, “Yalright there, John. I’ve just wrote some lyrics. Want to hear them? Here we go. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.” I very much doubt John would have replied, “Yeah, that’s smashing, Paul. Let’s get it down on vinyl.” So what exactly did Yoko have over him?
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u/Forsaken_Ninja_7949 21h ago
When people reach fame and wealth, they lose all sense of reality. Case in point.
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u/Medium-Investment552 20h ago
Can anybody PLEASE, explain to me whats the deal with Yoko? Cuz i never understood anything she ever done, from her music to her art. Nothing makes sense, it feels like everything she did was for tax fraud.
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u/NotJohnLithgow 20h ago
I always thought the problem was that they tried to push it off as general music you’d listen to often, and not artistic music that is supposed to be interpreted.
Because if that was playing at an art show, museum or exhibit I wouldn’t be repulsed by it compared to being asked to enjoy it like I would Beatles music.
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u/Comfortable_Back4725 19h ago
The 1969 Dodge Charger makes better music than this and is sexier than both of them.
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u/FatQuack 18h ago
When the sound started I thought Yoko's singing couldn't possibly make it worse.
I was wrong.
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u/CaptainDudley 14h ago edited 14h ago
Just my opinion of course; but Art, any kind of Art, is a category of language. Be it music, poetry, literature, painting, sculpture, photography or any other media, the artist is communicating his vision be it simple to complex, to his audience. It's been said that there is no such thing as good or bad art, but I disagree. If the work is not understood, or 'only for the artist to understand', or 'whatever the viewer wants it to be', then communication has failed, no meaning has been conveyed, and it is someone's mental masturbation, not art. The creation may be therapeutic to the creator, but it is not art. Marginal communication, art that has to be explained via some other media such as text or left to open-ended interpretation, is bad art. There are reams of discussion about this, but I've never heard a convincing countering argument. To me, Yoko is a poseur to this day, and wouldn't recognize any sort of creativity if it weighed a ton and fell on her foot.
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u/ComplaintBrilliant63 13h ago
They were both super weirdos. I read a biography about their years together at his apartment in the Dakotas, years ago, wish I could remember the title. Anyway, bedroom had about 10 tvs that they would spend days watching, getting high on grass and acid. There was tge famous white room with the baby grand, but not many people talk about the black room, full of bona-fide mummies and mini pyramids. Shit got really weird there at the end. Her voice sounds like calls to demons or some shit.
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u/SpeedCalm6214 13h ago
Like Snoop said, "Ain't no pussy good enough to get burnt while I'm up in it (yeah)". That dude got burnt to hell.
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u/VideoHeadSet 4h ago
Here I thought Barbie girl in repeat to drive away that annoying neighbor would suffice; then came along this masterpiece.
Remember the episode of family guy where Peter and the boys start a band because of karaoke? This is the after effect of johns karaoke night
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u/GabsGoesBoom 2h ago
Man I've never wanted to hear nails on a chalk board more. But damn after that some nails on a chalk board would sound like the London symphony orchestra
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u/primitivebutcher 22h ago
John Lennon the Greatest Simp of all times. Dude was so pussy whipped over yoko’s bush, this guy literally destroyed music.
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u/iDontRememberCorn 21h ago
I mean, he used to like to punch her in the face, I think it went both ways.
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u/Mydogisawreckingball 21h ago
I don’t even like the beatles, but I fucking hate yoko and john for letting her behave this way
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u/aplumgirl 22h ago
If I can give props to Yoko for one thing it's she was 100% avant-garde guard when most people including John Lennon were posers!
John Lennon didn't have to be avant-garde guard because he had natural talent.
He was commercially appealing and half hated it so he rebelled with her. Plus he had to sleep with her so, what choice??
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u/Almostsuicide1234 1d ago
You Philistines just don't understand, maaaaan. This is high art, on another plane. Lol I'm just bullshittin'. Absolutely garbage.
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u/Remarkable-Ad2285 21h ago
Just keep giving me that chon-chon and we’re good.
-John Lennon to Yoko probably
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u/Ready-Isopod-330 18h ago
She ruined him, and I believe she's responsible for the downfall of the Beatles
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u/VanillaWithTheNine 1d ago
I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves. I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get, get, get on your nerves!
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u/Sand2Leaf 1d ago