Skip to main content

TL;DR:

  • John Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, discussed some of Yoko Ono’s songs.
  • He discussed how some of his friends reacted to the tracks.
  • Sean felt the world would have reacted differently to Yoko if she looked like Debbie Harry.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono in black-and-white
John Lennon and Yoko Ono | Bettmann / Contributor

John Lennon‘s son, Sean Ono Lennon, said two Yoko Ono songs “floored” people he knew. He felt his mother was underappreciated as a musician. Subsequently, he discussed why this was the case.

John Lennon discussed what happened when he worked with Yoko Ono

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In the interview, John was asked to describe his collaborations with Yoko. “For lyrics, we’d either do them together or separately,” he said.

“A lot of the music was really free-form,” John added. “I would just sort of follow her on guitar, or set a rhythm and she would say, ‘I like that. I can do this over that.’ She would select from my limited playing and decide what she wanted to use, or I’d give her a lick and she’d just howl.”

John Lennon’s son discussed how his friends who were into rock music reacted to some Yoko Ono songs

During a 1998 interview with Rolling Stone, Sean praised his mother’s album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. He felt the album was underrated. “When I play ‘Greenfield Morning’ or ‘Why’ for anybody that I know my age who’s into rock, they are f****** floored,” he said. “When that beat kicks in ‘Greenfield Morning’ — I would play it for my friends who were only into hip-hop. They’d be like, ‘That’s fat.’ They want to hear Public Enemy rhyming over it.”

Notably, John served as a producer on both of the songs Sean mentioned. Subsequently, Sean discussed his mother’s role in rock ‘n’ roll history. “My dad was saying to the world, ‘This is it, man. Yoko is it,'” he added. “His inspiration came directly from her. And people didn’t get it.”

Sean said racism stopped Yoko from receiving her dues. He said the world would have reacted to her differently if she looked like Debbie Harry of Blondie.

How the songs and their parent album performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Why” and “Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City” were not singles. In fact, no tracks from Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band were singles. Meanwhile, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band reached No. 182 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for three weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Why” and “Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band did not hit the U.K. chart either. Notably, Season of Glass — the album Yoko released soon after John’s death — was Yoko’s only solo album to become a hit in the U.K.

Yoko’s songs generally weren’t hits but Sean saw the greatness in them.

Best in Entertainment