Yoko Ono Criticized John Lennon for His Effort on ‘Two Virgins’
John Lennon helped put The Beatles on the map. His innate songwriting skills and competitive partnership with Paul McCartney led to dozens of hit songs for the Fab Four. Those enduring tunes are lucrative enough that John’s son lives off The Beatles’ money. Yet he was ready to leave it all behind as soon as he met Yoko Ono. Their relationship included several artistic collaborations, but Yoko criticized John’s contributions to their first work together.
John Lennon fell for Yoko Ono almost immediately
John married his first wife, Cynthia, in 1962, around the time The Beatles first entered the British charts with “Love Me Do.” We all know what happened next. A stream of hit songs and groundbreaking albums followed, and the Fab Four rewrote the rulebook for popular music.
Yet everything changed when John met Yoko at an art exhibit in 1966. He almost instantly fell in love with the no-holds-barred artist. John’s passion for Yoko was so strong that he once said he had no interest in The Beatles after meeting her. They married in 1969, and the Fab Four soldiered on until 1970 despite John’s seeming disinterest.
The couple worked together while The Beatles were still active, but Yoko criticized John’s contributions to their first collaboration, Two Virgins.
Yoko criticized John’s efforts on ‘Two Virgins’: ‘It was vaudeville’
It didn’t take long for John to fall in love with Yoko and her unapologetic approach to her art. Their first work together happened while The Beatles were still active — the experimental album Two Virgins.
The couple created several records together once the Fab Four fractured despite Yoko criticizing John’s contributions to Two Virgins. She felt John’s pop-music background wasn’t abstract enough, writes Peter Doggett in You Never Give Me Your Money:
“I was such a snob at the time, and I thought [John’s] contribution to ‘Two Virgins’ tended toward not being abstract enough, the sounds that he made — it was more vaudeville, I thought.”
Yoko Ono criticizes John Lennon’s work on Two Virgins
The experimental soundscapes on Two Virgins were a far cry from anything John did with The Beatles. The album mixes ambient music, field recordings, tribal music, and musique concrete. In other words, about as far away from the three-minute pop song that John was most familiar with writing. Though he had never created music like that before, Yoko didn’t cut him any slack and criticized John’s contributions to Two Virgins.
Perhaps in an effort to display his commitment to her version of art, John and Yoko got naked and shot the album’s front and back cover at Ringo Starr’s London apartment.
The couple created several albums together
Yoko was critical of John’s work on their first collaboration, but that didn’t stop her from marrying him or creating work with him in the following years.
John and Yoko recorded two albums in 1969 — Life With Two Lions and Wedding Album. They made Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in 1970, and Some Time in New York City followed in 1972, per All Music.
Their relationship endured some tough times during John’s lost weekend period, but John and Yoko regrouped for 1980’s Double Fantasy and 1984’s Milk and Honey, a posthumous release after John’s 1980 murder.
Yoko Ono criticized John Lennon’s efforts on their first collaboration, Two Virgins, but that didn’t prevent her from marrying him and continuing to create music with him.
For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.
