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ONO! It's another
ONO dance track from Yoko Ono's nom du discoteque, ONO.
Scant days before
ONO's new dance track "I'm Not Getting Enough," (Mindtrain/Twisted
Records) hit #1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play charts, I had the pleasure
of another talk with Yoko where she said candidly that it was more nerve-wracking
to be at #3 than at #50. In a conversational stream that flowed naturally
from this latest release of dance mixes to a forthcoming album with Sean,
to sex and the aftermath of the Two Virgins album cover, to the processing
on the first Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, Yoko again revealed warmth,
humor, self-deprecation, and a clear sense of identity.
"I'm Not
Getting Enough" comes from the 2001 album Blueprint for A Sunrise
(Capitol 36035) which contains a delightful variety of musical forms, and
confirms that regardless of one's opinion is of her content or style, Yoko
remains and has always been a master craftsman of pop forms. The track itself
is a lilting reggae with a mellotron-y organ riff. The lyric finds the narrator
in a sunny place, but wondering what to do next; the dichotomy of the refrain
made it a perfect choice for the clubs.
To differentiate
from her own work, Yoko uses ONO for her dance tracks remixed by a slew of
famous remixers. The dance remixes of "I'm Not Getting Enough,"
as were her "Give Peace A Chance" remixes, are "green,"
meaning download-only. The strongest, if you're only downloading one, is "Craig
C. & Niques Tribal Vocal Mix," a richly textured club sound which
makes best use of the original lyric throughout. Their dub version is good
for mixing, but is less creative. The "Morgan Page Vocal Mix," a
house-like mix, is the only one to cleverly use the sing-along "la la
la-la la-la" from the original track as well as other vocal sounds, and
there's a nice break in the middle where the word "life" is processed
into a trumpet/siren-like crescendo.
Going into the
"WayBack Machine," I asked Yoko about an ancient radio interview
regarding her Plastic Ono Band/Yoko Ono album, a rich mix of blues
and avant garde. It contains musique concrète and loops, and back then
in 1969 Yoko and John were telling radio DJs that it was being done without
any overdubs. Also, I brought up the subject of sex and the famous Two
Virgins album cover, which was a simple nude photo of John with his arm
around Yoko's shoulder. The waggers back then tried to rip them apart for
being so shocking, but their concept (never forget, Yoko's art from and way
before meeting John was often conceptual in nature) was to show that if two
ordinary people like J&Y could be comfortable nude, so should everyone
else. For this, they went through a lot of grief, not just from much of the
press, but from store owners, record distributors; their own US distributor,
Capitol, refused to put it out so they had to release it through the independent
Tetragrammaton, partly owned by Bill Cosby.
For
Yoko's current take on these issues, as well as her number one "I'm Not
Getting Enough," listen in below.
Listen
Now
Or
Download
Here
