Fly (Yoko Ono album)

Fly is the second album by Yoko Ono, produced by her and John Lennon, and released in 1971. It was a complete avant-garde/Fluxus package in a gatefold sleeve that came with a full-size poster and a postcard to order Ono's book Grapefruit. Notable songs include the singles "Midsummer New York" and "Mrs. Lennon", "Hirake" aka "Open Your Box" and "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", dedicated to Ono's daughter Kyoko Cox. "Airmale" is the soundtrack to Lennon's film Erection, showing a building being erected in time lapsed photography,[1] while "Fly" is the soundtrack to Ono's film Fly.

Fly
Studio album by
Released20 September 1971 (1971-09-20)
Recorded1969–71
Studio
Genre
Length94:52
LabelApple
ProducerJohn Lennon, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono chronology
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
(1970)
Fly
(1971)
Some Time in New York City
(1972)
Singles from Fly
  1. "Mrs. Lennon"
    Released: 29 September 1971
  2. "Mind Train"
    Released: 21 January 1972

Recording

The album was recorded around the same time as Lennon's Imagine.[1] Ono had to re-record her vocals on "Open Your Box", on 4 March 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, after a managing director of EMI called the lyrics "distasteful";[1] In the verse "Open your trousers, open your skirt, open your legs and open your thighs",[1] the words "Trousers", "skirt", "legs", and "thighs" were changed to "houses", "church", "lakes", and "eyes".[1] Lennon and Ono didn't complain about the change of words, and only "wanted to get the record out", as a spokesman said.[1]

"Will You Touch Me" was first recorded during the Fly sessions. It was later re-recorded for Yoko's shelved 1974 album A Story and for 1981's Season of Glass. The original demo version was included on the Rykodisc reissue of Fly in 1997.[1]

Each edition of the US, UK and Japanese albums utilized that country's distinctive telephone ring in the track "Telephone Piece" (i.e. each edition of the album used entirely different recordings) – the Rykodisc CD edition used the US variation.

Release

Fly peaked at number 199 in the Billboard charts. On 1 February 1972, Lennon and Ono Lennon performed "Midsummer New York" backed by Elephant's Memory for an episode of The Mike Douglas Show, which aired on 15 February.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
Pitchfork8.7/10[3]
Rolling Stone(not rated) [4]
Spill [5]

The album was a significant influence to British power electronics musician William Bennett of Whitehouse fame.

Track listing

All songs written by Yoko Ono.

Side one

  1. "Midsummer New York" – 3:50
  2. "Mind Train" – 16:52

Side two

  1. "Mind Holes" – 2:45
  2. "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" – 4:55
  3. "Mrs. Lennon" – 4:10
  4. "Hirake" (previously released as "Open Your Box") – 3:32
  5. "Toilet Piece/Unknown" – 0:30
  6. "O'Wind (Body Is the Scar of Your Mind)" – 5:22

Side three

  1. "Airmale" – 10:40
  2. "Don't Count the Waves" – 5:26
  3. "You" – 9:00

Side four

  1. "Fly" – 22:53
  2. "Telephone Piece" – 0:33
1997 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
6."Between the Takes"1:58
7."Will You Touch Me" (Demo)2:45
2017 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
8."The Path"5:43
9."Head Play" (Medley: You/Airmale/Fly)2:35

Personnel

  • Yoko Ono – vocals, claves on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves"
  • John Lennon – guitar, piano on "Mrs. Lennon", organ, automated music machines on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves"
  • Klaus Voormann – guitar, bass guitar, bells on "Mrs. Lennon", cymbal on "O'Wind", percussion on "Don't Count the Waves"
  • Bobby Keys – claves on "O'Wind"
  • Eric Clapton – guitar on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)"
  • Jim Keltner – drums, tabla, percussion
  • Ringo Starr – drums on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)"
  • Jim Gordon – drums on "Hirake", tabla on "O'Wind"
  • Chris Osborne – dobro on "Midsummer New York" and "Mind Train"
  • Joe Jones – automated music machines on "Airmale", "Don't Count the Waves" and "You"
  • George Marino – mastering engineer

Charts

Chart (1971) Peak
position
Total
weeks
U.S. Billboard 200 199 2

Release history

Country Date Format Label Catalog
United States 20 September 1971 2xLP Apple Records SVBB 3380[6]
2x8-Track 8VV 3380[7]
United Kingdom 13 December 1971 2xLP SAPTU 101/102[8]
Japan 1971 AP-93021B [9]
United States 10 June 1997[10] 2xCD Rykodisc RCD 10415/16[11]
United Kingdom 1997
Japan VACK-5371/2[12]
24 January 2007 Rykodisc, Apple Records VACK-1309[13]
United States & Europe 14 July 2017 2xLP Secretly Canadian, Chimera Music SC282/CHIM21[14]
2xLP (White)[15]
2xCD[16]
Japan 2 August 2017 2xCD Sony Records International SICX-84[17]
9 August 2017 2xLP (White) SIJP-49[18]
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gollark: What?
gollark: We're pretty general intelligences, but there are some things we can't really do or are extremely bad at.
gollark: Would you accept something as "truly thinking" if it appeared entirely identical to a human over a text chat?
gollark: That seems somewhat silly. It takes humans a lot of training to control complex real-world machinery, and that's with lots of intuition about the physical world in general already extant.

References

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