Unfinished Music 2 Life With The Lions by Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Unfinished Music 2 Life With The Lions

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Unfinished Music 2 Life With The Lions

Features

Audio CD (June 3, 1997)

Original Release Date: 1968

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Rykodisc

Catalog Number: 10412

Reader Reviews
Partly recorded even while their first avant-garde LP, "TWO VIRGINS", was going through distribution troubles (EMI refused to release it because of the nude photo on the sleeve, and so it was given to Track records in England and Tetragrammaton in the U.S.), "LIFE WITH THE LIONS" is the most musical of the Lennon's experimental sound triptych. The highlight of which is a monumental, twenty-seven minute Ono epic entitled "Cambridge 1969": a staggering, uncompromising piece of white noise that features Yoko's stressed vocalizing, husband John's awesome feedback guitar, plus help from friend Mal Evans and jazz legends John Tchicai (sax) and John Stevens (percussion). Anyone who is a fan of Yoko's abrasive musical style should be thrilled at the glorious (though extremely harsh) assault on the listener's ear-drums. I've listened to it at least seven times already, and I am completely overwhelmed by it. Of course it isn't for all tastes, and I can certainly understand why some would cover their ears and run in terror from the room if they even have the guts to play it. The rest of the selections are not quite so harrowing, but nonetheless demands a reaction: "No Bed For Beatle John" is an amusing Gregorian chant based upon various news clippings about The Beatles and John and Yoko, and "Radio Play" is a hypnotic but ultimately pointless piece that features the artists randomly fiddling with a radio dial in an effort to make musical rhythmic patterns. But it is the twin selections "Baby's Heartbeat" and "Two Minutes Silence" that is the clincher of the recording: here we get to bear witness to the vitality and life of Yoko's unborn baby's heartbeat only to have it abruptly cut off into deathly silence in memorial to the grief of Yoko's miscarriage (the front cover photograph of the album jacket was taken in the hospital room shortly after this tragic news). The sorrowful pall that hangs over these tracks makes for a very uncomfortable listening experience, but "LIFE WITH THE LIONS" is a commendable effort of its kind. The bonus songs are quite excellent (and more light-hearted): an early demo of "Song For John", and an eight-minute excursion for guitar and voice entitled "Mulberry" that is in the same vein as "The South Wind" (the bonus track from the "YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND" LP). Some have dismissed these tracks as o.k., but I love the ethereal feel to these pieces (especially how Lennon's accoustic guitar plays off Yoko's banshee intonations). This kind of stuff is not for everyone, but it is an adventurous work that staked out the avant-garde territory which Yoko would develop more winningly on her next two releases. HIGHEST POP ALBUM CHART POSITION: Number 174. NOTES FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: "LIFE WITH THE LIONS" is a little hard to take, but contains nothing of offense. Christians should appreciate the track "Baby's Heartbeat" since it proves without a doubt that an unborn baby IS a baby, and not a lump of worthless tissue that should be aborted just because "it's" mother says it deserves to die. Anyone who has ever seen pictures of an aborted fetus or of a partial birth abortion would certainly think twice about having the brutality to do that to another human being. "Baby's Heartbeat" should be played over and over again on the loudspeakers at every abortion clinic. It's hard to understand Ono's pro-choice (or rather, "no-choice") stance in light of such tragedy as this. But from a Christian moral perspective (and keeping in mind the abrasive nature of the music and non-music contained within) the album would rate **** (ACCEPTABLE).

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