FLUXLIST: Will Lennon's last song be a hit for Yoko at 70 ?

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Will Lennon's last song be a hit for Yoko at 70 ?
Feb 17 2003

By Lew Baxter Daily Post Correspondent
 
BILE and mockery have spilled from music critics over the decades as Yoko Ono has warbled almost tunelessly through a litany of records in a bid for chart glory - with usually only her late lamented husband John Lennon cheering her on.

Well, on the eve of her 70th birthday, he's probably roaring his head off as Yoko has now apparently found her voice, so to speak, and is releasing what is tipped for a dance floor smash hit with a gutsy new version of Lennon's last song.

Contemptuous of her venerable age, Yoko has teamed up with the Pet Shop Boys and the celebrated American disc jockey Danny Tenaglia to perform Walking on Thin Ice, the song Lennon was working on the night he was murdered by Mark Chapman in December 1980.

Later today across The Pond, she joins Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (Pet Shop Boys), who say they have admired her work for years, to perform the underground dance-style track at New York's psychedelic Arc Club, where Tenaglia spins the labels and talks the talk.

Yoko first put out the song only two months after Lennon's death but it struggled to reach number 35 in the UK charts.

In some circles she is credited with having an influence over several post-punk bands, such as Public Image Limited, although her abrasive, atonal sound is reckoned by others to be more in the experimental vein.

She affects to not give a fig for the critics, convinced that she is capable of turning out traditional pop and rock music with great aplomb, albeit in her trademark shrill voice.

This conviction of her superiority most probably stems from her back-ground in Japan, where she was born on a snowy February morn at her great-grandmother's palatial estate just outside Tokyo.

Yoko's paternal great-grandfather was the descendant of an emperor.

Little wonder that Lennon, despite his anarchic stance on life, was in her thrall. She takes no prisoners, mutters Beatles chronicler and former Mersey Beat magazine editor Bill Harry, who is less than impressed with her magisterial attitude.

Others, though, have fallen under her spell and now Tenaglia with his pal Felix Da Housecast has remixed the original track, which is due in the shops at the end of March. Never one to accommodate modesty, Yoko reveals she has been swamped with offers to perform at British electro clubs such as Nag, Nag, Nag and The Cock in London.

"I think I will do that, as I'm very excited that people love the record," Yoko said. She is appearing at the Arc club at 6am today (US time). "Even Sean thinks that's pretty good going for his mum," she added.

"This feels like a new beginning for me, with the dance community adopting me and my music.

"It's a very exciting time for me, and I'm grateful for everyone's support."