John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy (1980) is one of the famous and unforgettable albums that evoke New York City. The album is supposed to be a special album in celebration of Lennon’s return to the music industry after spending the prior five years raising his son, Sean Lennon. However, it became his posthumous work and his last album, after he was murdered in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980. It happened just after the album was released. It became famous worldwide, in part because of the tragedy, and the album was chosen as the 1981 Album of the Year at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards.
The album is written by both John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Each songs by John and Yoko are composed alternately and it is like a conversation between a man and a woman. In this album, songs written by John sound gentle and sweet, and the more powerful and energetic songs were written by Yoko.
My favorite song from this album is “Woman,” written by John. Generally, it is understood as a romantic song for Yoko. There are also some alternate interpretations of it. For instance, John said that he had written this song to show his respect to Yoko, as he knew how tough and hard it is to raise a child after the five years caring for his son. Also John had written the song an apology to Yoko for the “Lost Weekend”. John and Yoko had lived separately for a while and he had lived in Los Angeles with May Pang from October 1973 to January 1975. John and Yoko were calling about this period of time as “Lost Weekend” although it is not literally a weekend (Allan Kozinmarch, 2008). These two are really famous interpretation of this song and they are all about John and Yoko. Moreover, this song has deeper meaning for women in this world. There is this lyric, “It’s for your mother, or your sister, anyone of the female race”, which shows us his feminist statement. He also says, “For the other half of the sky,” at the beginning of this song, which refers to women. His thought about women had been changed by Yoko very much and I will explain how Yoko affected John’s thoughts in the next part.
After Yoko married John in 1969, they started having relationships with avant-garde artists, antiwar movement people and feminists. Her thought was “love and peace”, and also she was a women’s liberationist. She is making many arts related to her thoughts. “Cut peace” is one of her famous and most distinctive art works. This art first staged on July 20, 1964 at Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto. Audiences come on a stage and cut clothes, which Yoko Ono is wearing. Yoko explained it as a pain in her heart. It also showed us how women are passive and discriminated by men. We can understand women’s discrimination was bad at that time through this art. Her book of poem called “grapefruit” is about world peace. She is asking as to “imagine” in this book. As you can assume, this book affects John Lennon very much. This book inspired a song “Imagine” released by John Lennon. When John Lennon recorded this song, he credited only himself, but later he disclosed that the song “Imagine” was inspired by Yoko Ono and written with her . “Woman” on Double Fantasy reveals that Yoko affected John’s thought and changed it very much.
Many immigrants came to New York City to find a new life. However, New York City at the time John and Yoko lived there, in late 1970s to the early 1980s, wasn’t a really an easy place to live in. It was a dirty, bad conditioned and busy city. It’s ironic that these man and woman, who were hoping and working on the world to be peace and full of love, actually lived in New York City where one of the most dangerous place and the worst place to raise children. According to The New York Times, the number of drug abuse by New York’s school children rose very high in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. In 1977, “ A congressional committee on drug abuse found a “very substantial increase” in narcotics use among New York City school children in the last year year and a half “from the seventh grade on up.”” It also says that “the city’s overall narcotics problem had reached a “crisis situation” and the city’s criminal justice system “is in almost total collapse.””
Despite the situation in New York City, John and Yoko decided to move to there and started to raise their son, Sean Lennon, which was challenging for them. This song “Starting Over” is expressing a feeling of getting tired of living in New York City and asking people to get out from this city. You can see it from the lyrics, “Why don’t we take off alone. Take a trip somewhere far, far away”. Also as the lyrics says “Every day we used to make it love. Why can’t we be making love nice and easy? It’s time to spread our wings and fly. Don’t let another day go by my love. It’ll be just like starting over. Starting over…”.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, New York City was one of the highest rate of drug use and crimes. Crimes in New York City related to John Lennon’s death too. He was murdered by his fan in front of his apartment and Yoko Ono was with him. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were living in an apartment, The Dakota, on 72nd St, which is one of the richest and safest place in New York City. Mark David Chapman was one of the most enthusiastic fan of John Lennon until he became a Christian. He actually had a list for murdering, which included some musicians, actors, actresses and politicians. However, he was particularly infatuated by John Lennon. Although, he didn’t have a particular person to kill at first, he decided to kill John because John seemed easier to kill for him. Also when he had heard that John said, “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus”, it triggered and he started preparing to murder John Lennon. This is a tragic irony that a musician who was singing for world peace was killed by his fan.
Suggested Reading
Allan Kozinmarch (2008), A fond look at Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend, New York Times
Edward C. Burks (1977), House Panel Finds Big Rise in Drug Use by New York’s Schoolchildren, The New York Times
Toshinobu Fukuya (2009), Yoko Ono Lennon, pp 2,5,6
Toshi Ichiyanagi 一柳慧 (2015), Toshi Ichiyanagi
