Yoko: A biography by David Sheff Hardcover – 25 Mar. 2025

Excellent book about a very misunderstood person,John obviously found her a way to seek change in his life and I think the other fabs could see that,the rubbish that has been printed over the years has been put to bed , and despite the media attempts to paint her as the cause of the Beatles breakup she proved herself to be a strong character and in this book the real yoko shines through highly recommended

A decent chronological review of Yokos life, but it's basically hagiography. Only new bits are from Kyoko. I love Yoko and her work but nobody can be as much a saint as Sheff makes her out to be.

Imagine if Leona Helmsley had been into radical chic. This is the officially sanctioned biography of a fabulously wealthy, powerful, litigious woman who descends from both royalty and the banking elite and who thus could afford to play at variously being an artist or singer or even a Marxist or a peace activist. She would have been just another rich dilettante had she not bagged a Beatle right when it mattered and was able to siphon off some of their hard-earned kudos for her own, knowing that what gained a Beatle’s attention got the world’s. Unquestionably some of the abuse she suffered from the press in the late 1960s was misogynist and racist but only some and it was possible to dislike her without being either, as many did and still do. Author David Sheff claims, as one would expect, to reveal a hitherto unseen Yoko but the story he tells is simply the official Ono authorised version that has been in circulation for decades now; how much is truth and how much fabrication one cannot discern. Seeking to address the many prejudices against his subject; he trots out the now familiar tale of how John Lennon was never truly happy until he met her, how he was never a true father until he had a child by her and never a true husband except with her. Whether the complex Lennon was ever any of these things is debatable. Similarly, there are the inevitable ‘damned with faint praise’ reference to the Beatles ( Yoko being unable to decide whether to diminish or take credit for their achievements usually opts to do both) and of course her true rival Paul McCartney who had the two things her money could not buy - popularity and talent.Yoko’s decision to move into the sphere of what would otherwise be popular music came in 1969 when she began her signature caterwaul. Whilst the likes of Diamanda Galas can also provide challenging aural soundscapes, they are first and foremost singers with great voices. Ono is not but neither is she innovative or even remotely interesting as a performer just typical 60s avant-garde and strictly of its time.The problem with the Ono story, from any angle, is that it is difficult to get round the numerous contradictions. Lennon, at least in part, recognised that his behaviour was often at wild variance with the values he espoused but not her though if, as seems the case, she is willing to take the credit for his banal but hugely popular anthem Imagine, then she also should take the rap for the utter hypocrisy it suggests. Imagine no possessions, oh come on. We are talking about a woman whose real talent was venture capitalism. Similarly, whether the infamous bed-in was peace activism or self-promotion is open to discussion; it was certainly more effective as the latter.Nobody should want to see the kind of vicious character assassination that the dead Lennon received at the hands of Albert Goldman, but neither should we presume that Ms Ono is some kind of victim. Her unpopularity rests, which Sheff fails to point out, not just on her relationship with the Beatles (and Lennon’s first wife and child) but on an unappealing public persona she herself went to great pains to cultivate. You can’t play the scorpion and then complain nobody treats you like a panda.Today Ms Ono is enjoying a stellar reputation as a multi-media artist commensurate with that of her late husband, the music icon. Why she is accorded such status would be a mystery; quite coincidentally she is vastly rich, powerful and litigious.