No bed for Beatle John (Yoko Ono) (LP 950 - 953)

Yoko Ono/ John Lennon  Unfinished Music #1: Two Virgins (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1968) * 

John Lennon/ Yoko Ono  Unfinished Music #2: Life With The Lions (Vinyl and CD, Zapple Records, 1969) * 

John Ono Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon  Wedding Album (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1969) * 

The Plastic Ono Band  Live Peace In Toronto 1969 (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1969) **** 

Genre: Beatle pop/rock

Places I remember: Vinyl: Noel Forth helped me get Two Virgins, Wedding Album (from Japan), and Live Peace. Life With The Lions came from Marbecks before I knew Roger and all the CDs are from Real Groovy.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Blue Suede Shoes (Live Peace)

Gear costume: Yer Blues (Live Peace); No Bed For Beatle John (Unfinished Music #2)

Active compensatory factors: These first four albums outside of The Beatles will severely test your resolve and commitment to both John and Yoko. I passed that test but it was a close thing at times.

Unfinished Music #1 (and yes my vinyl version came in a brown paper sleeve with cut outs for the faces and the album name as pictured above) is more infamous for its cover (the pair celebrating their union with a frontal nude shot - as you do) than its contents. 

It's not music as such - more a continuation of the sound collage they started with Revolution #9 on The Beatles.

Except, I really like Revolution #9. Two Virgins is much less effective as a collage.

Unfinished Music #2 collects an appearance the two made at Cambridge University - John on squawking feedback and Yoko on screaming for 26 minutes and 31 seconds, with material from a hospital stay in 1968 during which Yoko tragically miscarried.

She sings No Bed For Beatle John, the baby's heart beat is recorded, followed by a 2 minute silence and then a track where John flicks restlessly around a radio dial. Shesh.

By comparison, Wedding Album is relatively straight-forward with a side of John and Yoko repeating each other's names and a side of various press conferences from their bedisms.

Finally, there is some music on Live Peace in Toronto 1969! Wahoo, and for the most part it's spirited and remarkably coherent - given the band (Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and the Lennons) rehearsed on the plane ride to Toronto.

Side One's a fab mix of old rock'n'roll numbers, a Beatle song (Yer Blues) and a couple of solo singles. I love it!

The second side is Yoko doing her thing (all over you) on two songs. Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow) has its moments with John and Eric supplying some grunty guitar but the lengthy John John (Let's Hope For Peace) again tests that resolve.

Where do they all belong? After he got those four albums out of his system, our hero put out a five star classic and only my favourite album of all time (coming soon).

Under the Mersey Wall (George Harrison) (LP 619 - 620)

George Harrison Wonderwall Music (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1968) ** 

George Harrison Electronic Sound (Vinyl, Zapple Records, 1969) * 

Genre: Apple Records (Beatle pop/rock) 

Places I remember: Noel Forth sent me these albums in the late 1970s when they were unobtainable in NZ. Noel Forth is a legend! It's official.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Red Lady Too

Gear costume: Love Scene

Active compensatory factors: Wonderwall Music, George's soundtrack for a film called Wonderwall) is catalogued as Sapcor 1 - George was a pioneer in many ways. Wonderwall Music was the first solo album by any of the Fabs and the first album on Apple Records.

Electronic Sound was the second album,of two, released on the Zapple label (after Lennon/Ono's Unfinished Music #2: Life With The Lions album).

Both albums are a slog to listen to - but at least Wonderwall Music has actual music on it - largely instrumental in a variety of genres. Given it's a soundtrack and I haven't ever seen the film it stands up pretty well but I agree with the critic who said it's "interesting, though only for established fans".

Electronic Sound is George's early experiments with a moog synthesizer. As such it's pretty much unlistenable (at least it is for me). The best things about the album are the front and back cover paintings by George (including various Apple insiders, Eric Clapton and the four Beatles).

Where do they all belong? Having got these experiments out of his system, next up is George's best solo album: All Things Must Pass.