Search - John Lennon, Yoko Ono :: Unfinished Music 1: Two Virgins

Strangely Hypnotic- Until Yoko Pipes In

dB | UK | 09/25/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"JOHN LENNON had many sides to his personality. What we have on full display here is John The Artist, Avant-Garde John and John The Cynic. Its is the last trait of Lennon's personality that most intrigues me. His foul tempered rants at the world are legendary. I was not convinced by his peace 'n love act. This particular album can only be John at his most cynical- convinced that Beatles fans would buy anything that the guys put out there, even if it was a 30 minute sound collage of John changing TV stations, banging away on a piano and shouting out the odd phrase. This is nothing that anyone with a 4-track and a microphone couldn't do themselves in no time at all. Surprisingly though, the effect does become strangely hypnotic after a while. That is until Yoko opens her mouth. Her tiresome shrill, bleating voice threatened to burst my eardrums on more than one occasion, and rendered the whole thing virtually unlistenable at some points. If it wasn't for Yoko, I could see myself listening to this again- if I was in a particular mood. But the idea of again sitting through 30 minutes of Yoko aimlessly embarrassing herself does not appeal, personally. Worth owing as a curio, and a must for Beatles die-hards, Two Virgins could have been an interesting release if it wasn't for Ono. I've heard her screaming and wailing on other recordings, and given the right environment it can work (kind of) but here it is unforgivable. More (in)famous for THAT album cover, than for what is actually on the record, Two Virgins isn't a disaster, but it isn't particularly interesting either. Some forty years after it was released, it all just sounds a little silly."

For John & Yoko Completists

Scott T. Rivers | Los Angeles, CA USA | 10/04/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

""When two great saints meet, it is a humbling experience." - Paul McCartney



Apart from professing his undying love for Yoko Ono and shocking the world with a full-frontal album cover, it is difficult to see what John Lennon hoped to accomplish with these experimental doodles. It is even more difficult to comprehend why he would trash his artistic integrity. "Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins" was rubbish in 1968 and no historical revisionism (let alone digital remastering) can salvage this aural embarrassment."