Ono? Oh, yes!

Yoko Ono talks about fame, John Lennon, and teaming up with Cat Power and the Flaming Lips on her new album.

Editor's note: This interview is a part of Salon's Conversations podcast. To listen to an MP3 of the interview, click here. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, click here.

By David Marchese

Read more: Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Interviews, Arts & Entertainment, Arts & Entertainment Music Interviews

Feb. 7, 2007 | For Yoko Ono, fame is a paradox. When Ono met and married John Lennon, she was already a well-known conceptual artist, drawing attention for work like "Cut Piece," where she sat onstage and invited audience members to use scissors to cut away at her clothing until she was naked. But once she married the smart Beatle, it might be fair to say that Ono became the world's most famous artist whose art you know almost nothing about.

Her work has long been eclipsed by her fame. But that may be starting to change. The 73-year-old Ono's new album, "Yes, I'm a Witch," features the cream of the indie music crop (Cat Power, the Flaming Lips, Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, and others) reinterpreting their favorite Ono music by creating new backing tracks for her original vocal performances. That musicians who came of age long after the Beatles broke up are responding to her music comes as vindication for Ono. "It just means that my work had power of its own," she says. "It wasn't overshadowed by John or the Beatles."

Salon spoke with Ono about the new album, what her art might have been like if she hadn't been so famous and whether one ever gets used to life in the public eye.

The people who collaborated with you on the new album are a pretty diverse list. Were they all people you felt some sort of musical kinship with?

These are indie music people, superstars of indie music. They're very heavy people actually -- heavy musicians, heavy songwriters. I'm very pleased that they even bothered to do it. Each of them are very strong people, strong bands, so it became a very strong CD.

Do you think there's anything in the treatments they gave your music that changed how you saw your original compositions?

I was having fun with it. I just felt great. Because each time I felt there was something totally different. There was creativity that they put on. It just gave a new aspect of that song -- which is very nice.

Was the eagerness of people to collaborate with you validating? For a long time your music was overshadowed.

Totally. Totally.

Do you think it has taken time for your work to be judged on its merits? Is that why now we're seeing more musicians into your music?

It just means that my work had power of its own. It wasn't overshadowed by John or the Beatles. And that's great. My feeling is that I was an indie artist in those days single-handedly and now I'm just part of the indie trend. It's great. Indie music is "it" now. It's kind of a revolution to the music: 1980s, 1990s music was getting very sanitized; they were complying with the music industry. Music was getting more and more dead in a way. Now, because of the social climate that's very severe, the artists are compelled to start being real. It's really great that indie music is now. It's future, but it's now too.

Do you think, now, with the music world as fragmented as it is --

It's very easy to say "fragmented as it is." In the '60s, people were still very protective of each field that they belonged to. Avant-garde artists didn't know about rock or pop or jazz. And the jazz people of course didn't want to know about any other music. They were all just kind of protecting their territory. Now it's different. Fragmented is not the word for it. I think it's very nice that everybody has everything at their disposal. They can use anything.

To what extent are you considering the form of the pop song when you write music? Or are you thinking more conceptually?

Well, when you listen to all the songs on the CD, you will notice that each one is covering a different genre. That's what I like about it. I was always doing that. When you listen to my CDs you will notice that it's not really covering just one genre. You can't say "pop rock" or jazz or whatever. It's all very different. I like it that way. I think it's great that I'm doing [music] in many different styles. And also the idea of being an avant-garde artist and saying "I'm avant-garde and that's it" or something -- again, you're limiting yourself with that label. When I was in the avant-garde, I was really there, but at the same time I was thinking, "Don't take it too seriously, please." I was moving away already.

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