''Fly'' is the second album by

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

, released in 1971. A double album, it was co-produced by Ono and

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

. It peaked at No. 199 on the US charts. The album includes the singles " Mrs. Lennon" and "Mind Train". The track "Airmale" is the soundtrack to Lennon's

time-lapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

film ''

Erection An erection (clinically: penile erection or penile tumescence) is a Physiology, physiological phenomenon in which the penis becomes firm, engorged, and enlarged. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, ...

'', while "Fly" is the soundtrack to Lennon and Ono's 1970 film '' Fly''.

Recording and songs

The album was recorded around the same time as Lennon's '' Imagine''. In an article that Ono wrote for '' Crawdaddy'' magazine, she explained that the songs on ''Fly'' are divided into two categories: * Side 1 and 2: "Songs to dance to – Rock and songs with physical beat". * Side 3 and 4: "Songs to listen to – mind music with mind beat". Ono described most of the songs on ''Fly'' as being "pieces ..centered around a dialogue between my voice and John's guitar". She commented that Lennon had "brought in musicians that are fine

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

s", who he pushed to "fly with me".

Side one

The first side of the album includes two songs, "Midsummer New York" and "Mind Train". "Midsummer New York" was about a deep insecurity that Ono felt which she associated with her time in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

before she met Lennon. "Mind Train" is the second-longest track on the album, lasting for nearly 17 minutes. Ono described "Mind Train" as an "intricate conversation" between her voice, Lennon's guitar,

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America". Howard Sounes. ''Do ...

's drumming,

Klaus Voormann Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann (born 29 April 1938) is a German graphic artist, artist, musician, and record producer. Voormann was the bassist for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, and performed as a session musician on a host of recordings, includ ...

's bass and Chris Osbourne's dobro. A cut-down version of the song was used for the single release in January 1972.

Side two

"Mind Holes" features Ono singing with Lennon on guitar. The album's inner sleeve included lyrics for this song that do not appear on the song itself. The track " Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" is dedicated to Ono's daughter Kyoko Cox and was previously released in 1969 as the B-side to the John Lennon-penned "

Cold Turkey "Cold Turkey" is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon ...

" by Plastic Ono Band. "Mrs. Lennon" is the most conventional song on the album, described by Aaron Badgley of ''The Spill Magazine'' as a "traditional ballad ong. The lyrics were written in 1969 and the music was written in 1971. The song was, in Ono's words, meant to be "a joke on me" and an

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

song. "Mrs. Lennon" features piano played by Lennon. "Toilet Piece/Unknown" is a 30-second interlude containing the sound of a flushing toilet. "Hirake" is the re-titled song " Open Your Box". The song was originally released as the B-side to Lennon's single " Power to the People", but was censored in response to a managing director of

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

calling the lyrics "distasteful". The verse "Open your trousers, open your skirt, open your legs and open your thighs", was changed to "open your houses", "...church", "...lakes", and "...eyes". Lennon and Ono did not complain about the change of words, and only "wanted to get the record out", as a spokesman said. The album version on ''Fly'' is uncensored. "O' Wind (Body Is the Scar of Your Mind)" features the use of the

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

by Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon.

Side three

Side three of the LP features Ono performing with various automated sound machines created by Fluxus musician Joe Jones and pictured in the gatefold. In the liner notes for the album, Ono commented that she was "always fascinated by the idea of making special instruments for special emotions - instruments that lead us to emotions arrived by our own motions rather than by our control". Joe Jones built eight new instruments specially for the ''Fly'' album which could "play by themselves with minimum manipulation". "Airmale" and "You" represent

yin and yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

, and "Don't Count the Waves" represents the water that connects them. Ono explained that "Airmale" represents the "delicateness of

male Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...

" while "You" expresses the "aggressiveness of

female An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...

". At the end of "You", there is the sound of "wind blowing over a sand hill over white dried female bones", which was created using tape feedback. The song "Airmale" was used in John Lennon's film ''

''.

Side four

Side four consists of the nearly 23-minute long title track and a 30-second track titled "Telephone Piece". "Fly" mostly consists of Ono's vocals with some guitar by Lennon. It was the first track recorded for the album and Ono intended for it to be used for her film of the same name. The track was recorded in one take in Ono and Lennon's room at the Regency Hotel around Christmas 1970 on a

Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company's product lines into new markets. O ...

, shortly after the completion of Ono's debut album '' Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band''. Ono explained the structure of "Fly" as consisting of the following: * Section one – monologue * Section two – monologue in "dialogue" form (Lennon played guitar against the playback of Ono's voice in section one. The guitar tape was then reversed and put together with Ono's voice, so that the voice and guitar ran in two opposite directions as "separate monologues".) * Section three – monologue in a "trialogue" form (Lennon played guitar against the reversed playback tape of section two. His guitar during this process was then reversed and played along with Ono's voice. When the guitar tape was finished, Lennon played the radio against Ono's voice for the remainder of the track.) Ono described section three as "a guitar solo with voice accompaniment" rather than the other way around. Each edition of the US, UK and Japanese albums utilized that country's distinctive telephone ring in the track "Telephone Piece" (i.e. each edition of the album used entirely different recordings). The Japanese version also had Ono speaking in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. CD pressings of ''Fly'' use the US version, and the other two versions have never been released on compact disc.

Out-takes and other material

"Will You Touch Me" was first recorded during the ''Fly'' sessions. It was later re-recorded for Ono's shelved 1974 album ''

A Story ''A Story'' is an album by Yoko Ono, recorded in 1974, during the "lost weekend" sessions in which John Lennon produced '' Walls and Bridges''. It was unreleased until the 1992 box set '' Onobox'', which featured material from ''A Story'' on ...

'' and for 1981's '' Season of Glass''. The original demo version was included on the

Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first CD-only independent record label ...

reissue of ''Fly'' in 1997.

Release and promotion

The original release was a complete

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

package in a

gatefold A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for gramophone record, LP records that became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e., a 12½-inch 2.7-centimetresquare). ...

sleeve A sleeve (, a word allied to '' slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, across a myri ...

that came with a full-size poster and a postcard to order Ono's 1964 book ''

Grapefruit The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The flesh of the fruit is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark red. Grapefru ...

''. Two singles were released from the album. The first single "Mrs. Lennon" was backed with "Midsummer New York" and received a release in the United States in September 1971, followed by a UK release in October. The second single was "Mind Train", which was released only in the United Kingdom and France in January 1972. The single features a substantially cut-down version of the song on the A-side while the B-side was " Listen, the Snow Is Falling", which had previously been released as the B-side of " Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in the United States a month earlier. Four songs from the album were part of the ''Imagine'' film, these were "Don't Count the Waves", "Mrs. Lennon", "Mind Train" and "Midsummer New York". ''Fly'' peaked at number 199 in the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

and stayed on the chart for 2 weeks. On 1 February 1972, Lennon and Ono Lennon performed "Midsummer New York" backed by

Elephant's Memory Elephant's Memory (also billed as Elephants Memory, without the apostrophe) was an American rock band formed in New York City in the late 1960s, known primarily for backing John Lennon and Yoko Ono from late 1971 to 1973 under their Plastic Ono ...

for an episode of ''

The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' is an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland in 1961 before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went i ...

'', which aired on 15 February.

Reception

Tim Ferris of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine gave a mixed review of ''Fly''. He described Ono's music as having "considerable potential" and being "serious work" which could be rewarding with "close attention" from the listener. Ferris praised the "top-rate" studio work of the musicians, and highlighted the songs "Mind Holes", "O' Wind" and "Mrs. Lennon", as well as the "fascinating" Joe Jones tracks on side three. However, he summarised by saying "all in all it just doesn't hold up", stating that Ono and Lennon should take a more "dispassionate" attitude towards producing her work, and feeling that no one involved in the making of the album had "asked hard questions about what is first-rate and what is not". Ferris felt that "Don't Worry Kyoko" and "Mind Train", despite being "livened by a strong rock accompaniment", did not show much progression from Ono's first album and he did not rate the "Toilet Piece/Unknown" and "Telephone Piece" tracks highly. Retrospective reviews of ''Fly'' in later years have been more positive. Ned Raggett of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

stated that "Perhaps the best measure of ''Fly'' is how Ono ended up inventing

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

, or perhaps more seriously bringing the sense of

motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock b ...

's pulse and slow-building tension to an English-language audience. There weren't many artists of her profile in America getting trancey, heavy-duty songs like "Mindtrain" and the murky ambient howls of "Airmale" out." In a review of the 2017 reissue, Aaron Badgley of ''Spill Magazine'' praised the album and called it "complex" and "a work of art", noting that if people took the time to listen to Ono's music they would be surprised at how "brilliant and intelligent" it is. Badgley stated that "Don't Count the Waves" was "30 years ahead of tstime" and highlighted "Mind Train" as a "brilliant piece that leaves you breathless". Marc Masters of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' named the 2017 reissue as "Best New Reissue" of the week along with '' Approximately Infinite Universe''. The album was a significant influence to British

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

musician William Bennett of

Whitehouse Whitehouse may refer to: People * Charles S. Whitehouse (1921–2001), American diplomat * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), English engineer and inventor * E. Sheldon Whitehouse (1883–1965), American diplomat * Elliott Whitehouse (born ...

fame.

Track listing

All songs written by

. For unknown reasons, John Lennon was credited as co-writer of "Mind Train", "Mind Holes", "Toilet Piece/Unknown" and "Telephone Piece" on the disc faces of the 1997 Rykodisc reissue. Lennon has not been credited as co-writer of these tracks on any other release of ''Fly''.

Personnel

– vocals,

claves Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony ...

on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves" *

– guitar, piano on "Mrs. Lennon", organ, automated music machines on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves" *

– guitar, bass guitar, bells on "Mrs. Lennon",

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

on "O'Wind", percussion on "Don't Count the Waves" *

Bobby Keys Robert Henry Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney ...

– claves on "O'Wind" *

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

– guitar on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" *

– drums,

, percussion *

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

– drums on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" * Jim Gordon – drums on "Hirake", tabla on "O'Wind" *Chris Osborne –

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

on "Midsummer New York" and "Mind Train" * Joe Jones – automated music machines on "Airmale", "Don't Count the Waves" and "You" *

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1971 albums Yoko Ono albums Avant-pop albums Krautrock albums Fluxus Apple Records albums Rykodisc albums Albums produced by John Lennon Albums produced by Yoko Ono Albums recorded in a home studio