I'm a huge Beatles fan so when I heard that A&E was showing a documentary on Monday night called "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky" I was excited. I know the film was going to focus on the period when John recorded the "Imagine" album, early 1972. Turns out I was a little disappointed.
It was like watching two hours of home movies ( and who really wants to watch anyones' home movies for that long?). Some of it was interesting, especially the segments in the recording studio. It has always fascinated me how an artist like John Lennon creates his songs. Watching John work out the lyrics, melodies and arrangements for "Imagine" and the other songs on the album were pretty cool. He truly was a creative genius.
Also interesting was reliving the clothing, hairstyles and overall vibe of those days. Everyone seemed to have long hair and facial hair. Clothes were baggy and wild. Everyone was smoking, either cigarettes or weed. Of course these were musicians so I didn't expect anything less.
Viewing John's personal recording studio and the inside of his mansion outside of London was fun. It was like the documentary lifted the viewer out of their living room and plopped them right smack in the 70s. I've heard of Phil Spector, but actually seeing him and hearing him speak was eye-opening ( he was a strange guy on many levels).
Along with the studio pieces they mixed on in some background footage. not much of the Beatles. More so on Yoko Ono. And that's what I probably disliked about the project to begin with- too much Yoko.
I'm not a big Yoko fan, so maybe I'm biased a little. They surviving band members or photographs or whomever else attended those sessions pretty much praised Yoko to extremes, going out of their way to suggest she was the real creative force behind the music and the inspiration for one of the greatest songs ever written of that era- "Imagine" ( Yoko has since claimed to be a co-writer of the song, which will make her even wealthier than he estimated $800 million.
True, John did admit that the words for "Imagine" were already in Yoko's book called " Grapefruit." But it took John to think of the concept and make it into a song. Plus, it seemed like John deferred automatically to Yoko on most subjects, so he would give her credit, right or wrong.
Maybe the really old survivors ( it was kind of shocking in a way to see all of these guys so young and now so ancient) wanted to stay in Yoko's good graces, as she had to be watching the documentary. She is 86-years-old now, living in New York City.
More fun was seeing Yoko now, in limited clips. She is still trying to stay chic and stylish, despite her age. Seeing Julian Lennon was a treat too.
I never could get Yoko's contribution to John's work, from her paintings and weird art pieces to her screaming rants on record or on concert stages. To me she was just weird.
It was like no one had the guts to speak the truth, either then or now, that Yoko really did help to break up the Beatles, for one thing. John loved her for some reason, and that's fine, but don't deny the truth. Yoko was a money-grabber who leeched onto John for her own purposes. She may have loved John, but Yoko knew what she was doing and was ( and still is) a smart businesswoman.
Only one person interviewed back then called her "Grapefruit" book "rubbish.' Everyone else described it- and her- as "different" or other words meaning "garbage" without coming out and saying it.
Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the upcoming film about John & Yoko's relationship, which is to be produced and directed by Peter Jackson. Yoko is involved, so how honest can it be?
What I did like about the documentary was the overall feel of the era- memories of the Vietnam War, the protests in the streets, the overall simple yet complex of times which I lived through but had forgotten.
I like John and his music, but I like The Beatles better. Still, I thought parts of this film were noteworthy, and despite the overall "pro-Yoko" theme, it was worthwhile sitting thru. Would I watch it again? Probably not, as it didn't shed any new little on his music or their relationship.
Like I originally stated, it was almost like watching two hours of home movies. Only the subject of the movies ( and it's a good thing they still exist) is one of the most famous people in the world at that time- John Lennon.
If you're not a Beatles or Lennon fan, you are probably not going to care. I give it ** out of four for the historical footage and glimpses into the inter sanctum of the recording studio and the process with the musicians.
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