26 - Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace in Toronto '69 - 1969

Side One
Blue Suede Shoes
Money (That's What I Want)
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Yer Blues
Cold Turkey
Give Peace A Chance

Side Two
Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow)
John John (Let's Hope For Peace)


DISCOVERY; What did you think? Suddenly I was going to branch out into music outside my comfort zone? There was a scene yet to play out in my Beatles fanatic phase. While The Stones, Dylan and Zappa had joined my collection in a theoretical way. I didn't actually have the LPs. Shitty tapes made on a hand held cassette didn't really count. They were safe. It would take a real act of willpower to purchase and walk out of the store with some artist other than The Beatles under my arm. It would feel like a betrayal in a way. Just so it's quite clear, I was still 100% under the spell.

Walking out of the store after plucking this album from the John Lennon section. I was on top of the world! The 1970 calender included inside took pride of place on the wall next to the phone in my room and if I still had it the dates would all sync up again in 2026. The dates never synced up while it was hanging in my room and I never got all the way through side two of this album. While Yoko screaming can be slightly irritating the sound of a guitar feeding back is monumentally so.

WHERE & WHEN; This was an underground album which would be perfectly at home with music of a later epoch. It was grungy and hard to listen to but I loved it. As rough as a bear's ass and every inch as challenging. Listening to side two was an ordeal. I tried a few times. I should try playing it quietly with a ton of added reverb. Might be ambient and relaxing. I recently had a look again at the film which provides a hint as to what the day was like. You couldn't describe the performances by Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, Little Richard as anything but loose and free flowing. A ramshackle stage, numbers that never seemed to end, unrehearsed musicians. Taken in its entirety the concert event and John and Yoko's appearance are a very curious artefact 50 years on. Lesser known musicians might try something like this, might get away with it, might be heralded as genius'. I watched the film grinning from ear to ear. Bless them I thought.

HIGHLIGHTS; Blue Suede Shoes - Dizzy Miss Lizzy - Cold Turkey - Don't Worry Kyoko

STATUS; Must Have