Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Encyclopedia
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins is an album released by John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
in 1968. The result of an all-night session of musical experimentation in Lennon's home studio at Kenwood
, John and Yoko's debut album is known not only for its avant garde content, but also for its cover. The album's title came from the couple's feeling that they were "two innocents, lost in a world gone mad", and because after making the recording, the two consummated their relationship.
The recording consists largely of tape loop
s, playing while Lennon tries out different instruments (piano, organ, drums) and sound effects (including reverb, delay
and distortion
), changes tapes and plays other recordings, and converses with Ono, who vocalises ad-lib in response to the sounds. Lennon's longtime friend Peter Shotton
remembered later in his memoir (The Beatles, Lennon and Me) that many of the loops were made by Lennon and himself, in the days before the recording. Lennon recorded directly to two-track stereophonic, but much of the source material was monophonic.
Two Virgins was the third album released under the Apple Records
label, after George Harrison
's Wonderwall Music
and The Beatles
. It was distributed by Track Records
in the United Kingdom and Tetragrammaton Records
in the United States, after EMI
in the UK and Capitol Records
in the US refused to handle it, because of the cover photo. (Nonetheless, EMI mastered and pressed the record in Britain, charging their standard fee.) The couple soon after released a related recording called Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions
.
Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney
was asked to provide a note on the album cover, which read: "When two great Saints meet, it is a humbling experience. The long battles to prove he was a Saint."
The album was reissued in the US and Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. While the American reissues were of inferior quality, the Japanese pressings were made on virgin vinyl and enclosed in rice paper
inner sleeves. One US edition from 1984, on the Apple label and claiming to be distributed by Tetragrammaton (the original US distributor) was not mastered from the original tape, but merely transferred from another LP copy with audible surface noise. A CD edition from the same vinyl-transfer source was issued in 1991 by Creative Sounds Ltd. in the US, claiming an association with Tetragrammaton on the cover.
The album was officially reissued from a proper remaster on Rykodisc
in 1997 as part of a series of Yoko Ono reissues, with an additional bonus track — "Remember Love", Ono's B-side to "Give Peace a Chance
". This edition is slightly edited; it is missing about a minute of audio from the end of each side. The 1997 CD edition was also issued in Japan by Video Arts.
Actress Sissy Spacek
, using the pseudonym Rainbo, recorded the song "John, You Went Too Far This Time" about the album cover. The song is occasionally played on Dr. Demento
's radio show.
A recording of "Together"
, written by George Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, is heard in the background. "Together" was originally a no. 1 pop hit by Paul Whiteman
and his Orchestra in 1928, featuring Bix Beiderbecke
on coronet.
The couple used a time-delay camera to take nude photographs of themselves for the album's cover. The front cover showed them frontally nude including Lennon's penis and Ono's breasts and pudendal cleft, and both Lennon's and Ono's unkempt pubic hair, while the rear cover showed them nude from behind including their buttocks. (The photos were taken not at Kenwood, but at Ringo Starr
's basement apartment at Montagu Square
, where Lennon and Ono stayed later that year.)
The cover provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper. Copies of the album were impounded as obscene in several jurisdictions (including 30,000 copies in New Jersey
). Lennon commented that the uproar seemed to have less to do with the explicit nudity, and more to do with the fact that the pair were rather unattractive (and the photo unflattering; Lennon described it later as a picture of "two slightly overweight ex-junkies"). The album covers shown (front and back) below are censored with black bars covering the genitalia, buttocks, and breasts.
Rykodisc CD bonus track: "Remember Love" (Ono)
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
in 1968. The result of an all-night session of musical experimentation in Lennon's home studio at Kenwood
Kenwood, St. George's Hill
Kenwood is a house on the St. George's Hill estate, Weybridge, Surrey, England. Originally called the Brown House, it was designed by architect T.A. Allen, and built in 1913 by local builders, Love & Sons. The estate was constructed around the Weybridge Golf Club, which was designed in 1912 by...
, John and Yoko's debut album is known not only for its avant garde content, but also for its cover. The album's title came from the couple's feeling that they were "two innocents, lost in a world gone mad", and because after making the recording, the two consummated their relationship.
The recording consists largely of tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s, playing while Lennon tries out different instruments (piano, organ, drums) and sound effects (including reverb, delay
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
and distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
), changes tapes and plays other recordings, and converses with Ono, who vocalises ad-lib in response to the sounds. Lennon's longtime friend Peter Shotton
Peter Shotton
Peter Shotton , commonly referred to as Pete Shotton, is an English businessman, best known for his long friendship with John Lennon of The Beatles. He was a close childhood friend of Lennon's, and attended Dovedale Infants School and Quarry Bank Grammar School at the same time as the future Beatle...
remembered later in his memoir (The Beatles, Lennon and Me) that many of the loops were made by Lennon and himself, in the days before the recording. Lennon recorded directly to two-track stereophonic, but much of the source material was monophonic.
Two Virgins was the third album released under the Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
label, after George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
's Wonderwall Music
Wonderwall Music
Wonderwall Music is George Harrison's first solo album and the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall. The songs are virtually all instrumental, except for some non-English vocals and a slowed-down spoken word track. The songs were recorded in December 1967 in England, and January 1968 in Bombay, India...
and The Beatles
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
. It was distributed by Track Records
Track Records
Track Records is an English record label founded in London in 1966 by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, then managers of hard rock band The Who. The most successful artists whose work appeared on the Track label were The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Thunderclap...
in the United Kingdom and Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records was an American record label, founded by artist manager Roy Silver, Bruce Post Campbell, Marvin Deane, and comedian Bill Cosby in the late 1960s. The name references a term for the un-nameable name of God....
in the United States, after EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in the UK and Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in the US refused to handle it, because of the cover photo. (Nonetheless, EMI mastered and pressed the record in Britain, charging their standard fee.) The couple soon after released a related recording called Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions
Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions is an album of noise music released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969, and the successor to 1968's highly controversial Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins...
.
Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
was asked to provide a note on the album cover, which read: "When two great Saints meet, it is a humbling experience. The long battles to prove he was a Saint."
History
Two Virgins failed to chart in the UK (and only 5000 British copies were ever pressed), but managed to reach #124 in the US.The album was reissued in the US and Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. While the American reissues were of inferior quality, the Japanese pressings were made on virgin vinyl and enclosed in rice paper
Rice paper
Rice paper usually refers to paper made from parts of the rice plant, like rice straw or rice flour. The term is also used for paper made from or containing other plants, such as hemp, bamboo or mulberry...
inner sleeves. One US edition from 1984, on the Apple label and claiming to be distributed by Tetragrammaton (the original US distributor) was not mastered from the original tape, but merely transferred from another LP copy with audible surface noise. A CD edition from the same vinyl-transfer source was issued in 1991 by Creative Sounds Ltd. in the US, claiming an association with Tetragrammaton on the cover.
The album was officially reissued from a proper remaster on Rykodisc
Rykodisc
Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
in 1997 as part of a series of Yoko Ono reissues, with an additional bonus track — "Remember Love", Ono's B-side to "Give Peace a Chance
Give Peace a Chance
"Give Peace a Chance" is a song written by John Lennon, originally under the moniker Lennon–McCartney, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apple 13 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1809 in the United States. It is the first solo single issued by Lennon, and...
". This edition is slightly edited; it is missing about a minute of audio from the end of each side. The 1997 CD edition was also issued in Japan by Video Arts.
Actress Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
, using the pseudonym Rainbo, recorded the song "John, You Went Too Far This Time" about the album cover. The song is occasionally played on Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
's radio show.
A recording of "Together"
Together (1928 song)
"Together" is a 1928 popular song with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The most popular 1928 recording of the song, by Paul Whiteman, with Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, was a #1 hit for two weeks....
, written by George Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, is heard in the background. "Together" was originally a no. 1 pop hit by Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
and his Orchestra in 1928, featuring Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
on coronet.
Cover
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
's basement apartment at Montagu Square
34 Montagu Square, Marylebone
34 Montagu Square is the address of a London ground floor and basement flat once leased by Ringo Starr during the mid-1960s. Its location is 1.3 miles from the Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles recorded...
, where Lennon and Ono stayed later that year.)
The cover provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper. Copies of the album were impounded as obscene in several jurisdictions (including 30,000 copies in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
). Lennon commented that the uproar seemed to have less to do with the explicit nudity, and more to do with the fact that the pair were rather unattractive (and the photo unflattering; Lennon described it later as a picture of "two slightly overweight ex-junkies"). The album covers shown (front and back) below are censored with black bars covering the genitalia, buttocks, and breasts.
Side one
- "Two Virgins Side One": – 14:14
- "Two Virgins No. 1"
- "Together"Together (1928 song)"Together" is a 1928 popular song with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The most popular 1928 recording of the song, by Paul Whiteman, with Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, was a #1 hit for two weeks....
(George Buddy DeSylva, Lew BrownLew BrownLew Brown was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States.Brown was born as Louis Brownstein in Odessa, Russian Empire...
, Ray HendersonRay HendersonRay Henderson , was an American songwriter.Born Raymond Brost in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley...
) - "Two Virgins No. 2"
- "Two Virgins No. 3"
- "Two Virgins No. 4"
- "Two Virgins No. 5"
Side two
- "Two Virgins Side Two": – 15:13
- "Two Virgins No. 6"
- "Hushabye Hushabye" (composer unknown)
- "Two Virgins No. 7"
- "Two Virgins No. 8"
- "Two Virgins No. 9"
- "Two Virgins No. 10"
Rykodisc CD bonus track: "Remember Love" (Ono)
Further listening
- "Testimony - The Life and Times of John Lennon: "In His Own Words"" recording by John Lennon & Yoko Ono Label: Synergie OMP / The Orchard
External links
- Ballad of John and Yoko - selection from 1986 autobiography