Well, I was talking about my own standards. Yours may be different.
Indeed. Which is as it should be. To quote the late, great R.A.W. āLike what you like, enjoy what you enjoy and donāt take crap from anybody.ā
Since you brought Yoko into a thread about Laurie Anderson, though, Iāll make one distinction: Anderson built her career entirely of her own volition, her success entirely the result of her own artistic efforts.
I am not going to school you on Yoko. Your comment reeks of sexism and even racism. This is no doubt colored by my recollection of her reception at the time. Which was vile and racist and sexist and just plain bone-headed.
OK, I will tell you this. Yoko Ono was a respected and internationally known artist before she met John Lennon. That would explain how he was able to see her work in a prominent New York Gallery before meeting her, no?
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My comment was too concise, and makes it sound like Iām saying that Yoko is only famous because of her relationship with John, which was not my intent (and a reminder that I shouldnāt try to respond to things while on the bus). I was only a small child at the time, but I am aware that she was already a known artist. Would she have risen to the same level of cultural significance if she had not met John Lennon and the two of them had not had the very public relationship that they had? Weāll never know, and Iām gonna guess that you and I would disagree.
For better or worse she is tied to the whole Beatles thing, and while it certainly raised her prominence it also casts a shadow over her. I have never been able to see her work without a sense of that whole thing underlying it, although I will admit to not making much of an effort. Iāve never been a fan, not because sheās a woman and not because sheās Japanese, and not because of the whole John thing (heck, they seemed genuinely happy together). I just find her work, at least that which Iāve been exposed to, to be tiresome and heavy handed.
Her work may very well constitute (in some part), a response to that kind of general malaise felt toward her.
I wouldnāt disagree about your point there because i would never bother to make such a silly observation. She woulda, she wounta. The hypothetical is not my bag. Respect for the individual, not forcing others into stereotypes, not going along to get along. That is my bag.
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