Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band [with] John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band [signed to Jonas Mekas from Yoko Ono and John Lennon, respectively]

New York: Apple Records, 1970. Ono record: SW3373. LP with original outer sleeve, black inner sleeve. Very good, record clean and sleeve intact. Signed in ballpoint pen to front of outer sleeve, “To Jonas with love, Yoko Ono”

Lennon record: SW3372. LP with original outer and inner sleeves. Very good, record clean and sleeves intact, inner sleeve toned at edges. Signed in ballpoint pen to front of outer sleeve, “To Jonas with love from, John Lennon”. Item #6660

The debut studio albums released simultaneously by Ono and Lennon, both bearing the title Plastic Ono Band. Ono’s album features the Ornette Coleman Quartet on one track, an unexpected collaboration sparked by Coleman’s interest in Ono’s artwork and music produced in the 1960s. Ono’s singing on the album mixed hetai, a Japanese vocal technique from kabuki theatre, with modern rock music and outbursts of aggression inspired by the primal therapy Ono and Lennon then practiced with Arthur Janov. Lennon’s album explored themes of child-parent abandonment and trauma and is largely considered his best and most influential solo work.

The respective cover images are photographs taken at Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park estate with an Instamatic camera by actor Dan Richter, who lived with and worked as an assistant for the couple at the time. The images are identical except for Ono and Lennon’s inverted positions in each respective album.
These copies were given as gifts by Lennon and Ono to their friend and collaborator Jonas Mekas, with each inscribing their respective albums to Mekas.

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