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The Night John Lennon & Yoko Ono Jammed with Frank Zappa at the Fillmore East (1971)

It’s unfortunate, I think, that legions of Beatles fans turned on Yoko Ono with such ferocious animosity after the breakup of the band. Most fans still absolutely despiseYoko. (See the legion of often crudely misogynist comments under every Youtube video in which she appears.) Sure, her voice and music is certainly not to everyone’s taste, but without her artistic and conceptual influence on John Lennon post-Beatles, it’s unlikely his amazing solo albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970) and Imagine (1971) would sound the way they do. Yoko, in fact, more or less gave Lennon the seeds of “Imagine,” the song, in her quirky 1964 self-published book,Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings, though she never took the credit for it....

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Teo Macero on Bitches Brew

I let Miles have a free hand in the studio.  I always encouraged him to use electronic equipment.  Because if we didn't have it, I'd order it. Whether he used it or not, that was another matter.  I think I was the first one to give him a Fender Rhodes piano.  And I didn't give him one, I gave him two.  And I had ordered three!  They ruined the first two.  Chick Corea ruined the first two because they were on the road.  And then Miles called me up and said he wanted the last one.  I said, "The last one is mine!"  He said, "I don't give a shit, I want that. I want that."  I said, "Miles, you want...

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