[Introspective] NYTimes.com Article: An Old Act Remixed for a Rave

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Please note the March 25th release date.

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An Old Act Remixed for a Rave

March 10, 2003
By JOHN LELAND 




 

A few weeks after her 70th birthday, Yoko Ono took the
microphone in a throbbing downtown disco over the weekend,
doing that warble thing that inevitably unravels into
orgasmic moaning. It was long after Friday night had passed
into Saturday morning, but for many in the club Arc, near
the Holland Tunnel, the evening was still young. 

As the music from the disc jockey pounded behind her, Ms.
Ono danced her way out of a leather jacket, looking trim
and athletic in black T-shirt and tight pants. 

"Are you in shock?" asked Ramon Nieves, a shirtless man on
the dance floor, staring in unqualified delight. 

The warble was a prelude to "Walking on Thin Ice," a song
she released shortly after John Lennon's death in 1980, and
before many of the people in Arc were born. The club's disc
jockey, Danny Tenaglia, recently remixed the song as part
of a project to introduce Ms. Ono's music to the rave
crowd. An album of remixes, featuring Mr. Tanaglia and
other popular club D.J.'s, will come out later this year or
in 2004, said Rob Stevens, managing director of Mind Train
records. 

The Arc gig was what is known as a "track date," on which
singers perform a song or two over recorded instrumental
music. The club does not have a stage, so Ms. Ono sang
behind the glass of the D.J. booth, standing on a wooden
box so the crowd could see her. 

Not all were amused. "It's for personal reasons," said
Valerie Vivirito, 21, taking the nay side. "She broke up
the Beatles." 

Even in a crowd too young to remember the four's fabness,
Ms. Ono can still divide a room. 

At her apartment in the Dakota last month Ms. Ono talked
about her latest foray into the public eye, which includes
both the remixes and an art installation at P.S. 1 in Long
Island City, Queens, "Freight Train" (1999), a railroad car
shot up with a machine gun and lighted from the inside. 

The help was off, so Ms. Ono asked an assistant to make
espresso. 

The recordings were not her idea, she said. "It's something
I thought had died years ago," she said. "I let it go." 

In 2001 a New Jersey production team called the Orange
Factory asked to tinker with some of her old music. Mr.
Stevens, who produced recent recordings for Ms. Ono,
suggested "Open Your Box," a provocatively smutty song that
was once banned for its sexual frankness. The loving
weirdness of their remix moved her to tears, she said. 

"I always had such a feeling of being an outsider," she
said. "The club audience seemed to understand me. I thought
I was far out, but they're far out in their own right." 

She has made occasional appearances in clubs to perform the
song, shouting commands like "take off your pants" to an
audience young enough to be her children or grandchildren.
"I don't have a focused concept about age," she said. 

"Walking on Thin Ice," which is to come out as a commercial
single on March 25, is the fourth song from the remix
project. Besides Mr. Tenaglia's version, the single
includes remixes by the Pet Shop Boys, Felix Da Housecat,
Peter Rauhofer, FKEK, the Orange Factory and Rui Da Silva. 

"I don't know what I want out of it," Ms. Ono said. "I
don't want anything. I'm just enjoying the unfolding. Which
is how my life is." 

At Arc she Ono arrived with a smaller entourage than many
one-hit wonders, bringing a driver, a bodyguard, two
assistants and a makeup stylist. She has long used her
celebrity, or anticelebrity, to make small impressions
rather than big ones, tweaking the expectations of fans and
foes alike. At a time when "Give Peace a Chance," which she
recorded with Lennon in 1969, is in the air, she had little
to say about the possible war in Iraq. "I don't think we'll
have war," she said. 

Being 70 takes some accommodation. Instead of staying out
late for the 7 a.m. performance, she went to bed and woke
up early. "I was going to come in my nightie," she said.
She spent much of the morning looking for the right
sunglasses, finally settling on a pair of wraparounds in
lieu of the ones she really wanted. (When you're Yoko Ono,
you have a closet just for sunglasses.) Even so, she took a
wire-framed pair along just in case. 

After "Walking on Thin Ice," she lingered briefly in the
club's V.I.P. area, ready to start the day. Most of the
crowd got back to dancing, but a few craned for another
look. 

"She's a legend, dude," said Steve Soheilian, 25, who had
driven up from Virginia for the occasion, mainly to hear
Mr. Tenaglia. "Just being in the same room with her is a
privilege." 

With as little ceremony as she had put into her entrance,
Ms. Ono climbed into her black Mercedes and headed back
uptown. 

In the bright sunshine of Saturday morning, Erick Morillo,
32, left with the mixture of befuddlement and credit that
Ms. Ono has often drawn over the last four decades. "I
thought it was so-so," he said. "I don't know what she was
doing up there. But it's all good. Not a lot of people at
that level support our scene." 

The throb of Friday night leaked out from inside unabated.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/10/arts/music/10ONO.html?ex=1048305845&ei=1&en=e2690394b3129b0a



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