• NEWS PIECE: In case you weren’t aware, today (February 18) is the lovely Yoko Ono’s birthday.
• NEWS PIECE: In case you weren’t aware, Secretly Canadian has been not-so-secretly partnering with Chimera Music (the “collaborative artist-run label and arts collective” of Sean Lennon and pals) since 2016 to release Yoko Ono’s musical output from 1968 to 1985.
• NEWS PIECE: In case you weren’t aware, today, Secretly Canadian has also announced the latest release in the grand roll-out project: 1969’s Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album. (Your favorite! Right?) This latest reissue will be…reissued on March 22, which is not-coincidentally two days after what would have been Ono and Lennon’s 50th wedding anniversary. Aww. <3
• NEWS PIECE: In case you weren’t aware, back on March 20, 1969, John and Yoko got married in Gibraltar (you know: the one “near Spain?” Thanks, John.) And for their honeymoon, the lovebirds spent a solid week lying in bed at the Amsterdam Hilton, inviting members of the press to come up to their room for interviews and photos in an attempt to use the publicity generated by the “Bed-in” to…somehow…instantiate world peace, I guess?
…Aaaaand when that didn’t quite work as well as they’d hoped, they made Wedding Album, an “enduring snapshot of a vibrant pop-cultural moment, with the hostilities of the Vietnam War as its bracing backdrop” which captures “the humor, earnestness, and spontaneity” that marked the early years the couple’s wedded bliss! Cha-ching!
• NEWS PIECE: In case you weren’t aware, the original, created by graphic designer John Kosh, included “a box filled with souvenirs of Lennon and Ono’s nuptials: photographs, a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate, both Lennon’s and Ono’s drawings, a picture of a slice of wedding cake, and more,” all of which have been faithfully recreated for the new edition — which, btw, you can pre-order here in your choice of limited white-vinyl LP, compact disc, and digital formats.
Conclusions?
War might not be over yet, but your fevered wait for a solid reissue of this weird piece of time-and-place-specific ephemera sure is. Happy Birthday, Yoko!
Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album tracklisting:
01. John & Yoko
02. Amsterdam