Recorded 1970–71 Producer John LennonYoko Ono Release date 20 September 1971 | Length 94:52 | |
![]() | ||
Released 20 September 1971 (1971-09-20) Studio VariousAbbey Road Studios(London, England)Ascot Sound Studios(Sunninghill, Berkshire, England)The Record Plant(New York City, New York, U.S.) Similar Yoko Ono albums, Rock music albums |
Fly is the second album by Yoko Ono, produced by her and John Lennon, and released in 1971. It was a complete avant-garde/Fluxus package in a gatefold sleeve that came with a full-size poster and a postcard to order Ono's book Grapefruit. Notable songs include the singles "Midsummer New York" and "Mrs. Lennon", "Hirake" aka "Open Your Box" and "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", dedicated to Ono's daughter Kyoko Cox. "Airmale" is the soundtrack to Lennon's film Erection, showing a building being erected in time lapsed photography, while "Fly" is the soundtrack to Ono's film Fly.
Contents
Recording
The album was recorded around the same time as Lennon's Imagine. Ono had to re-record her vocals on "Open Your Box", on 4 March 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, after a managing director of EMI called the lyrics "distasteful"; The song featured a line that went "Open your trousers, open your skirt, open your legs and open your thighs". "Trousers", "skirt", "legs", and "thighs" were changed to "houses", "church", "lakes", and "eyes". Lennon and Ono didn't complain about the change of words, and only "wanted to get the record out", as a spokesman said.
"Will You Touch Me" was first recorded during the Fly sessions sometime in November 1971, later ending up on 1981's Season of Glass. The original version ended up on the Rykodisc reissue of Fly in 1998.
Each edition of the US, UK and Japanese albums utilized that country's distinctive telephone ring in the track "Telephone Piece" (i.e. each edition of the album used entirely different recordings) - the Rykodisc CD edition used the US variation.
Release
Fly peaked at number 199 in the Billboard charts. On 1 February 1972, Lennon and Ono Lennon recorded "Midsummer New York" backed by Elephant's Memory for an episode of The Mike Douglas Show which aired on 15 February.
Track listing
All songs written by Yoko Ono.
- "Midsummer New York" – 3:51
- "Mind Train" – 16:52
- "Mind Holes" – 2:47
- "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" – 4:55
- "Mrs. Lennon" – 4:12
- "Hirake" – 3:31
- "Toilet Piece/Unknown" – 0:30
- "O'Wind (Body Is the Scar of Your Mind)" – 5:22
- "Airmale" – 10:43
- "Don't Count the Waves" – 5:24
- "You" – 8:59
- "Fly" – 22:52
- "Telephone Piece" – 0:37
- "Between the Takes" – 1:58
- "Will You Touch Me" – 2:45
Singles
Personnel
Songs
1Midsummer New York3:50
2Mindtrain16:50
3Mind Holes2:46