JOHN LENNON AND YOKO ONO/UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 1:TWO VIRGINS T 5001 (-68) US

 One of the most famed and at the same time less played records ever. Recorded by John and Yoko in Lennon's home while his wife Cynthia was on holiday in Greece. Consisting of tape loops, spoken words, screams and sound effects, all mashed together seemingly on a hunch without care for any result. According to Lennon it was just them expressing contemporary feelings and meant to be recieved in whatever way the listener wanted to. Maybe it says something about me, but I don't get it. It could be heard as an exemple of psych or avant-garde and I do dig those genres. Though then I need some kind of theme or melodic content, like in the first two Yoko Ono albums, to truly enjoy. What I hear here is just a mishmash of sounds that doesn't tell me anything. What gets me is the sleeve design showing the couple stark naked front and back, ordinary looking without any kind of photo-shopping, wanting to express both innocence and honesty. That's brave. Of course with all that EMI and Capitol didn't wanna distribute it, so Track records took on the challenge in UK and Tetragrammaton in US. First released as true mono through mail order only, all publicly issued stereos after that was fake. EMI did press the UK vinyl, but left the sleeve handeling elsewhere. I never heard that but guess it sounds quite clear. This US is repudetly just transferred from a UK vinyl with lots of surface noise. And that is what I hear on this mint copy - not only is the "music" too much for me, it also comes quite muddy accompanied by lots of hissing sounds. So it won't be spun a lot here in the future, but it is a welcome addition to my Beatles collection. Also originally issued on vinyl in UK (Apple S/APCOR 2), Canada and Netherlands and as US 8-track and cassette. Japan2016 CD on Sony (SICX 71) came with Yoko's "Remember Love" as bonus track. Premiere US had label as shown here in a glossy cover contained in a brown bag with face pics and a bible quote from Genesis, chapter 2.  (BÄ*)  (JYZÖ*) (YZÄ*) (FÄV*) (ÄPLÄ*)