Average Rating:
Rating: - Excellent. A must for any Beatles or John Lennon fan
Unfinished Music No. 1 Two Virgins was the first of the three experimental albums released by John Lennon in the late 1960's. (This one in 1968) It represents Lennon and Ono's first "collaboration" together in which they experiment with different sounds such as special effect tape loops, yelling, Lennon playing riffs on the piano, and a plethora of birds singing in the background. Yes, it is a lot of "noise" but it is good noise. Lennon noise. And anything John Lennon had ever released on vinyl (critics be damned) is fine with me. (Along with millions of other Beatle fans) It is called "Two Virgins" -- Not because Lennon or Ono were virgins, but because this is their first plunge into the avant-garde together -- hence "Virgins". According to Lennon, after they finished the recording of these tapes, the two of them made love. (Their first time together, and so they were two virgins from each other until they made love, and after the tapes were finished.) Yes I recommend this CD to even the most casual of Beatle/Lennon fans as it really does represent a part of musical history. Beatle history. Kansas City, Mo 5/28/99
Rating: - A strange night in the lives of John and Yoko
In 1968, disgruntled Beatle, John Lennon, and avant-garde performance artist, Yoko Ono, met in the further's Kenworth, England home; got stoned and drunk out of their minds; stayed-up all night recording hours of tape loops, sound effects, jumbled speech, screams and noodling with musical instruments (I would hesitate to say that any "playing" occurred); copulated and then felt the need to release the recordings as an LP, Unfinished Music #1: Two Virgins, featuring a very nude photograph of themselves on the cover. An album to drive the kids to school to, it is obviously not. But Two Virgins does, however, have an air of creepiness, ambiguity and frustration that is certainly able to penetrate the listener in the right mindset. It is fairly understandable, though, why this is not the most popular album in the world.
Rating: - All you need is... uh, not this album
Would anybody care about this if it wasn't John Lennon? I would think not. You can sit around and ponder the "art" of John and Yoko playing around with tape loops and making other random noises all you want. That's fine. Meanwhile, I will be doing something more productive, like brushing my teeth. Good hygiene is important, you know? Love is important, too, but I fail to see how this album expresses that in any sort of meaningful way. This is the first time I can honestly recommend listening to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music over this album. At least that album was made with the intention of pissing people off. I would definitely not recommend buying this album.
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