Shortly after recording this album, John Lennon raved to Rolling Stone, "If somebody with a rock-oriented mind can possibly listen to her stuff you'll see what she's doing. It's fantastic... she makes music like you've never heard on earth. And when the musicians play with her they're inspired out of their skulls." Naturally, the rock audience dismissed his views, saying Lennon was clearly biased since Yoko Ono was his wife, and besides, nothing good could come out of the evil Woman-Who-Broke-Up-The-Beatles.

To be fair, since there was no alt rock scene to speak of in 1970, curious listeners had no context in which to place this riveting work, which brilliantly fuses the avant-garde with rock 'n' roll. The bass and drums provide a foundation that's rock solid and propulsive (Ringo sure never played like this with the Beatles), while Lennon tries to make his guitar sound like Ono's voice -- or is that the other way around?

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band was recorded at the same time as Lennon's own solo effort, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, after Lennon and Ono had undergone primal scream therapy. Lennon's album, featuring such classics as "Mother," "Isolation," and "God," has long been regarded as one of his more powerful works, while Ono's companion album has been overlooked. Don't you make the same mistake. Yoko Ono is the bridge between the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith.