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Unfinished Music, No. 2: Life with the Lions
 
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Unfinished Music, No. 2: Life with the Lions

~ John Lennon, John Lennon & Ono Yoko, Yoko Ono, Bob James
2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £12.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Unfinished Music, No. 2: Life with the Lions + Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins + Live Peace In Toronto 1969
Price For All Three: £27.65

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Product details

  • Audio CD (1 April 2002)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Rykodisc
  • ASIN: B0000009RF
  • Other Editions: Audio CD
  • Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 86,168 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Cambridge 1969
2. No Bed For Beatle John
3. Baby's Heartbeat
4. Two Minutes Silence
5. Radio Play
6. Song For John
7. Mulberry

Product Description

CD Description
This album, subtitled UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2, is linked to its predecessor (TWO VIRGINS: UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 1) by name only. Though both offer recordings that found John Lennon happily stepping into the avant-garde world of his paramour,this album departs from the sound collage approach of theirdebut and instead offers a range of real time recordings. The improvisational 26-minute "Cambridge 1969" is from a liveperformance and primarily features Yoko Ono's vocals and Lennon's feedback guitar.
Four subsequent pieces (originally comprising side two of the album) were recorded at the Queen Charlotte Hospital in London. Yoko occupied a room there at a critical juncture in a difficult pregnancy (ultimately suffering a miscarriage) and John took up on the floor beside her. This documents their desire to draw poetry and emotional resonance from their life together as well as to make art from their surroundings. The five minutes of "Baby's Heartbeat" followed by the "Two Minutes Silence" may not be a riveting traditional listening experience, but it is conceptually moving.

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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4 star:
 (1)
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 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A huge improvement over Two Virgins, 7 April 2005
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
Unfinished Music No1: Two Virgins was a directionless meandering mess, the sound of two people experimenting without any clear idea of where they were going or what they were trying to achieve. In contrast Unfinished Music No 2: Life With The Lions is much more focused, and remains an excellent avant-garde noise album.

The album is split firmly into two distinct sections - track 1 'Cambridge 1969', an epic 26 minute live performance takes up the whole of one side of the original vinyl album, and consists of a virtual dual between John Lennon's waling feedback guitar and Yoko Ono's wailing vocals (with some variation thanks to additional percussion and saxophone in the last 10 minutes). Often Yoko's atonal screeching can be a painful experience, but coupled with some truly inspired guitar feedback from Lennon this piece works well.

The remaining 4 tracks making up the albums original 2nd side tell a more sombre story, being recorded from Queen Charlotte Hospital where John and Yoko lost their baby when Yoko had a miscarriage. 'No Bed For Beatle John' is an improvised unaccompanied vocal piece, as Yoko sings the story of her stay in hospital and the struggles to release Two Virgins, while John sings some half unintelligible monkish accompaniment about Northern Songs, Apple and Marc Bolan. The next two track are fairly self explanatory - 'Baby's Heartbeat' and 'Two Minutes Silence'; taken out of context the idea of releasing a silent 'song' does come over as artistic pretentiousness, but following the snuffed out intimate sounds of the couple's miscarried baby's heartbeat the moment of silence here is both powerful and appropriate. Finally 'Radio Play' features on overdriven / mistuned radio that emits only bursts of percussive noise, while somewhere in the background John calls out of the hospital for his effects.

The 2 CD bonus tracks are 'Song For John', a brief melodic song sung by Yoko with John on acoustic guitar, and 'Mulberry' which features John improvising bizarre sounds playing acoustic slide guitar.

Not exactly pleasant or easy listening, and at an hour long this album can drag a bit at times, but with some bizarre sounds, a compelling real life story, and some of Lennon's best and most unorthodox guitar playing on 'Cambridge 1969' and 'Mulberry', Life With The Lions is an obscure masterpiece in weird records, and a fascinating piece of Beatles history. Recommended for all those who can accept that albums don't have to limit themselves to being collections of melodic pop tunes.

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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Life With The Lions, 9 Jan 2000
A truly awful album by the world's greatest pop star. I defy anybody to rate this album with anything other than one star(r). But I would like to thank Amazon.co.uk for providing an excerpt of the two minute silent track. John would have appreciated that.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Listen to this as a free jazz release, forget it's Lennon., 13 Nov 2000
By A Customer
The way to approach this album is, not as a song-structured Beatle release, but as a typically demanding example of the British free jazz scene of the sixties and beyond. I am referring particularly to 'Cambridge 1969' which takes up half of the disc, recorded live in the city of that name with avant garde luminaries John Stevens and John Tchakai. The work is difficult, of course, and Yoko's ethnic squallings are an acquired taste to say the least. But there are some interesting textural effects between voice and guitar, and the entries of Stevens and Tchakai towards the end of the piece add a new dimension. I've lived with this record for 20 years now, and while I wouldn't call it a desert island release by any terms, it stands up well as a free jazz curio of the time. The rest of the disc, including the infamous silent track, can be safely disregarded.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars What the hell was that?
The only thing I have got to say about this album is how did she get a recording contract?
Published on 18 Sep 2003 by Demon JD

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