Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins

At the time of its release, this duo album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono gained its greatest notice for its cover, a photograph that depicted the two standing before the camera naked. The recording, too, can be described as naked, in that it contains no music that would interfere with one's ability to hear the normal sounds of life. The record is not unlike what you might get if you turned on a tape recorder for a random half hour in your home ?snatches of inaudible conversation far away from the microphone, footsteps, wind, etc. Conceptual "music" in the Cageian sense, yes, but not popular music of the kind with which John Lennon had been previously associated in any sense at all. The 1997 CD reissue adds the bonus track of Yoko Ono's ballad "Remember Love," the B-side of Plastic Ono's band "Give Peace a Chance." ?William Ruhlmann