Yoko's 'Thin Ice' beautifully revisited

In the video Yoko Ono walks through the rainy streets of New York in 1981

"And when our hearts return to ashes, it'll be just a story ...."

So sings Yoko Ono in Walking on Thin Ice, an extraordinary song that continues to works its magic in new ways some 36 years after it was recorded.

The latest orchestral remix by New York-based DJ Danny Tenaglia lays the song bare in a beautiful manner.

An accompanying short video using footage from 1981 further highlights the evocative nature of the track, and captures the absence in Ono's life following to death of her husband John Lennon a few months earlier.

The video of Ono walking alone through a grey, rainy day in New York City in 1981, shows a virtually deserted and unglamourous looking Times Square followed by contemplative images of Ono back at her apartment in The Dakota building, and sitting on a bench in Central Park where she and Lennon once took walks together.

Brooklyn-born Tenaglia has remixed this song before, taking it to the No.1 spot on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart in 2003 and 2013. However, there is nothing dance-clubby about Walking on Thin Ice (Maestro Version) 2016. Instead, Tenaglia has delivered a hauntingly beautiful orchestral-led version that perfectly complements Ono's poignant lyrics.

In a previous blog I wrote about how this was the track Ono and Lennon were working on at the Record Plant recording studio on December 8, 1980. Lennon had said to Ono he was certain she had just recorded her first number one hit.

Walking on Thin Ice twice reached the Top 40 in the UK official record charts. The original recording did so in 1981, and Tenaglia's first remix matched that achievement in 2003.

Over the years there have been numerous re-recordings of the song by a variety of artists, together with remixes of the original track by a host of producers and DJs, including Tenaglia's two dance playlist topping versions. However, this 2016 mix adds a new dimension to enhance the track's timelessness.


Walking on Thin Ice (Maestro Version) 2016 appears on Ono's new album Yes, I'm a Witch Too. 

Sailing on the boat Lennon sailed

One of my most treasured memories of 2014 was a sailing trip in late September, aboard the Jubilee. This 43ft sloop was once known as the Megan Jaye - the sailing boat on which John Lennon voyaged to Bermuda in 1980.

The boat is still in immaculate condition 34 years later, and it is regularly sailed off the East Coast of the United States by its owners Stephen Fuller, a university professor, and his wife Susan.

The story of Lennon’s sailing adventure is told in the Lennon Bermuda book, which includes a chapter on what became of the boat. The Fullers subsequently invited Heather and I to come and see the Jubilee and take a short trip. That kind invite was fulfilled in the last few days of September when we joined the couple for a short excursion along the coast of Maine.

Given the time of year, we had been warned to expect possibly chilly weather. Instead we were greeted by horizon-to-horizon blue skies and the calmest ocean imaginable. The benign conditions meant there would be no unfurling of the sails, because there wasn’t a breath of wind to be caught. The Jubilee’s small engine was put into action and we motored at a steady six knots, initially weaving through tranquil waterways, where a seal would occasionally raise its head out of curiosity. Forests fringed the craggy coastline, and before long we were heading out into the ocean, charting a course southwards, staying about a mile or two from shore.

Out on the ocean all we had to do was steer a course to avoid the lobster pot buoys, feel a rush of excitement at spotting a passing dolphin or two, enjoy the perfect late summer weather, and reflect on what it must have been like for Lennon when he helped sail the boat 700 miles across the ocean to Bermuda.

Steve and Susan spoke about the pleasure they get from sailing the Jubilee and knowing that the famed musician also enjoyed an open-ocean experience on the boat. Every summer the couple sail between the Washington, DC area and Maine, and in the winter the boat is hauled out of the water and stored in a heated shed for protection.

A plaque on board commemorates the journey Lennon took in June 1980 when he, together with a crew of four, sailed from Newport, Rhode Island to St George, Bermuda. The boat encountered a fierce storm and the former Beatle steered alone for a number of hours as the captain, Hank Halsted, rested and the other crew members recovered from sea sickness. One of the songs Lennon later completed in Bermuda was the lullaby Beautiful Boy, which features the line “out on the ocean, sailing away”. The plaque inside the Jubilee mentions that of all the songs that were influenced by the voyage, Beautiful Boy perhaps best reflects Lennon’s “blue water sailing experience”.

Steve bought the Jubilee in 1997 and estimates he has sailed her 20,000 miles, going as far north as Cape Breton and also enjoying trips to the Caribbean. The boat was built by the Hinckley company in 1977 and was originally named Megan Jaye.

The Jubilee has had only a handful of owners, with the Fullers owning the sloop the longest. It was a year after he had purchased the boat that Steve discovered Lennon had once chartered her.
He feels a connection with the late musician through the shared sailing experience. Coincidently, he was born in 1940, the same year as Lennon, and sailed to St George in June 1980, on a different boat, arriving one week after the former Beatle. Like most people at the time, he had no idea the singer was on the island.

Lennon stayed in Bermuda until the end of July that year, working on songs that appeared on his final album Double Fantasy and the posthumous Milk and Honey. His sailing experience is credited, in part, with reawakening his creativity after a five-year period when he did not release any music.

“It gives me some psychic release and pleasure to know that he enjoyed and met some of his musical ambitions through his sailing journey,” said Steve.

“When I am sailing I experience the pleasure that he got. It gives me a better sense of who he was than if you only knew him through reading about his music or his causes. It shows me that those guys [The Beatles] wanted to enjoy a regular life. He got lucky to be away and to test himself. He grew. It was a reaffirmation of sailing and connectedness with the sea.

“I think about the pictures I've seen of him sitting on the boat. I've sailed with people who are famous, but they are not famous when they are sailing. We are all the same people out here.”

This summer, the boat's former captain, Hank Halsted, returned to Bermuda and visited the John Lennon sculpture in the Botanical Gardens, which commemorates his stay in Bermuda. Hank has been back on board the Jubilee in recent years and gave the Fullers an insight into what it was like during the trip to Bermuda with Lennon.

During our journey I wandered below deck, into the galley and the bed spaces beyond. I rested on the bed which has been identified as the berth Lennon took during his journey. I wanted to get a sense of what it would have been like on that 1980 voyage. On the wood panelling beside the berth is the plaque commemorating that trip. The only sound I was aware of was the quiet whisper of the boat gliding through the ocean. Turning, I looked around at the semi-darkness of the interior, the polished wood panels and a storm lantern gently rocking in a cradle on the opposite side of the cabin. It was hard to imagine a more peaceful spot to be.

The Fullers take great care of the sloop, and say they enjoy their own magical moments when sailing.

Susan said: “I miss it when we are not out on it. I feel 'transported' when we sail. I do not think about work or about family. I feel the wind, the waves and the night.

“It's sleek and beautiful. It embraces the water, especially when you have the sails up and the wind.

“The conversations you have on the boat are not day-to-day conversations. We have conversations that we never have any other time. I sleep better on the Jubilee than when I'm on land. There is a rhythm, you slow down, you don't rush around and every move is measured. You pay attention to more of the things around you. It becomes your world.”

Steve said: “It's about the journey. Getting from A to B is half the pleasure. You don't complain about things when you are out here.”

It felt as though the journey was over all too soon, yet we had been sailing for many hours, and had enjoyed an alfresco lunch on deck. Now we had reached our destination. The Jubilee would shortly be hauled from the water and stored safely indoors for the winter. It had been a magical experience, and we thanked the Fullers as we said our goodbyes.

There was an unexpected coda to our day a few hours later. Heather and I caught a bus service to Boston’s Logan International Airport from where we would connect with a hotel shuttle. We arrived and entered the terminal building to hear music playing on the public address system. The song being played was Lennon’s Beautiful Boy, and the line being sung … out on the ocean, sailing away.

Our day was complete.


Photos from the trip (a few of Lennon in 1980). Music: An instrumental version of Beautiful Boy

Yoko Ono's 'Walking On Thin Ice' tops dance chart

"I think you just cut your first number one, Yoko," John Lennon remarked at the end of a recording of Yoko Ono's 'Walking On Thin Ice.'

Thirty-three years later a remix of the song has just topped the US Billboard hot dance song chart - giving Ono her 11th number one in that particular hit parade in recent years. A different remix of the song, also by New York-based DJ Danny Tenaglia, topped the dance chart in 2003.

The original recording was the last Lennon ever worked on. The night he was shot in December 1980 he and Ono had been in the studio putting the finishing touches to the track. Lennon added lead guitar to the track that evening.

While the current remix by Tenaglia has brought fresh prominence to the song - and introduced it to a new dance/club audience - a look back at the original shows what a striking track it was, and how Lennon and Ono were switching up creative gears.

A haunting quality permeates the song. The lyrics deal with life, death, and fate - and the edginess of the backing track accentuates the deep mood. As well as Lennon, some of the finest studio musicians of the time played on the track, including Hugh McCracken, Tony Levin, Earl Slick and Bermuda's Andy Newmark.

Ono directed a simple video (see above) for the song when it was released in early 1981. It includes home video of herself and Lennon relaxing by the waterside at their Long Island holiday home in early 1980. It was there, in Cold Harbor, that Lennon learned to sail shortly before venturing out on a 650-mile ocean crossing to Bermuda where he worked on, and refined, what became his final songs during a two-month vacation that summer.

The contemplative video also shows Ono wandering alone in New York and sitting on a bench in Central Park, which she and Lennon regularly visited. Ghostly, rapid-cut repeat image of mountains and an inland lake linger in the mind's eye long after the video ends.

Ono's track has stood the test of time. More than three decades after it was made, the original sounds fresh and contemporaneous. As a dance track, Tenaglia's club mix is good and has brought the track to the attention of a new audience. But the true beauty of 'Walking On Thin Ice' is found in the stark moodiness and majesty of the original.

Yoko Ono tops the US dance chart

Yoko Ono at 80 scored a number one hit on the US Dance Chart with 'Hold Me' - a new song written in collaboration with producer Dave Aude.

Yoko's energy is impressive and life-affirming. This song also shows that she continues to treasure her love for John Lennon.

When I first heard this track I was stunned by its vibrancy, but also by the words and the touching message they convey, all the more poignant for anyone who knows the John and Yoko backstory. In the video there is the image of the word 'yes', although it is not part of the lyric. The 'yes' is surely a nod in the direction of the first meeting between Yoko and Lennon at a London art gallery when Lennon climbed a stepladder to look through a magnifying glass at a word written on the ceiling which said 'yes'. The piece of installation art was Yoko's, and the fact that it was a 'positive' message pleased Lennon and led to the couple connecting and living their lives together.

Lennon believed that Yoko's musical output was ahead of its time. In 1980, when he heard The B52's 'Rock Lobster' playing inside a Bermuda nightclub he was struck by the similarities it had to Yoko's earlier recordings. He called her in New York to tell her the world had caught up and was ready for her music.

Well, it may have taken a further 30 years, but there is no doubt that Yoko's music is gaining the popular acclaim that Lennon foresaw. In the past five years a total of 10 Yoko tracks have hit the top of the US Dance Chart. They were reworked/mixed versions of older songs recorded by Yoko, until this year's 'Hold Me' which was specifically written as a dance track.

The thumping dance beat treatment blends well with Yoko's stark vocal delivery. At 80, Yoko recently said in an interview that she feels she is starting a new life. If she continues producing songs like this (and check out her involvement in son Sean's recent 'Don't Frack Me' environmental protest track), then long may this new musical lease of life continue.

'Inspired' the book - 26 years on

Back in 1987, as a 21-year-old, I made my first foray into the world of book writing with Inspired. It was a paperback collection of short stories and poems by five young writers. I initiated the independent venture and brought together the writers, who submitted their work. My brother Gordon illustrated the front cover, and 100 copies of the book were printed and distributed (a few made it into the local public library).

More than a quarter of a century later it was but a distant memory and then I caught sight of a photograph of the front and back cover, reproduced here, and it reminded me of life's journey from way back then to where I am today.

Inspired was an outlet for my creative writing, as it was for the other contributers. Within its pages I was able to pour out a lot of the ideas and imagination that filled my late teenage years. Included in the collection was the short poem 'Faeries of Green Lochan', which went on to become firstly a song that I played regularly at open mic nights, and then a stage play performed by myself and a fellow drama student, Yvonne, at the Bournemouth Centre for Community Arts, in England, in 2003. That stage play, together with the song (the poem, put to guitar music and sung) evolved into the short live-action/animation film 'Faeries of Green Lochan', featuring myself and Heather, that was created between 2010 and 2011 and premiered at the First Bermuda Bakatown Film Festival in January 2012 - some 25 years after the original poem had first appeared within the pages of Inspired. The film can be viewed on YouTube.

Inspired was never likely to make money, but it did provide a creative outlet for a group of young writers. For me it is now also a historical record of where I was as a young writer and something I can compare to my later collection Eating Clouds (2008).

One message that early book represents is that, no matter if no one else is going to give you a break in the world of literature, you can always find a way to share your work with others - even if only to 100 potential book buyers. It also acts as a measure of your belief in yourself as a writer and your desire to work towards your writing dreams.

I'm particularly pleased that I was able to take one of my early works, 'Faeries of Green Lochan', which was actually written in early 1985, and develop it in a number of artistic forms. And there is another strange coincidence. As my most recent work Lennon Bermuda prepares to be given a worldwide launch in the UK later this month, I note that Inspired opened with a quotation from John Lennon's Aunt Mimi, her words to a 17-year-old Lennon that "Playing the guitar is all right as a hobby John, but you'll never make a living at it". I wrote to Mimi Smith for permission to use her quote, which she granted in her letter of reply. A loop that stretches 26 years can therefore be traced between Inspired and Lennon Bermuda.

Positive comments to book

A month has almost passed since the Lennon Bermuda book was launched and the reaction has been very encouraging. In the first few days I received positive comments in person and through phone calls and e-mails from people telling me how they had enjoyed reading the 120-page story.

The gentle manner in which it was written, and the descriptive Bermuda passages all helped. One of the island commentators said she was struck particularly by the many references to people and places on the island - a rarity for Bermuda to have a book so deeply focused on itself.

Now the work begins to spread the book far and wide. It is already available online, but the prohibitive shipping costs for anyone outside the USA is a stumbling block (at least one potential reader in Japan is waiting instead for it to be more readily available with lower postage attached).

Preparations are underway for a UK launch in early 2013, while I am doing my bit to seek out a publishing/marketing outlet with a greater global reach. I've no doubt that the potential interest in the book - and the CD box set version - could add up to many tens of thousands of people if we can get the word out through the right channels.

At the same time as all this I am focusing on my own future writing projects, which immediately involve wrapping up Dolphin Girl and then doing an outline treatment for a new novel.

New Lennon book

The 'Lennon Bermuda' book I wrote earlier this year went on sale this week.

It was a labour of love to write about John Lennon and his two-month stay in Bermuda during the summer of 1980.

Although, as the author, it probably isn't my place to say so, I do feel the 120-page book is the definitive account of Lennon's sailing trip to the island and his subsequent encounters with people in Bermuda where he enjoyed relative anonymity during his stay.

Writing the book was an experience too, as I was brought into the project at a late stage, which meant speed interviewing and writing everything in a 20-day window. That was a formidable challenge because I was also doing my regular full-time job (there was no time to schedule any vacation days).

However, I didn't mind the pressure. Writing about one of my musical favourites, and getting to speak to so many of the cast of characters that encountered the singer-songwriter during those sunny months of 1980, was quite uplifting. By the time I'd finished I had spoken with twelve people who had direct contact with Lennon during his Bermuda sojourn. It felt as though I'd lived through the whole event, albeit concertinaed into such a tight time-frame.

The proofs of the book I've seen, but not yet the finished product. That I look forward to next Friday at the John Lennon tribute concert in the Botanical Gardens when it is officially launched.

Readers can purchase it online, where postage for US customers is only $5. That's reasonable, unlike the rest of the world postage which weighs in at $45 (more than the book itself). Hopefully that changes when the book is made available through more mainstream channels. For now, if you're in the US and you're interested in John Lennon - or my writing - I'd recommend checking it out. It contains stories and pictures that have not been heard or seen before.

Buy the book online HERE

A man who played with the Beatles

Even though it was my day off, I switched into journalism mode today and interviewed a man who once played with The Beatles before they were superstars.

Roy Young was fairly well-known in England in the early 1960s and was in demand on the booming rock and roll scene in Hamburg, Germany. It was there he shared the stage with the young Beatles before they had even secured a record contract.

Roy is coming to Bermuda to play at the John Lennon tribute event on September 21, hence my reason for doing a phone interview for the newspaper.

Having watched films like 'Backbeat' and 'Nowhere Boy', which detail those early years of the Beatles story, I can only imagine what it was like to have actually been there and been friends with the group. Roy has that story, and I felt it was a privilege to hear him talk about it.

Here is some of what Roy had to say: "John (Lennon) was really the funny guy, you really had to watch your step with him because he would do some strange things. He was my favourite friend. He was a good guy to be around. He was a lot of laughs. He just had that sort of magic about him. It was nice to be in his company. I found him to be an absolute gentleman, as much as he was fooling around.

"John was always chewing gum when he was singing. I don't know how he could sing and chew gum. And of course he and I were always on the same microphone and one night he was chewing this gum, he must have thought about it and he spat it out and it hit me on the nose and stuck there. I looked like Pinocchio. John started laughing when he saw it stuck there. Paul and George looked over and John pointed at my face, I had left it there because I could see the funny side of it. Paul and George fell on the floor."

It was a toss up whether to seek out this interview or spend time on Dolphin Girl. I'm glad I did reach out to Roy. It was an enlightening and engaging hour on the phone.

It also gives me a little more time to consider a shift in Dolphin Girl, from present tense to past tense presentation; a debate of which I shall write more very shortly.

UPDATE (24 August 2012): Link to interview with Roy Young CLICK HERE

The lights of the Olympics go out

Finally the London Olympics are over.

It have been great, but also a great big distraction that has kept me from writing. I had anticipated that would be the case, particularly as the Games were taking place in the UK - my far off home.

If I couldn't be there, the next best thing was to immerse myself in the experience through online live broadcasts - which I did, without regret.

The closing ceremony included a video of John Lennon singing 'Imagine' - a song that more than ever is recognised the world over for its peaceful sentiments.

Imagine a world where we all get along happily, with shared experiences of an uplifting nature like those provided in abundance by these Olympic Games.

Farewell Olympics 2012 - it was a great journey.

Tom Newton Dunn, political editor at The Sun newspaper, captures something poignant with these few words: "The lights are going out all over East London, we will not see them lit again. But we will always remember the greatest ever Olympics."

And now my focus returns to that final chapter of Dolphin Girl.