For those of you who were really freaked out by Yoko Ono on Double Fantasy, you can breathe easy because she wisely tones it down and cuts out the excesses on the follow-up, Milk And Honey. Here, she is much warmer and dare I say it, cuter? At times she even sounds like Cyndi Lauper, who was HUGELY popular at the time of this album’s release.
Ono’s edgy closer “You’re The One” has been a favorite of mine for years and should have been a single. As for those rumors that this album sounds unfinished, don’t believe them — they simply aren’t true.
This song cycle, or “Heart Play” as it’s called in the lyric sheet, starts off on a dark note — not by Yoko Ono, but by her husband, John Lennon, who had been murdered four years earlier. The first line of “I’m Stepping Out” is printed as “Woke up this morning, blues around my head,” but I swear, he’s saying “noose around my head.” In either case, Lennon doesn’t exactly sound like a man who knows he’s got the rest of his life ahead of him. Foreshadowing perhaps? Or maybe it’s meant to be ironic, especially when you take the song’s happy tone into account. I appreciate that it is left up to the listener to draw their own conclusions. That’s what makes this material so intriguing and, yes, completely heartbreaking.
John and Yoko stretch themselves more on Milk And Honey by delving into some light reggae music on tracks like “Don’t Be Scared” and “Borrowed Time.” Needless to say, both tracks are winners. The execution is perfect and both artists make their respective songs their own. This album really finds this duo at the top of their game. One can only “Imagine” where they would have gone from here.
Two other well-known Lennon cuts to be found within this package are “Nobody Told Me” and “I Don’t Wanna Face It.” What makes the latter such a classic is the incredible guitar work, which must have been influential for contemporaries like Lindsey Buckingham. Two songs that could possibly be considered filler are the half-spoken “Your Hands” and the meandering “My Little Flower Princess.”
Just a warning, you better get out that box of Kleenex because the next two songs are real tear-jerkers. Yoko somehow pulls it together to deliver a soul-stirring kiss goodbye to John on “Let Me Count The Ways,” while a basement tape of John’s “Grow Old With Me” is dusted off and delivered as is. “God bless our love,” he sings. What more powerful statement does one need to leave behind?
