It took me a long time to get into Yoko Ono. I tried first to listen to her 80s dance songs, like ‘Walking On Thin Ice’ and ‘No, No, No’, which are quite good, but they never felt unique enough to her. I would have much rather heard someone like Cristina or Lizzy Mercier-Descloux sing those songs. But with Fly, it feels unequivocally Yoko. The yelping, pawing, grasping… the sensuality and innocence imbued together into this awkward ferocity. Once I heard Yoko, it just hit me. Anything goes! The voice doesn’t have to be a fluid tool of mastery. It can speak what you feel in the most nonverbal, innately exasperated sense. Listening to ladies like Yoko, Meredith, and Diamanda helped me find the voice within my voice… the tether that takes it all deep down. That’s the beauty of the voice, it can express so many colored emotions, who says it always has to be just the ones that sound pretty?
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Jane Weaver
