Fly (Yoko Ono album)

The album was recorded around the same time as Lennon's Imagine.[2] Ono had to re-record her vocals on "Open Your Box", on 4 March 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, after a managing director of EMI called the lyrics "distasteful";[2] In the verse "Open your trousers, open your skirt, open your legs and open your thighs",[2] the words "Trousers", "skirt", "legs", and "thighs" were changed to "houses", "church", "lakes", and "eyes".[2] Lennon and Ono didn't complain about the change of words, and only "wanted to get the record out", as a spokesman said.[2]

"Will You Touch Me" was first recorded during the Fly sessions. It was later re-recorded for Yoko's shelved 1974 album A Story and for 1981's Season of Glass. The original demo version was included on the Rykodisc reissue of Fly in 1997.[2]

Each edition of the US, UK and Japanese albums utilized that country's distinctive telephone ring in the track "Telephone Piece" (i.e. each edition of the album used entirely different recordings) – the Rykodisc CD edition used the US variation.

Fly peaked at number 199 in the Billboard charts. On 1 February 1972, Lennon and Ono Lennon performed "Midsummer New York" backed by Elephant's Memory for an episode of The Mike Douglas Show, which aired on 15 February.[2]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[4]
Rolling Stone	(not rated) [5]
Spill	[6]

The album was a significant influence to British power electronics musician William Bennett of Whitehouse fame.

All songs written by Yoko Ono.

Side one

1. "Midsummer New York" – 3:50
2. "Mind Train" – 16:52

Side two

3. "Mind Holes" – 2:45
4. "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" – 4:55
5. "Mrs. Lennon" – 4:10
6. "Hirake" (previously released as "Open Your Box") – 3:32
7. "Toilet Piece/Unknown" – 0:30
8. "O'Wind (Body Is the Scar of Your Mind)" – 5:22

Side three

1. "Airmale" – 10:40
2. "Don't Count the Waves" – 5:26
3. "You" – 9:00

Side four

4. "Fly" – 22:53
5. "Telephone Piece" – 0:33

For unknown reasons, John Lennon was credited as co-writer of "Mind Train", "Mind Holes", "Toilet Piece/Unknown" and "Telephone Piece" on the disc faces of the 1997 Rykodisc reissue.[7] Lennon has not been credited as co-writer of these tracks on any other release of Fly.

• Yoko Ono – vocals, claves on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves"
• John Lennon – guitar, piano on "Mrs. Lennon", organ, automated music machines on "Airmale" and "Don't Count the Waves"
• Klaus Voormann – guitar, bass guitar, bells on "Mrs. Lennon", cymbal on "O'Wind", percussion on "Don't Count the Waves"
• Bobby Keys – claves on "O'Wind"
• Eric Clapton – guitar on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)"
• Jim Keltner – drums, tabla, percussion
• Ringo Starr – drums on "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)"
• Jim Gordon – drums on "Hirake", tabla on "O'Wind"
• Chris Osborne – dobro on "Midsummer New York" and "Mind Train"
• Joe Jones – automated music machines on "Airmale", "Don't Count the Waves" and "You"
• George Marino – mastering engineer