Reissue of Yoko Ono album 'Season of Glass' clearly about loss

Yoko Ono's 1981 album 'Season of Glass,' a raw expression of grief following the assassination of her husband John Lennon, has been reissued. The album emerged just six months after Lennon's death, with Ono channeling her pain into the music while raising their five-year-old son, Sean, alone in their New York home, which was constantly besieged by mourning fans.

The album's cover art, a stark photograph of Lennon's blood-splattered glasses, ignited significant controversy upon its release. Critics widely condemned it as tasteless and accused Ono of attempting to profit from her husband's murder. The record label had urged for a different cover, but Ono stood firm, stating, "I am not changing the cover. This is what John is now." In her 2009 anthology 'Onobox,' Ono described the intense emotional state that led to the cover's creation: "I felt like a person soaked in blood who walked into a room full of people and told them that my husband was dead, his body had been taken away and that the glasses were the only thing I could save – and that people looked at me and said it was tasteless to show them the glasses."

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I am not changing the cover. This is what John is now.

Photographer Bob Gruen noted in David Sheff's 2023 biography 'Yoko' that "the worst thing that could have happened to Yoko Ono's career was meeting John Lennon." Before Lennon, Ono was a respected avant-garde artist, known for groundbreaking performances like 1964's 'Cut Piece' and conceptual music in the vein of John Cage. She was associated with the Fluxus movement, influencing artists like Wim T. Schippers in the Netherlands. Ono believed a performance was successful if half the audience walked out.

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I felt like a person soaked in blood who walked into a room full of people and told them that my husband was dead, his body had been taken away and that the glasses were the only thing I could save – and that people looked at me and said it was tasteless to show them the glasses.

However, after meeting Lennon, Ono was often reduced to the label of "Beatles wife." She faced widespread hatred and scorn, frequently portrayed as the villain who broke up the beloved band and influenced Lennon toward "embarrassing" art and radical activism. This animosity was often rooted in misogyny and racism. In the early 1970s, Ono further polarized audiences with her experimental vocalizations on albums like 'Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band' (1970) and 'Fly' (1971), featuring intense screaming, crying, and moaning that was both moving for fans and unbearable for many others. By her third solo album, 'Approximately Infinite Universe' (1973), she had begun to incorporate more conventional pop elements.

Despite the prevailing negativity, 'Season of Glass' did receive praise in 1981 and became Ono's best-selling album, though this is relative given the limited commercial success of her other works. Ono's progressive music had, by then, inspired a new generation of pop musicians across genres like art rock (B-52's, Patti Smith) and noise rock (Sonic Youth), as well as influencing dance music.

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the worst thing that could have happened to Yoko Ono's career was meeting John Lennon.