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Yoko Ono's Sweet Vindication

Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1984

ONCE YOKO Ono was the most unjustly maligned figure in I popular music; now that some measure of public sympathy has swung to her side, she merely remains the most controversial, and I suspect, misunderstood. I never took the "dragon lady" caricatures seriously, but before arriving at the Dakota for our interview my impressions of Yoko were still that of a grave and rather intimidating woman. The Yoko Ono I met turned out to be, well, someone else. Her manner felt genuinely warm, and she smiled and laughed easily. Her laugh was girlish, almost giggly and she emanated softness and vulnerability along with a pixieish charm. At the same time, she spoke frankly about the effects of her recent ordeal without rancor or self pity. Yoko believes that her husband's assassination and its often macabre aftermath exposed her own naïveté; my guess is that the revelations gleaned from those ordeals also strengthened and deepened her character and furthered her capacity to embrace life.

Total word count of piece: 3425

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