Program Note

Written by Yoko Ono and released on the album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, the original recording features John Lennon on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass, and Ringo Starr on drums.

Beatle biographer John Blaney described the song as “a raucous conflation of avant-gardism and rock ‘n’ roll”.[1] The Atlantic critic James Parker called it “a gibbering, snarling swath of experimental rock, wild but recognizable, in the vein of German pioneers like Can or Faust”.[3]

The lyrics of “Why” consist of Ono repeating the word “why” over and over again.Ono also intersperses some non-verbal vocalizations. Pitchfork critic Seth Colter Walls notes that Ono uses a variety of vocal approaches, including “long expressions full of vibrato”, “shorter exhalations, rooted in the back of the throat” and “spates of shredded laughter” that according to Walls express “absurdist good humor”. Music journalist John Kruth describes the vocals as repeating “the nagging question ‘Why?’ like a child throwing a fit, unable to be placated no matter what answer the adult struggles to provide”, going on to say that “‘why’ transforms into a terrifying mantra that embodies the cruelty and absurdity of human existence”. Pitchfork contributor Sasha Geffen states that Ono sings the word “why” as if she’d be able to find an answer to the question “if she screamed hard enough”.Creem critic Dave Marsh stated that Ono used her voice “as John Coltrane used his horn”, to “explore every possible nuance of the word-sound (chord) she scats about”. – Wikipedia