It's_Alright_(I_See_Rainbows)
It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
1982 studio album by Yoko Ono
It's Alright (I See Rainbows) is the sixth solo album by Yoko Ono, and her second release after the murder of husband John Lennon. As a variation of a theme concerning its predecessor, the back cover features a transparent image of Lennon in a then-contemporary photo of Yoko and Sean, depicted in Central Park. Released in 1982, all songs were written, composed, arranged, produced, and sung by Ono. It charted at #98 in the US.
It's Alright (I See Rainbows) | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 2 November 1982 (1982-11-02)[1] | |||
Studio | The Hit Factory, New York City | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 36:43 | |||
Label | Polygram | |||
Producer | Yoko Ono | |||
Yoko Ono chronology | ||||
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Singles from It's Alright (I See Rainbows) | ||||
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The album saw Yoko take her music in a more uplifting direction following 1981's Season of Glass, despite the "bulk" of the album's songs "deal[ing] with her unabated feelings of loss over Lennon."[2]
Yoko reflected on the making of the album when writing liner notes for the 1992 boxset Onobox:
The songs from It’s Alright were an attempt to do new sounds. I used shotguns for the backbeat. I brought Sean’s toy raygun to the studio to use it as a rhythm track. I was expecting the usual sneer I had gotten from the musicians and engineers whenever I had tried to do anything that was out of the ordinary. Surprisingly, no one was upset this time. It was ’82 and it seemed as though I was finally in sync with the world.
[...]
In a way, the It's Alright time was much more difficult for me as a woman, as a person, than when I had made Season Of Glass. Life went on. I had to walk and talk normally, while I knew that somewhere inside me there was a clock that had stopped in ’80.
— Yoko Ono, "ONOBOX by Yoko Ono". 23 April 2009.
In 1997, the album was remastered by Ono and Rob Stevens for release on CD by Rykodisc.[3] The 1997 release used newly remixed versions of all songs. Some of the original mixes had a CD release in 1992 on the Onobox set but the rest remain unreleased on CD to date.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
Rolling Stone | [2] |
Billboard called it Ono's "most commercially accessible musical effort."[5] Writing for Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder noted its "committed and convincing avant-gardism", which produced a "synthesizer-based pop that’s more adventurous than much of the music currently being ground out by Europersons half her age."[2]
All songs written by Yoko Ono.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "My Man" | 3:56 |
2. | "Never Say Goodbye" | 4:25 |
3. | "Spec of Dust" | 3:31 |
4. | "Loneliness" | 3:47 |
5. | "Tomorrow May Never Come" | 2:26 |
No. | Title | Length |
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6. | "It's Alright" | 4:23 |
7. | "Wake Up" | 3:47 |
8. | "Let the Tears Dry" | 2:24 |
9. | "Dream Love" | 4:53 |
10. | "I See Rainbows" | 3:15 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Beautiful Boys" (Demo) | 2:00 |
12. | "You're the One" (Alternate take) | 4:50 |
- Yoko Ono – vocals
- Paul Griffin – keyboards, synthesizer, piano
- Pete Cannarozzi – synthesizer
- Gordon Grody, Kurt Yahjihan, Carlos Alomar – background vocals
- Elliott Randall, Steve Love, Hugh McCracken, John Lennon, John Tropea – guitar
- Michael Holmes, Paul Shaffer – keyboards
- Neil Jason, Tony Levin, Wayne Pedziwiatr – bass guitar
- Yogi Horton, Allan Schwartzberg – drums
- Rubens Bassini, David A. Freedman, Sammy Figueroa, Roger Squitero – percussion
- Badal Roy – tabla
- Howard Johnson – baritone saxophone, tuba
- Technical
- Brian McGee, John Davenport, Jon Smith – engineer
- Bob Gruen – photography
Chart (1982–83) | Peak position |
Total weeks |
---|---|---|
U.S. Billboard 200 | 98 | 13 |
Country | Date | Format | Label | Catalog |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | 2 November 1982[1] | LP | Polydor | PD1-6364[6] |
Cassette | CT-1-6364[7] | |||
United Kingdom | 16 December 1982[1] | LP | POLD 5073[8] | |
Cassette | POLDC 5073[8] | |||
Germany | 1982 | LP | 2391559[9] | |
Australia[10] | ||||
Japan | January 1983 | 28MM 0241[11] | ||
United States | 1 July 1997[12] | CD | Rykodisc | RCD 10422[13] |
United Kingdom | 26 August 1997[8] | |||
Japan | 1997 |
- Onobox (liner notes). Yoko Ono. Rykodisc. 1992. RCD 10224/29.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - Loder, Kurt (1983-01-20). "It's Alright (I See Rainbows)". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
- "Top Album Picks". Billboard. December 25, 1982. p. 87. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
- "Yoko Ono – It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982, Vinyl)". Discogs. 29 November 1982.
- "Yoko Ono – It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1983, Vinyl)". Discogs. January 1983.