Paul Morley's new biography of Yoko Ono, *Love Magic Power Danger Bliss*, attempts to reframe the artist beyond her reputation as a 'Beatles wife' but ultimately fails, according to this critical review. The book covers Ono's first three decades, from her birth in Japan in 1933 to meeting John Lennon in 1969, but is dominated by lengthy asides on male avant-garde figures like George Maciunas and Pete Townshend, leaving Ono a passive presence in her own story. Morley promises not to mention Lennon but breaks that promise, and the review argues the book is aimed more at 'rock dads' still upset about the Beatles breakup than at understanding Ono's artistic contributions.
This matters because it highlights a persistent problem in art criticism and biography: the difficulty of treating female artists, especially those linked to famous men, on their own terms. Ono's retrospective *Music of the Mind* is currently touring, showing renewed institutional interest in her work, yet Morley's book reinforces the very trope it claims to challenge. The review underscores how even well-intentioned attempts to 'liberate' Ono can end up defining her negatively, and raises broader questions about how art history narratives are shaped by gender and celebrity.