Season of Glass is a 1981 album by Yoko Ono, her first solo recording after the murder of her husband John Lennon. Season of Glass reached #49 on Billboard 200 Album Chart, making it Ono's highest-charting solo album to date. A music video was created for "Goodbye Sadness" featuring footage of John and Yoko together. The video was screened on the first episode of Saturday Night Lives seventh season.
Background
The album was released less than six months after Lennon's death and deals with it directly in songs such as "Goodbye Sadness" and "I Don't Know Why". A young Sean Lennon features on the track "Even When You're Far Away", recounting a story his father used to tell him. The front cover features Lennon's bloodstained glasses positioned next to a half-filled glass of water, with a view of Central Park in the background. The choice of album cover was considered controversial by the record company:
Reception
Season of Glass charted at number 49 on the Billboard 200, making it Ono's highest-charting solo album to date. Pitchfork listed Season of Glass as one of the best 200 albums of the 1980s.
Reissue
The 1997 Rykodisc reissue added bonus tracks of the single "Walking on Thin Ice" and an a cappella demo of "I Don't Know Why", recorded the day after Lennon's death. Demos of Season of Glass songs recorded with Lennon in the 1970s were also released as bonus tracks with other Ono reissues, including an acoustic version of "Dogtown" on Approximately Infinite Universe. The unreleased 1974 album A Story also contained several songs that were later re-recorded for Season of Glass, such as "She Gets Down On Her Knees" and "Will You Touch Me". It was also released by Rykodisc in 1997.
Remixes
Three songs from this recording were reworked by other artists on the remix tribute albumYes, I'm a Witch in 2007. Anohni reworked "Toyboat", The Apples in Stereo reworked "Nobody Sees Me Like You Do" and Jason Pierce from Spiritualized reworked "Walking on Thin Ice".
covered "Nobody Sees Me Like You Do" as a B-side to her single "Forest Green, Oh Forest Green" and on her EPChoose to See, which was included with the purchase of her 2010 album The Magician's Private Library.
