And then there are the obvious psychological dimensions of her primal wails, which is precisely where her music joins her art. This was best illustrated during a song she performed with Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The song, “Mulberry Tree”, was inspired by Yoko’s wartime experiences foraging for food as a child in the Japanese countryside after her family was evacuated from Tokyo. The distorted guitar that Moore and Gordon popularized as Sonic Youth is the corollary to Ono’s vocal distortions. Together onstage, this came through poignantly.
     Other moments during the evening underscored Yoko’s potency as a songwriter. In the best example, Better Midler brilliantly arranged and performed “Yes, I’m your Angel”, a song Yoko wrote for John to ease his apprehensions about turning forty. She told the audience she had just wanted to make him smile. Later, Paul Simon and his son Harper performed two Ono songs as a guitar duo, “Silverhorse” and “Hold On”.