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John Lennon: Some Time in New York City

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Apple Records
Released: 1972.06.12
Time:
 76:37
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Phil Spector
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.johnlennon.com
Appears with: The Beatles
Purchase date: 2014
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Woman Is the Nigger of the World (Lennon/Ono) - 5:17
[2] Sisters, O Sisters (Ono) - 3:48
[3] Attica State (Lennon/Ono) - 2:55
[4] Born in a Prison (Ono) - 4:05
[5] New York City (Lennon) - 4:29
[6] Sunday Bloody Sunday (Lennon/Ono) - 5:03
[7] The Luck of the Irish (Lennon/Ono) - 2:59
[8] John Sinclair (Lennon) - 3:30
[9] Angela (Lennon/Ono) - 4:08
[10] We're All Water (Ono) - 5:19
[11] Cold Turkey [Live Jam] (Lennon) - 8:35
[12] Don't Worry Kyoko [Live Jam] (Ono) - 15:20
[13] Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (Live Jam] (Ward) - 4:33
       Bonus tracks
[14] Listen, the Snow Is Falling (Ono) - 3:06
[15] Happy Xmas [War Is Over] (Lennon/Ono) - 3:34

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John Lennon - Lead & Backing Vocals, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, National Steel & Slide Guitar, Keyboards, Arrangements, Concept, Producer

Yoko Ono - Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals, Vocal Harmony & Drums,Arrangements, Concept, Producer
Jim Keltner - Drums & Percussion

Elephant's Memory:
Stan Bronstein -  Flute, Saxophone
Richard Frank Jr - Drums,  Percussion
Gary Van Scyoc - Bass
Adam Ippolito - Piano, Organ
Wayne "Tex" Gabriel - Guitar

The Mothers of Invention (live songs):
Frank Zappa - Guitar, Vocals
Aynsley Dunbar - Drums
Mark Volman - Vocals & Dialog
Howard Kaylan - Vocals & Dialog
Ian Underwood - Keyboards, Winds
Jim Pons - Bass
Bob Harris -  2nd Keyboard
Don Preston - Moog Synthesizer

Plastic Ono Band:
Nicky Hopkins - Keyboards
Bobby Keys - Saxophone
John Labosca - Piano
Keith Moon - Drums
Don Preston - Moog Synthesizer, Synthesizer
Gary VanScyoc - Bass

Klaus Voormann - Bass
Alan White - Drums

George Harrison - Guitar on [11]
Eric Clapton - Guitar on [11]
Billy Preston - Keyboards on [11]

Invisible Strings - Band
Ron Frangipane - Orchestra, Orchestration, String Arrangements

Phil Spector - Producer
Roy Cicala - Engineer
Barry Keene - Engineer
Dan Turbeville - Engineer
Jack Douglas - Technician
Michael Gross - Design
Allan Steckler - Cover Art, Realization
Bob Gruen - Photography
Joe Sia - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


The first album co-billed to John Lennon and Yoko Ono to actually contain recognizable pop music, Some Time in New York City found the Lennons in an explicitly political phase. This was understandable -- at the time, Lennon was neck-deep in his struggle to remain in the United States, a conflict rooted in his antiwar and antiestablishment politics and the enmity of the Nixon administration. At the same time, having written, recorded, and released the music on the Plastic Ono Band and Imagine albums -- and musically exorcising many of the emotional demons associated with aspects of his past, and working out a musical and publishing "divorce" from Paul McCartney -- he was now reveling in the freedom of being an ex-Beatle and exploring music and other subjects that he'd never felt fully free to delve into during the first decade of his career. This album was actually a long time in coming, as there had been hints of Lennon moving in this direction for years -- he'd long looked upon Bob Dylan with unabashed envy, emulating his sound at moments ("You've Got to Hide Your Love Away") and striving for some of the same mix of edginess and depth, once the group got beyond its original two-guitars-bass-drums and love songs sound; "Revolution" (and "Revolution No. 1") and the anthems "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People" saw him trying to embrace outside subjects in his work, and Some Time in New York City carried his writing a step further in this direction, introducing John Lennon, protest singer -- true, he was ten years late, in terms of the musical genre (even Joan Baez and Judy Collins were doing pop-style records by then), but it was a logical development given the time in Lennon's life and the strife-filled era with which it coincided. Seeking his own voice in all of its permutations, and living amid the bracing pace of New York City (which made London, much less Liverpool, look like a cultural and political backwater), Lennon entered a phase similar to Dylan's 1963-1964 period, represented by songs such as "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," "The Death of Emmett Till," and "Talking John Birch Society Blues." Except that where Dylan had toned down that side of his work, never officially releasing his versions of two of those songs (the two most confrontational, in fact), Lennon didn't hold back, delivering his topical songs with both barrels smoking, expounding on such topical subjects as radical feminism, the Attica prison riot, the treatment of activists John Sinclair and Angela Davis, and the rising strife in Northern Ireland (which was on its way to becoming for the British the same kind of military and political quagmire that Vietnam was for America). Lennon had some advantages in getting heard, as an ex-Beatle, not an up-and-coming talent as Dylan had been a decade earlier, and if the subject matter of his new songs puzzled or alienated some fans, he also still had a huge amount of rock & roll street cred, which was only enhanced at the time by his having made Nixon's enemies list; at the time, there were a lot of people to whom that mattered more than his past as a Beatle -- at the April 24 antiwar rally in New York in 1971, where he appeared with Yoko Ono and the Elephant's Memory Band, he showed himself to be among the few musicians who could get a quarter of a million or more people singing and chanting spontaneously, in unison. And Some Time in New York City was a logical progression from that event. Especially in the case of Lennon's songs, there is an appealing rock style to the material here, even if the lyrics limit the record's appeal. And even Yoko's songs have something to recommend them, "Sisters, O Sisters" representing a peculiar form of reggae-pop, "Born in a Prison" possessing a strange pop ambience, and "We're All Water" offering a preview of late-'70s punk/new wave rawness (Lena Lovich may well have worn out that track). At the time of its release in June of 1972, all except the most devoted fans were put off by the album's topicality and in-your-face didacticism, and the bonus live disc was challenging in other ways. Heard today, the studio disc rocks in enough of the right places, as well as drawing on influences ranging from blues to reggae, to surprise listeners and even delight them -- the relatively tuneless "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" manages to favorably recall elements of "Come Together," and both it and "New York City" have some of the best electric guitar ever heard on a Lennon album, while "John Sinclair" shows off Lennon's blues playing (on a steel National guitar, no less) brilliantly. Even those who were of the left at the time may wince at "Angela" some decades on, but "We're All Water" has lost none of its intellectual or musical resonances, even if Nixon and Mao are long dead. The Elephant's Memory Band may not be the best set of musicians that Lennon could have been working with, but that was less important than the fact that he seemed to respond to their club band R&B and jazz background with a roots-oriented approach to songwriting that's ultimately refreshing. Co-producer Phil Spector gives most of the music a larger-than-life ambience, with a reverb-drenched, rhythm-heavy approach recalling his Wall of Sound productions, which gives a lot of even the most didactic songs a big-band pop/rock smoothness, when the songs weren't lean and stripped down like "John Sinclair" (which sounds in terms of texture like a Furry Lewis side from 1930). Some Time in New York City was released with a "free" bonus disc containing a live medley of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" and Ono's "Don't Worry Kyoko," from an antiwar rally at the Lyceum in London with George Harrison, and an appearance by the Lennons at a Mothers of Invention concert from the Fillmore East. The Lyceum tracks were well recorded and, apart from both going on too long, exude a certain power; these may not be the songs you'd have had performed at the one recorded post-Beatles concert appearance by Lennon and Harrison, but "Cold Turkey" is good, if a little disorganized near the end, and "Don't Worry Kyoko" has some pretty fair rock & roll jamming going on behind Ono's vocal acrobatics; the Fillmore stuff sounds less good technically, and captures a spontaneous moment that's mostly wasted, though not without a moment of personal musical reflection from Lennon in "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)." Alas, the presence of the second disc now makes this the most expensive of all Lennon's CD releases, virtually ensuring that it remain the least known of his mainline albums, especially for any fans who weren't around in 1972.

Bruce Eder - All Music Guide



This is the one John Lennon album that is perhaps forgotten by most of his fans and considered his only real failure as far as anything he ever put out. Too bad, since it really isn't that bad of an album, in fact, it has to be one of the greatest protest albums ever made. Every Lennon penned song on here is a true, hard nosed protest song, so this LP really captures John doing what he did best.

Yes, perhaps it was because he shared the album with his mate, Yoko Ono, that so many disliked Sometime in New York City. I do not rate the Ono solo songs on here since they are not really rock and not the kind of songs I dig or can even listen to long enough to give a rating to. Yet I will note that her song "We are Water" is excellent, well written, and the only one of her songs on the album that I don't skip over when I play the LP, such a true song indeed!

There might not be any tens on this LP, but all of the songs are well written and if I was to just go with the lyrics alone, there would be several tens. John was filled with anger when he wrote many of these songs, anger from all of all the unjust acts against human rights that was taking place in the early '70s by the establishment.

The best studio number found on Sometime in New York City is "Attica State", a protest song about how the prison upraising there turned into a bloody, deadly riot, thanks to the mishandling of the situation by the officials in charge. Next best song is "New York City", which isn't really a protest song, but more reflects the mood of the Lennon's at the time of this recording and explains what they were up to at the time.

"Woman Is the Nigger of the Word" is another excellent number with great lyrics - lyrics which back in 1971 were so true, even if not as true today. Woman have made up so much ground today to their brothers (in the Western world, anyway), but back when this was written, there were few men like Lennon who helped to call attention to their mistreatment, since most men turned a blind eye on the woman's movement, but John was different and did speak out.

Finally we have "John Sinclair", the last of the great songs on this album. Sinclair managed the hard-edged '60s punk band MC5, and was also the leader of the radical White Panther Party. The US government hated him and in July of 1969 Sinclair was sentenced to 9-1/2 to 10 years in prison for simply giving two joints to a undercover narcotics officers. The cops had set him up, having an undercover agent harassing Sinclair for some weed, which at first he would not supply. Finally to get this asshole off of his tail, he handed him two joints and was then busted on the spot. Lennon wrote this song in protest to the insane sentence ("They gave him ten for two, what else could the bastards do"). Thanks to John and many others who supported him, Sinclair's sentence was finally overturned 3 years later.

It should be noted that the original LP release of Sometime in New York City, included a second LP with a live jam with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Only a part of this is included on this CD release, plus a fine live version of Cold Turkey, with George Harrison helping out on guitar, which also showed up on the original album. The CD today also includes two bonus songs, the single "Happy Xmas (War is Over)", and Yoko's "Listen the Snow is Falling".

Keno 2007



Some Time in New York City... This album was not kicked off with a good start. After John and Yoko moved to New York, they started to get involved in anti-war protests, and protests to get John Sinclair out of prison. All of these were followed with Richard Nixon's attempts to deport John Lennon, which would last for around 5 years afterwards. The original album was, and still is, a double album, filled with mostly songs of a political nature, and some that would cause an about face with Lennon fans who were expecting something like off his Plastic Ono Band release or the Imagine album that was released a year ago. What did people get? Mostly a bunch of half-baked ideas, and the ones that are fully-baked were the ones that caused John major controversy.

The album kicks off with one of the more controversial songs off the album , "Woman is the N****r of the World", which, contrary to its song title, is about sexism rather than racism. All the fuss about the n-word aside, the track is pretty strong, and really needs a better social climate to listen to it. Just be careful if your friend asks to see your iPod and ask what you're listening to. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is also really good, mostly based off the Bloody Sunday Troubles in Northern Ireland, and you can see where John's sympathies lie, and it is a surprisingly upbeat. The other track that stands out for the recorded set is "New York City", a Chuck Berry inspired piece about John and Yoko's new home in the Dakota and Manhattan. It may get a little repetitive, but it's a rockin' song, so I guess I could let it slide. Basically, stick with all the Lennon tracks, as they are the strong parts of this whole record.

The other gems on this record are all live, and they comprise of everything after track 10 (which I'll get to in a little bit), and they come from two different concerts, one of them the live UNICEF jam from 1969, the other from a Fillmore East gig featuring Frank Zappa (yes, that Frank Zappa) on guitar from 1971. The sound quality from the UNICEF jam is a little bit on the poor side, but it does show Lennon's prowess in a live setting. The later tracks are in better quality, but most could be indifferent about what the tracks contain, especially with Zappa.

Now, I have to talk about the bad parts of the album, and unfortunately, it comprises a lot of the album: Yoko.

Let me clarify my stance on Yoko in this album, because this is an interesting case. I think her songwriting is some of her best on this album, because she had gotten better before this album. Unfortunately, her voice is just really annoying on this album, like many reviewers at the time liked to point out. The song contents of "Sisters O Sisters" and "We're All Water" are really good, and it forces a reader of the lyrics to really think. When a person listens to them, however, it makes you want to eat your least favorite food for about a week and then spend a night near the toilet. Even the two Lennon songs about the Troubles, including "Luck of the Irish", are simply spoiled by Yoko's screechy voice, which is a shame because these songs are pretty good, but why did Yoko have to be on the most sentimental songs of the whole album??!!

On the whole, like most John Lennon albums, the good stuff is really good. The opening song is great, the back-to-basic song is great, the live jams are really good. There could have a lot of opportunities to make this album one of his greatest, but a lot of opportunities were wasted for what they are.

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