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Product details
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Track Listings
| Disc: 1 |
|---|
| 1. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World |
| 2. Sisters, O Sisters |
| 3. Attica State |
| 4. Born In a Prison |
| 5. New York City |
| 6. Sunday Bloody Sunday |
| 7. The Luck Of The Irish |
| 8. John Sinclair |
| 9. Angela |
| 10. We're All Water |
| Disc: 2 |
| 1. Cold Turkey (live) |
| 2. Don't Worry Kyoko (live) |
| 3. Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (live) |
| 4. Jamrag (live) |
| 5. Scumbag (live) |
| 6. Au (live) |
Product Description
CD Description
Brand new 2010 digital remaster of the classic John Lennon album. Some Time in New York City, released in 1972, was Lennon's third post-Beatles album and fifth with Yoko Ono.
His most explicitly political album, Some Time in New York City rails against the social injustices Lennon and Yoko saw in American society, and was written while John and Yoko were being constantly monitored by the FBI. Its songs deal with sexism, police brutality, the failings of the education system and the problems of Northern Ireland. Its difficult and controversial subject matter contributed to the album's commercial failure. Though it remains a challenging album, it is remarkable for its daring and passion, and for some of the best songs ever written by Ono.
This package, like the original release, features a second disc of live recordings, digitally remastered for this 2010 release.
His most explicitly political album, Some Time in New York City rails against the social injustices Lennon and Yoko saw in American society, and was written while John and Yoko were being constantly monitored by the FBI. Its songs deal with sexism, police brutality, the failings of the education system and the problems of Northern Ireland. Its difficult and controversial subject matter contributed to the album's commercial failure. Though it remains a challenging album, it is remarkable for its daring and passion, and for some of the best songs ever written by Ono.
This package, like the original release, features a second disc of live recordings, digitally remastered for this 2010 release.
Product Description
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Title : Sometime In New York City
Released ; 1972
Highest chart position. 11 in uk and 48 in usa.
The Band :
John Lennon: guitar and vocal
Yoko Ono: percussion, vocals, piano
Jim Keltner: drums, percussion
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Elephant's Memory:
Stan Bronstein: flute, saxophone
Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel: guitar
Richard Frank Jr.: drums, percussion
Adam Ippolito: keyboards, piano
Gary Van Scyoc: bass guitar
Coming after Imagine, Some Time In New York City proved a sharp about-face for Lennon fans expecting more of the same when the double album appeared that summer. Critics were not impressed. Although the UK release managed a #11 chart peak, it only went to #48 in the US. Lennon was reportedly stunned by the album's failure and consequently did not record new music for almost a year.
The opening song of the studio album, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" (a phrase Ono had coined in the late 1960s), was intended as a negation of sexism and was also issued as a single in the US to controversial reaction, and - as a consequence - little airplay and much banning. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from Jet and Ebony magazines) to explain that the word "nigger" was being used in an allegorical sense and not as an affront to black people.
Lennon's other tracks include the biographical "New York City", a Chuck Berry-styled rocker that details the Lennons' early months in their new home, as well as "John Sinclair", his musical plea for Sinclair's release from a ten-year sentence for giving two marijuana joints to an undercover policewoman.
Yoko Ono, very much a feminist supporter, responds musically with "Sisters O Sisters", tackles the lacking education system with "Born in a Prison", and celebrates a culture of one in "We're All Water". In fact, this album is generally seen as the beginning of Ono's emergence as a songwriter after her rather challenging previous two releases.
Together, Lennon and Ono lament police brutality in "Attica State", the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland in "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck of the Irish", and pay tribute to Angela Davis with "Angela".
Some Time In New York City was packaged like a newspaper of the events covered in the album, causing even more consternation with an altered photo of Richard Nixon and Mao Tse Tung dancing nude together. (The photo was stickered over on many of the issued copies, with a non-removable seal).
Track listing along with my song ratings.
1."Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
2."Sisters O Sisters" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
3."Attica State" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 2/5
4."Born In A Prison" (Yoko Ono) 3/5
5."New York City" (John Lennon) 3/5
6."Sunday Bloody Sunday" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
7."The Luck Of The Irish" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
8."John Sinclair" (John Lennon) 4/5
9."Angela" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 2/5
10."We're All Water" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
11."Cold Turkey [Live Jam]" (John Lennon) 3/5
12."Don't Worry Kyoko" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
13."Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" 3/5
Many people hate this album but there a few must have tracks om it and they are.
tracks 1,4,5,6,7, and 8
Released ; 1972
Highest chart position. 11 in uk and 48 in usa.
The Band :
John Lennon: guitar and vocal
Yoko Ono: percussion, vocals, piano
Jim Keltner: drums, percussion
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Elephant's Memory:
Stan Bronstein: flute, saxophone
Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel: guitar
Richard Frank Jr.: drums, percussion
Adam Ippolito: keyboards, piano
Gary Van Scyoc: bass guitar
Coming after Imagine, Some Time In New York City proved a sharp about-face for Lennon fans expecting more of the same when the double album appeared that summer. Critics were not impressed. Although the UK release managed a #11 chart peak, it only went to #48 in the US. Lennon was reportedly stunned by the album's failure and consequently did not record new music for almost a year.
The opening song of the studio album, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" (a phrase Ono had coined in the late 1960s), was intended as a negation of sexism and was also issued as a single in the US to controversial reaction, and - as a consequence - little airplay and much banning. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from Jet and Ebony magazines) to explain that the word "nigger" was being used in an allegorical sense and not as an affront to black people.
Lennon's other tracks include the biographical "New York City", a Chuck Berry-styled rocker that details the Lennons' early months in their new home, as well as "John Sinclair", his musical plea for Sinclair's release from a ten-year sentence for giving two marijuana joints to an undercover policewoman.
Yoko Ono, very much a feminist supporter, responds musically with "Sisters O Sisters", tackles the lacking education system with "Born in a Prison", and celebrates a culture of one in "We're All Water". In fact, this album is generally seen as the beginning of Ono's emergence as a songwriter after her rather challenging previous two releases.
Together, Lennon and Ono lament police brutality in "Attica State", the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland in "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck of the Irish", and pay tribute to Angela Davis with "Angela".
Some Time In New York City was packaged like a newspaper of the events covered in the album, causing even more consternation with an altered photo of Richard Nixon and Mao Tse Tung dancing nude together. (The photo was stickered over on many of the issued copies, with a non-removable seal).
Track listing along with my song ratings.
1."Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
2."Sisters O Sisters" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
3."Attica State" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 2/5
4."Born In A Prison" (Yoko Ono) 3/5
5."New York City" (John Lennon) 3/5
6."Sunday Bloody Sunday" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
7."The Luck Of The Irish" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 4/5
8."John Sinclair" (John Lennon) 4/5
9."Angela" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) 2/5
10."We're All Water" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
11."Cold Turkey [Live Jam]" (John Lennon) 3/5
12."Don't Worry Kyoko" (Yoko Ono) 2/5
13."Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" 3/5
Many people hate this album but there a few must have tracks om it and they are.
tracks 1,4,5,6,7, and 8
11 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Why have I heard so little of this album, you'll be asking yourself. Is it a hidden gem? Distance yourself from treating John Lennon as some kind of saint, beneath whose perfect life one genuflects in awe, and the answer clearly reveals itself: No this album is not a hidden gem, it's rubbish. Rather than music from deep within his psyche, the artistic genius of Strawberry Fields, A Day in the Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, etc. is now trying to bludgeon the ignorant masses with political slogans contained within the most tedious of musical forms. Well-intentioned, perhaps, in artistic terms it's dross. Oh and the good news is Yoko liberally joins in, as she does in the bonus live cd, in the process rendering what would otherwise be very listenable stuff very unlistenable. Give that lady a gagging order.
On the positive side, John Sinclair is pretty good - a worthwhile cause and a worthwhile song.
The greats of art stress being true to the medium, and this album shows that if one's mindset alters, and instead uses art primarily as a tool for other purposes, however laudatory they may seem, then having becomes alienated from the medium, one's art becomes functional, materialistic, and is essentially no longer art at all. . . . And so the tedious stodgy tracks like "Woman is the Nigger of the World" "Power to the People" and plenty other at best mediocre fare on this album.
And by the way if you're the kind of person who finds a negative review of a favoured artist by definition 'unhelpful' and only positive ones helpful, then you don't actually need to bother yourself with reviews at all. You'll also save yourself coming across the occasional less than enthusiastic review which you might rather not have read.
On the positive side, John Sinclair is pretty good - a worthwhile cause and a worthwhile song.
The greats of art stress being true to the medium, and this album shows that if one's mindset alters, and instead uses art primarily as a tool for other purposes, however laudatory they may seem, then having becomes alienated from the medium, one's art becomes functional, materialistic, and is essentially no longer art at all. . . . And so the tedious stodgy tracks like "Woman is the Nigger of the World" "Power to the People" and plenty other at best mediocre fare on this album.
And by the way if you're the kind of person who finds a negative review of a favoured artist by definition 'unhelpful' and only positive ones helpful, then you don't actually need to bother yourself with reviews at all. You'll also save yourself coming across the occasional less than enthusiastic review which you might rather not have read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Excellent
4 Dec 2010
Format:Audio CD
Some Time In New York City is an album even some die hard John Lennon fans don't well know, but should. The album came out on CD years after most albums by major starts did so. This album has a reputation of being one of Lennon's weakest. I'll debunk this.
True, Some Time In New York City, really is a aural newspaper from 1972. The album deals with the Attica State Prison Riot, Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, feminism, and Nixon. Very little here has any relevance in 2010, as Lennon and Ono tackled these issues in extremely concrete ways.
The music is what makes the case for Some Time In New York City. Both Lennon and his backup here, Elephants Memory, were in the perfect place at the perfect time. The Elephants were a radical hippie street band, able to play jazz rock but also match Lennon's raw rock cred. Check outElephant's Memory.
"Women Is The Nig--r Of The World," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," anything here really, impresses me as radical soul rock. The big sax and muddy guitars--Lennon and Ono had recorded clean takes and redid them to dirty them up--are the counterpoint to the pristine production of late-60s Beatles. Just the kind of raw rock Lennon loved but with crack Elephant players. Perfect. If you are young and know absolutely nothing of the long ago events that this album tackles, you only need dig on the Lennon brand of rock and roll.
'Yoko Ono plays equal part as writer and singer. That is most effective on disc two, not with the Elephant's Memory, but a jam with Frank Zappa and Flo and Eddie era Mothers. Her voice works better as an instrument of free playing than of song structure.
It is like a jazz trumpet or sax.
A roaring version of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is amazing for its primal playing, and of course you get the expert whack of a Zappa free jam. As usual, uncle Franks guitar playing proves why he is the most unrecognized guitar hero of any rock era. The two rebels have a blast, on the Lennon track, a version of Zappa's "King Kong," and improvisations like "Sc-mbag." I only regret that these two geniuses did not collaborate on more than a one off live album. Lennon's earnestness and Zappa's irony are a perfect match.
After the show, Lennon and Zappa got together for lunch and agreed to share the rights to the tapes. Zappa issued these with much better mixes--bolstered by early 1990s technology-on Playground Psychotics.
Either way, the fact that there are so few reviews of a John Lennon album shows you only there is always undiscovered gold to be found, even from the most obvious of sources
True, Some Time In New York City, really is a aural newspaper from 1972. The album deals with the Attica State Prison Riot, Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, feminism, and Nixon. Very little here has any relevance in 2010, as Lennon and Ono tackled these issues in extremely concrete ways.
The music is what makes the case for Some Time In New York City. Both Lennon and his backup here, Elephants Memory, were in the perfect place at the perfect time. The Elephants were a radical hippie street band, able to play jazz rock but also match Lennon's raw rock cred. Check outElephant's Memory.
"Women Is The Nig--r Of The World," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," anything here really, impresses me as radical soul rock. The big sax and muddy guitars--Lennon and Ono had recorded clean takes and redid them to dirty them up--are the counterpoint to the pristine production of late-60s Beatles. Just the kind of raw rock Lennon loved but with crack Elephant players. Perfect. If you are young and know absolutely nothing of the long ago events that this album tackles, you only need dig on the Lennon brand of rock and roll.
'Yoko Ono plays equal part as writer and singer. That is most effective on disc two, not with the Elephant's Memory, but a jam with Frank Zappa and Flo and Eddie era Mothers. Her voice works better as an instrument of free playing than of song structure.
It is like a jazz trumpet or sax.
A roaring version of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is amazing for its primal playing, and of course you get the expert whack of a Zappa free jam. As usual, uncle Franks guitar playing proves why he is the most unrecognized guitar hero of any rock era. The two rebels have a blast, on the Lennon track, a version of Zappa's "King Kong," and improvisations like "Sc-mbag." I only regret that these two geniuses did not collaborate on more than a one off live album. Lennon's earnestness and Zappa's irony are a perfect match.
After the show, Lennon and Zappa got together for lunch and agreed to share the rights to the tapes. Zappa issued these with much better mixes--bolstered by early 1990s technology-on Playground Psychotics.
Either way, the fact that there are so few reviews of a John Lennon album shows you only there is always undiscovered gold to be found, even from the most obvious of sources
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Not the best of Lennon's solo works
12 Jun 2011
Format:Audio CD
Some Time in NYC was Lennon's third solo album following the Beatles' breakup, and it finds John and Yoko in full-on topical mode. John's tracks are generally more succinct ("Luck of the Irish," "John Sinclair," and the pro-feminist "Woman is the N***er of the World" [censoring mine], with John railing on about the Catch-22 of being a woman in the modern world), Yoko doing her best to keep up with him ("Born in a Prison" and "We're All Water"). And that's just the first disc.
The second disc is compiled from two performances - the Lyceum in London, 1969, and the Fillmore East in New York City, 1971, joined by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - and is the more difficult listen of the two. It's not everyone can manage 17 minutes of Yoko caterwauling through "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" (and for those sharp enough to catch it, that song title is a haiku, done as only Yoko Ono could manage - surreal and disturbing), or John upping the ante in a more demented-sounding version of "Cold Turkey," but if you can get through that, you will find the jams with Zappa easy enough to digest, which they are anyway. On "Scumbag," they sing the title repeatedly over what sounds like the 23 minutes of jamming edited out of the original performance of "Helter Skelter," and Zappa urges the audience to sing along. And there are the instrumentals "Jamrag" before it and "Au" (on the periodic table of elements, the abbreviation for gold) afterward, closing out the album. (Most of this disc was left out of an earlier, expanded single CD of STINYC; it's good to have the original album back in its entirety, whatever you think of it.)
If you're a true fan of John's, you go for all the albums, this one included. Given his propensity for self-indulgence when it came to his solo career, STINYC is a challenging listen, but as I say, ultimately worth it.
The second disc is compiled from two performances - the Lyceum in London, 1969, and the Fillmore East in New York City, 1971, joined by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - and is the more difficult listen of the two. It's not everyone can manage 17 minutes of Yoko caterwauling through "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" (and for those sharp enough to catch it, that song title is a haiku, done as only Yoko Ono could manage - surreal and disturbing), or John upping the ante in a more demented-sounding version of "Cold Turkey," but if you can get through that, you will find the jams with Zappa easy enough to digest, which they are anyway. On "Scumbag," they sing the title repeatedly over what sounds like the 23 minutes of jamming edited out of the original performance of "Helter Skelter," and Zappa urges the audience to sing along. And there are the instrumentals "Jamrag" before it and "Au" (on the periodic table of elements, the abbreviation for gold) afterward, closing out the album. (Most of this disc was left out of an earlier, expanded single CD of STINYC; it's good to have the original album back in its entirety, whatever you think of it.)
If you're a true fan of John's, you go for all the albums, this one included. Given his propensity for self-indulgence when it came to his solo career, STINYC is a challenging listen, but as I say, ultimately worth it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
John and Yoko Number 5
4 Oct 2011
Format:Audio CD
Some Time in New York City is the 5th John Lennon and Yoko Ono album in a series that also included "Two Virgins", "Life With the Lions", "Wedding Album", "Live Peace in Toronto 1969", "Double Fantasy", and "Milk and Honey." Compared to those first four albums, "Some Time in New York City" is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, perhaps, the album followed John's second solo album "Imagine", which some regard as John's very best work. Actually, the music on "Some Time" is powerful, memorable, and highly creative. One wishes that "Two Virgins", for example, contained music this good. The passion in these performances is heartfelt and almost makes the controversial lyrics forgivable. Even Yoko is pretty good here. If the bonus LP had been released separately, it would have been accepted as just another typical John and Yoko crap album. Nevertheless, this title is an essential addition to any John Lennon CD collection.
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