Sometime In New York City [Original recording remastered]

When the record come out in 1972, it was touted as John's nadir, just as Paul McCartney was getting pummeled by the press for his album 'Wild Life'. John's record was critisized for replacing poetry with sloganeering while Paul's was critisized for sloppiness and being generally light weight. Both records deserve a fresh look today.

Yoko has remixed Some Time in New York City and to her credit it is a great improvement. Her mixing has reduced the chaotic echo feel of the Phil Spector production. The 2005 CD has a presence the 1980s issue of the CD lacks, no doubt to the improvements in technology at Yoko's disposal and her own underestimated ear for sound and production skill. The remixed CD has a warmth and clarity it lacked in all orther incarnations, and the Lennon's Zappa number, now edited to John's performance only (a wise move given that the 'Au' and 'Scumbag' numbers were tough to sit through) you can now hear Flo and Eddie's back up vocals on the track. the Slide guitar on 'John Sinclair' jumps out at you, and the single, 'Woman is the Nigger of the World' remains on of his better collaborations with Phil Spector.

I would suggest that anyone interested in learning about Lennon's music pick up this CD. It is side of John Lennon that was just as interesting as his confessional side, and in hindsight, not so very much removed.

In this album, Lennon transcends the "sad, bad, glad" teeny-bopper songs of the mid-60s and takes a cold, hard look at the world he is living in. He doesn't like what he sees and he now addresses a very different audience: Nixon is in the White House, the Vietnam War rages on, there is a massive peace movement in the US burning draft cards, Kissinger is engineering a coup in Chile, the US black civil rights movement is ongoing and inspires a similar civil rights movement in Ireland which also begins peacefully, but is soon repressed and ends in flames. "Bloody Sunday", the day when 13 unarmed civilians were murdered by the British Parachute Regiment in Derry, is still fresh in everyone's mind. It sends IRA membership sky-rocketing and initiates a war that will last for decades. Then, along comes Lennon with this album containing the tracks "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and the ironically entitled "Luck of the Irish". The first is a furious reaction to the massacre:

"You Anglo pigs and Scotties sent to colonise the north, you wave your bloody Union Jack and you know what its worth!"

The second is a beautiful, lilting song, but it too doesn't pull any punches:

"Why the hell are the English there anyway, as they kill with God on their side."

The album was considered to be so subversive that it was banned by the BBC when it was first released in the early 1970s. That's why many people in Britain don't even know it exists to this very day.

The other interesting development is Lennon's refreshingly clear and unambiguous acknowledgement of the oppression of women in the provocatively and courageously titled: "Woman is the Nigger of the World". Coming from a very male-chauvinist north of England working class background, this is a big step forward for Lennon personally and politically and shows the very positive influence of Yoko. The "I'm not a racist/sexist, but" brigade will no doubt tell us that this can all be dismissed as "political correctness"--the war cry of every Alf Garnett in the land. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Lennon is undeterred. He appeals for men in particular to think seriously about the issue:

"Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes she is...think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it...do something about it."

And even more pointedly:

"Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don't believe me, take a look at the one you're with."

Despite that fact that Yoko is singing in a Western musical idiom which is very different to that of her native culture, she shows that she can sing charmingly in the tracks "Born in a Prison" and "Sisters O Sisters"--two songs which speak of the way in which society crushes the aspirations of the most vulnerable people at a very early age.

"We live with no reason
Kicked around for no reason
Thrown out without reason like tools"

The thread that runs through this album, and the reason it was so widely suppressed/rubbished, is one of STRUGGLE against all forms of injustice. That is why future generations will remember this album as Lennon's best--most thoughtful, most courageous (especially after the earlier death threats) and far-sighted. It is better even than the previous album, the superbly presented "Imagine". "Sometime in New York City" builds on some of the themes begun in the title song of "Imagine". But there is massive mood change in between. The songs may not be as pretty as those in earlier/later albums, but this album radiates an appeal for people to resist through a heady mix of radical politics and rock and roll.

The saddest part about the aftermath of this album is that John was threatened with expulsion from the USA by Nixon and the FBI if he didn't shut up. Faced with this ultimatum, that is exactly what he did. The Vietnam War ended and he retired to private life and he never returned to political themes again.

"Sometime in New York City" is an interesting collection, by turns inspiring and infuriating. Lennon had previously written mostly about his own life (and since the Beatles' break-up had released two unequivocal classics in the shape of "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine"). On "Sometime in New York City" he turns his attention to a variety of political causes and social issues surrounding him in his adopted new home, and the Troubles in Ireland. The results are varied. On occasion they are rousing and perceptive (the title track for example, also "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" and "Attica State"). At other times they sound glib and hasty. He blotted his copy book in the UK particularly with two rather shrill (albeit undoubtedly heartfelt) polemics about Britain's involvement in Northern Ireland, one of them about the Bloody Sunday shootings, which remains a contentious issue to this day. Some wondered what a multi-millionaire rock star living abroad really had to say of any value about the tense and polarised situation in Northern Ireland at the time.

Some others were ambivalent about "Sometime...." owing to the equal billing of Yoko. I mean, she broke up the Beatles, right? There was a lot of hostility towards her still in 1972. Actually though, her feminist anthem "Sisters, O Sisters" and call for racial harmony in "We're All Water" are very strong and among the album's highlights.

If the album suffers from too much political sloganeering, it also struggles at times with the rather stodgy playing of the backing band Elephant's Memory. They could rock effectively enough but with little of the finesse of the Beatles or Lennon's other musical collaberators on earlier solo material. He deserved and could surely have recruited far more worthy musicians to give the songs an extra push.

The second half of the set catches the Ono Lennons at a number of live shows, concentrating on extended riff-laden guitar jams and Yoko's throat-shredding vocal histrionics. The presence of renowned task master Frank Zappa on some of this does not appear to bring much focus to the performances, they are primal in every sense. But there is an undeniable energy to this material and it can be very invigorating played as loud as your neighbours can stand.

For people exploring John Lennon's solo catalogue for the first time then, "Sometime in New York City" is not the best place to start, but if you've been impressed by "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine" (and I certainly hope you would be) this mixed bag is occasionally brilliant. It also has considerable historical interest and undoubted curiosity value.