John Lennon + Yoko Ono
Some Time in New York City - Apple 1972
Tracks: 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. Luck of the Irish / 8. John Sinclair - Elephant's Memory / 9. Angela - Elephant's Memory / 10. We're All Water // 1. Cold Turkey / 2. Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's On / 5. Scumbag / 6. Au
Comments:
This is possibly the most uneven album John Lennon released after the dissolution of The Beatles. If one can abstract from the at times pretty embarrassing lyrics that were very left-wing correct for the time, but not all very well-written and also Yoko Ono's weak vocals, you actually are left with a quite solid album. The lyrics did deal with relevant topics such as women's emancipation, police brutality, legal injustices and violence in Northern Ireland. Lennon and Ono, along with many others on the left, fought against these injustices and appeared several times at political live events .
The band behind the couple were Jim Keltner and Elephant's Memory and the musical side of the album is very competent and it is really a fine and varied rock album.
Lennon's songs are as most often really great with "Woman is the Nigger of the World" as a melodic highlight – this song also has the most complex musical arrangement among the songs on the album.
"New York City" is a really solid rocker in the best Chuck Berry tradition and with some similarities to David Bowie's way of rocking in the 1970s.
Also the two very blue-based "Attica State" and "John Sinclair" are fine.
"The Luck of the Irish" actually has a really nice melody that could have become a classic with better lyrics; unfortunately, these are perhaps the most embarrassing on the album and Ono's vocals on the chorus are close to horrible.
A couple of Ono's own songs are really quite good, though. The best probably is "Sisters O Sisters"; but she really is not a great singer.
The second part of the double album consists of live-recordings. I must admit I don’t really care for them; very raw and pretty sloppy.
However, this is an album that is somewhat better than its reputation.
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