Live in New York City (1986) 


 

  1. New York City
  2. It's So Hard
  3. Woman is the Ni**er of the World
  4. Well, Well, Well
  5. Instant Karma!
  6. Mother
  7. Come Together
  8. Imagine
  9. Cold Turkey
  10.Hound Dog
  11.Give Peace a Chance

 

One of the very few John Lennon concerts ever performed. Lennon didn't really enjoy touring, and at times his stage fright would be so bad that he'd have to leave the stage to go throw up. So this "famous" concert became a bit of a legend for years. People had been clamoring for its release for a long time. This was famous because it was a charity show that John (and Yoko) headlined (I don't remember the cause), so in a way, this was John's "Bangladesh". It didn't actually see the light of day until fourteen years after it was recorded, and one has to wonder if it would have ever seen the light had John still been with us.

The music is very rough. Too rough really for any real enjoyment. You can't really expect that much since he wasn't touring. It doesn't sound like he, or his Elephant's Memory backup band put in any rehearsals. Yes, one has to expect a certain degree of this since it was recorded in 1972, but overall this serves as a better souvenir than an actual "piece of music". Some songs work better than others. Mother is probably the best - but it is a bit overwhelming when Lennon belts out the Janov screaming technique that he applied to the studio version. Hound Dog is a nice surprise as well, but if he was going to do Elvis, couldn't he have thrown in some more Beatles numbers? There's only one (Come Together) and it doesn't translate well here at all.

Of course, he was still pissed at The Beatles during this time. As a matter of fact, this was recorded during his "pissed off political" period and it was actually recorded right around the time of the awful Some Time in New York City fiasco. Fortunately there's not a lot of that album here. Also in the good news department is that Yoko isn't quite as annoying as she accompanies her husband on stage. There's still too much Yoko, though, but one came to expect that at this juncture. It was sad that this was really all we had in the "live" department.

Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review