Some Time In New York City

• 2LP, Apple SVBB-3392, June 19, 1972
• 2LP, Capitol 46782/3, 1972
• 2cassette, Apple 4XC 3394
• 2CD, Apple CDP 7 93850 2, May 1, 1990
• CD, Parlophone, UK, November 7, 2005
• CD, Capitol, USA, November 22, 2005

Album Credits

Track list:

CD 1—"John Lennon and Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band with
Elephant's Memory and The Invisible Strings"

1. Woman Is the Nigger Of The World (Lennon/Ono) 5:18
2. Sisters, O Sisters (Ono) 3:49
3. Attica State (Lennon/Ono) 2:57
4. Born In A Prison (Ono) 4:06
5. New York City (Lennon) 4:32
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday (Lennon/Ono) 5:04
7. The Luck Of The Irish (Lennon/Ono) 2:59
8. John Sinclair (Lennon) 3:31
9. Angela (Lennon/Ono) 4:08
10. We're All Water (Ono) 7:14

CD 2—"Live Jam"

1. Cold Turkey (Lennon) 8:36 *
2. Don't Worry Kyoko (Ono) 16:00 *
3. Well...(Baby Please Don't Go) (Ward) 4:41
4. Jamrag (Lennon/Ono) 5:37 **
5. Scumbag (Lennon/Ono/Zappa) 6:12
6. Au (Lennon/Ono) 6:20

* Recorded live December 15, 1969 at The Lyceum Ballroom, London, England
Other tracks: live June 6, 1971 at The Fillmore East, New York, NY
** this is, of course a version of "King Kong", that is not credited to FZ!

Musicians:

CD 1
John Lennon—lead vocal, guitar, slide guitar on "John Sinclair"
Yoko Ono—lead vocal, drums
Jim Keltner—drums, percussion
Stan Bronstein—saxophone, flute
Richard Frank, Jr.—drums, percussion
Gary Van Scyoc—bass
Adam Ippolito—piano, organ
Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel—guitar
John Las Bosca—piano on "Born In A Prison"

CD 2
John Lennon—lead vocal on track 1, guitar
Yoko Ono—lead vocal on track 2, bag
Jim Gordon, Keith Moon, Alan White—drums
George Harrison—guitar
Eric Clapton—guitar
Klaus Voormann—bass
Bobby Keys—saxophone
Nicky Hopkins—electric piano (overdubbed)
Billy Preston—organ
Delaney & Bonnie—percussion, guitars, brass

+ Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention
Don Preston—Synthesizer, Moog Synthesizer
Aynsley Dunbar—Drums
Frank Zappa—Guitar, Vocals
Bob Harris—Keyboards, Vocals
Jim Pons—Bass, Vocals
Ian Underwood—Keyboards, Vocals, Wind
Mark Volman—Vocals
Howard Kaylan—Vocals

Other credits:
Phil Spector—Producer
John Lennon—Arranger, Producer, Concept
Yoko Ono—Arranger, Producer, Concept
Roy Cicala—Engineer
Ron Frangipane—Orchestration
Michael Gross—Design
Dan Turbeville—Engineer

Notes & Comments

FZ, interviewed by Steve Rosen, Record Review, June, 1982

We were working at the Fillmore East and they came in and sat in with us and it just happened to be the same night we recorded the Live at the Fillmore album. So the whole event got on tape. And a deal was made in the dressing room afterwards where they said they wanted to be able to release the tapes and I said I wanted to be able to release the tapes and we mutually released each other. In other words I'll give you a copy of the tapes and you can do what you want with them and I'll do what I want with them. I've never released it but what they did with it was really the pits. They turned off some of the words that Howard (Kaylan) and Mark (Volman) were singing in a song called "Scum Bag" and they left some of the best stuff out of it. And what they did was they took a song called "King Kong" that we were playing and retitled it "Jam Rag" and claimed the publishing on it. So I'm not too thrilled about the results of that particular collaboration and one of these days I'm going to mix the stuff from that particular performance so you can hear everything that went on. Because Mark and Howard were talking about "sticking Yoko in a scumbag." I never had any further conversation with them because at that point it was one of those things where you'd have to go to a lawyer. I think there were some questions asked by Capitol Records as to why that had been done but in order to straighten it out, you'd have to go in with an accountant and see the sales of that particular album and start a lawsuit over the fact that they took the publishing and this and that. I Just thought it was a real cheap shot thing to do.

AMG Review

William Ruhlmann (All-Music Guide): "The first album co-billed to John Lennon and Yoko Ono to actually contain recognizable pop music, 'Sometime in New York City' found the Lennons in an explicitly political phase, expounding on such topical subjects as the Attica prison riot and the treatment of activists John Sinclair and Angela Davis. Especially in the case of Lennon's songs, there is an appealing rock style to the material, even if the lyrics limit the record's appeal. 'Sometime in New York City' was originally released with a free bonus disc that contained a live medley of Lennon's 'Cold Turkey' and Ono's 'Don't Worry Kyoko', and an appearance by the Lennons at a Mothers of Invention concert. This slight material now makes the album a two-CD set, and it is priced accordingly."

 

Jam Rag/King Kong

Michael Gula

ZAPPA: I talked to Yoko last year, and I said, "By the way, you remember that 'Jam Rag'?" She said, "Well, we have a problem with Capitol Records. We are suing them, you know." -"Bat Chain Puller" p. 117

I can't imagine that album really sold a lot, anyway....

Informants: emdebe
cassette scans by kizmiaz

• Also see: John Lennon's "Whatever Happened To... " file.

The New Single CD Reissue (2005)

Antal (October 15, 2005)

From http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/fabnews.htm:

Dear Steve,

the reissues of John Lennon "Some Time in New York" and "Walls And Bridges" will be released in Germany at November 4th. Since a few weeks Friday is now our "Releaseday". Otherwise at November 7th.

The tracklisting for "Some time ..." will be:

WOMAN IS THE NIGGER OF THE WORLD
SISTERS O SISTERS
ATTICA STATE
BORN IN A PRISON
NEW YORK CITY
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH
JOHN SINCLAIR
ANGELA
WE'RE ALL WATER
COLD TURKEY (LIVE AT THE LYCEUM BALLROOM, 1969)
DON'T WORRY KYOKO (LIVE AT THE LYCEUM, 1969)
WELL (BABY PLEASE DON'T GO) (LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST, 1971)
LISTEN, THE SNOW IS FALLING
HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)

Yoko decided, "that the Fillmore performance should end here after this track, without going into the long avant garde improvisation that followed, led by Frank and I. I wanted John to have the last voice on the album, spreading his childhood over us.

If you miss the 'freak out' part.just put a microphone to the many battlefields in the world. You will hear everything—children crying, guys shouting, and the occasional silence created by the dead." So Yoko was quoted in a recent press release of Parlophone UK.

For this new single CD, "Listen The Snow is Falling" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over) have been added. "Happy Xmas" did not feature on the original album, although it preceded its release when it was released as a single, backed with "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" in the US in 1971 and in the UK a year later.

All tracks have been remixed except 'John Sinclair' and 'Attica State', which have been remastered.