Peter and Tyler continue a conversation about John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s 1972 album Some Time In New York City. Peter is familiar with the album, while Tyler is listening for the first time in real-time.

Peter: “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

Tyler: Oh boy.

Peter: This song was, of course, written in response to the then recent massacre of Irish protestors by British soldiers known as “Bloody Sunday.” John was Irish on his father’s side, and he wanted to say something about the incident, obsessed as he was in those days with music as a sort of real-time reportage on the state of the world. Paul had beaten him to it with his “Give Ireland Back To The Irish,” (released two days after the massacre). John’s anger feels more real here than other places on the album, and the first verse is pretty good, but then the chorus comes, and he hands things over to Yoko.

Tyler: “Not a soldier boy was bleeding when they nailed the coffin lid.” Nice little verse-closer there.  Then there’s that…chorus.

Peter: Yeah, I like the first verse. He really doesn’t do Yoko any favors with the chorus. Paul McCartney could sing it and it would still suck.

Tyler: “It’s always bloody Sunday in the concentration camps.”  Goodness.

Peter: It gets broader as it goes. A little less concise. He starts taking really big swings. Ultimately the whole things sort of collapses under the weight of his righteous anger. That, and the horrible, horrible, chorus.

Tyler: Yeah, the chorus is a mess.  And we’ve got it on repeat to close the song.

Oh, we’ve got a little fake-out!

Peter: The fake-out! You may remember it from earlier much better songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Helter Skelter.”

Tyler: John’s vamping on “Do it” a lot over Yoko’s singing.  Is he encouraging her?  Talking up the band?  Either way, it’s kind of out of place, and later would be done way better on “Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple).”

Man.  That was some squandered potential right there.

Shall we to “The Luck Of The Irish?”

Peter: Yes. This tune starts out with John singing, “If you had the luck of the Irish/You’d be sorry and wish you were dead.”

Tyler: That’s actually how I feel listening to this LP.  Zing!

Man, here we go.  This is just weird protest—oh, Lord, here comes Yoko.

Look, put it this way.  You can be the biggest Yoko fan in the world.  You can consider her albums and other work to be great stuff.  I’ll concede all of that.  That still did not make it palatable for she and John to collaborate musically.  It doesn’t work.

Peter: Yeah… I mostly agree. Let’s circle back on that near the end.

“Circle back.” I never use that phrase in real life.

Tyler: You’re giving a presentation, apparently.

Peter: I’m a business man! In an important business meeting!

Tyler: The best thing I can say for “The Luck Of The Irish” is that it’s short.  Like, what is the point of all this?  Did John really think this would play?

I feel like I’m being glib.  He clearly really took this stuff to heart at the time.

Peter: It was originally slated as the lead single from the album! It should be noted, he wrote this before Bloody Sunday. Anyway, let’s move on.

Tyler: The opening to “John Sinclair” sounds less like John than George.  Nice licks on the ol’ slide guitar.

Peter: Yeah, this one has some merit.  This song was singled out by critics as one of the better tunes on the album. Unfortunately, John ruins it with a weird repeating bit which, to the modern ear, sounds like a CD skipping. It would have been annoying at the time, but it’s even more annoying in the modern age.

Tyler: I absolutely wondered whether Spotify was skipping.

Peter: Tiny bit of context, for you, the readers, John Sinclair was an activist who was jailed for possession of pot. He managed the MC5 and he was a poet. His unjust jailing became a hot cause on the left and John was “there for it.”

Tyler: John keeps dropping shock-words into the lyrics.  In “The Luck Of The Irish,” the landscape is raped.  Here in “John Sinclair,” we’re shooting “gooks.”

He’s trying too hard.  He’s just trying too damn hard.

Peter: Absolutely.

This one is about Angela Davis. He’s hitting all of the hot button left wing issues/people/events of the day. Angela was another wrongly imprisoned activist.

She’s African-American. The Stones wrote “Sweet Black Angel” about her. That’s a terrific song. This is not.

Tyler: We’re going off the rails quick here, this “political prisoners” lyrical turn.

The first few bars are tolerable.  Tolerable.  Then all hell breaks loose.

Peter: You can see why they buried this near the end of the studio album.

Tyler: It’s making me feel physically queasy.

Peter: It’s very, very, not good.

Tyler: Hearing John Lennon—John damn Lennon—sing this stuff is kind of stunning.

Peter: It really is!

Tyler: No wonder his career track took a dive.

“We’re All Water” is gonna be Yoko, isn’t it.

Peter: Yep.

Tyler: Boogie-woogie!

Peter: This one’s all Yoko, and, honestly? It’s not bad. It’s wacky and weird, which suits her. It’s also not explicitly addressing an issue of the day.

Which is a huge relief.

Tyler: Y’know, I hear you.  And if I’m gonna give Fiona Apple points for gurgling like a dolphin on Fetch The Bolt Cutters, I suppose I must prop Yoko’s aquatic vocal riffs here.

Yeah, it’s drawing to a close and I’m not completely defeated.  Point: “We’re All Water.”

Peter: I played this for my wife and she said it was “less painful” than the other Yoko songs on the album.

Tyler: Wait a minute.  There’re three minutes left?  I’m only halfway through?

Peter: Yeah, the problem is it’s way too long. Clocking in at 7:14, the song bobs along amiably enough for three and a half minutes before devolving into the sort of “freak out” John (and Yoko) were so fond of around this time. It’s a lot of wailing and squealing and shouting.

But, it’s probably still my “favorite” song on the studio section of the album.

Tyler: This thing is endless.

Peter: Just wait for the live section!

Tyler: Speaking of stunning.  Another entire disc!

This one has been a haul.  It’s tough to hear a rightly-beloved icon go so tremendously off the rails.

Peter: It’s a hard listen.

Tyler: Disc two!  Live jams!  What could possibly go wrong!

Peter: The album plows on with a live version of “Cold Turkey.” This is not the first time he’d released a live version of “Cold Turkey,” in case you were wondering. John really liked this song. The studio version peaked at number 14 in the UK back when it was released way back in 1969.

Tyler: He pitched it to Paul, George, and Ringo.  They did not go for it.

Peter: Right. His solo studio version is pretty good.

Tyler: Truth be told, I’ve never loved it, or much appreciated it, or whatever the hell it is you do with a song that bracing.  I could stand to revisit that studio version.

Peter: Here he kicks things off by informing us, “This song’s about pain.” Because no one is allowed to have fun what with all the bloody starvation and suffering in the world.

Tyler: Oh good.  Seven minutes coming.

Peter: Yeah. We won’t have to do repeat listens on these tracks.

Tyler: So, like, this is fine so far.  It’s a capably-heavy version of a decent song.  I dig the body of it.  But we’ve got a long, long way to go.

My goodness.  This escalated.

Feral screaming from John.  I’m okay with it for the moment.

Peter: We should note, this isn’t Elephant’s Memory. It’s Clapton, and Harrison, and an all-star band.

Tyler: Jesus.  I did not know that.

Peter: Let me fact check that…

Fact check: True! Also, Billy Preston!

Tyler: Billy!

Okay, I gotta give credit where it’s due.  That wasn’t dreadful.  I dig it the way I dig a very occasional play of McCartney’s outtake “Rode All Night.”  A Beatle going full-on hard-rock scream-song.  It can be rewarding.

Peter: Agreed.

“Don’t Worry Kyoko.”

Tyler: This one’d been around as long as “Cold Turkey.”  Think they both wound up on Live Peace in Toronto, which can be found with real frequency in the used bins of record shops.

This too is serviceable.

Peter: Yep. Same band here as the previous track.

Tyler: The band is kicking ass, that’s for damn sure.  And—there’re TWELVE MORE MINUTES OF THIS?

Peter: Yeah.

Tyler: So how’s life, Peter?  We’ve got some time to kill.

Peter: So, we have some time to talk…

Jinx.

So, let’s talk about Yoko’s vocals.

Tyler: Absolutely.

Peter: I actually prefer her wailing thing to when she actually tries to sing (for the most part). There are times on these jams where I don’t mind her at all. Her vocals become a part of the music. It’s not pretty music, but it’s… interesting?

Tyler: That’s a good differentiation, her singing vs. her screeching.  And I don’t mean to say “screeching” as an insult. I agree with you, this appeals to the stranger corners of my tastes.  There’s a place for this stuff.

Peter: They edited this down from 40 minutes, by the way.

Tyler: No.

Peter: Half the audience walked out. According to legend.

Tyler: Eleven minutes in with six to go.  I am starting to struggle.

Peter: Klaus Voormann and Alan White on the bass and drums.

Tyler: See, that speaks to the arrogance of John at this time.  Assembling a top-of-the-line cast of musicians, knowing fully what the band could pull off, and then unleashing this.

And the gall to release it!

Peter: Yes.

Flying too close to the sun!

Tyler: Closing up shop here.  What a disgrace.

Peter: The last four songs were recorded live at The Fillmore East in 1971 with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. Which is nice, because The Mothers of Invention are also a much better band than Elephant’s Memory.

“Well (Baby Please Don’t Go).”

Tyler: Killer!  Oh, wait.  Yoko.

Absolutely no excuse for including her on these.

Peter: Yeah. It happens on Live Peace in Toronto as well. We just agreed her wailing has its place. This ain’t it.

Tyler: Don’t get me wrong.  John owed the fans nothing.  But the fans deserved better.

Peter: Exactly! The fans deserved better.

Tyler: It’s such a bait-and-switch.

Oh sweet.  Here come six-minutes-plus of “Jamrag.”

This is chaos.

Peter: Aren’t you glad I picked this one?

Tyler: Mercy.  I suppose, for Beatles fans, it’s a rite of passage.

Peter: This is only my second time through these “jam” tracks.

Tyler: I’m onto “Scumbag.”

Peter: Yes! Onward!

Tyler: Let’s check the time.  Here we go!

Oh, hey, this one’s only four minutes total!

Peter: It feels longer!

No, the band is super tight.

The problem is John.

Tyler: “Scumbag!  Scumbag! ……Scumbag!”

Peter: Yes! There are no lyrics here. It’s just John shouting “scumbag” over and over.

Tyler: And then the crowd.  It’s a singalong!

Peter: And Zappa. Giving instructions. Charismatic as hell. He kind of overshadows John here.

Tyler: Frank’s got poise here.  John is on another planet.

Peter: Honestly, if I had been there, I’m sure I would have enjoyed this set. The band is terrific.

Tyler: Holy Moses!  The last track!

Peter: “Scumbag” ends with a wash of feedback that bleeds into our next, and the album’s final, track, “Au.” It’s Yoko making noises over a bed of guitar feedback. It’s honestly not horrible, but I doubt anyone would want to listen to it more than once. That’s the problem with this last side, it really feels like you had to be there. It’s cool John and Yoko played with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at The Fillmore East in 1971. Yes, some of it was weird, but you could still get away with that at the time (but only just barely).

Tyler: “Au” is okay by me.  Definitely not one you’re gonna put on repeat.  But it’s worthy of, yeah, the one listen.

Peter: Totally. It’s worth the one listen.

The live part of the album is all over the place, but it’s probably (?) better than the studio bit?

Tyler: Yeah, the musicianship rocks.

I think you’re on point about the show overall.  What a feather in the cap, saying you saw that crew play the Fillmore.  But man, no, no, no, John, this should not have been bound to a new studio album.  Even if the new studio album is dreck.

Wowza.  It’s over.  We made it!

Peter: What a journey! There are so many people I want to thank.

John Sinclair. Angela Davis. The Irish.

My wife, and son, who listened to brief snippets of the album before telling me to turn it off.

Tyler: Wow. Playing the kid Some Time In New York City.

Peter: I played it for him sparingly.

They say a lot of bad words.

Tyler: That they do.  And play a good share of bad music.  Your son is a trooper.

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