Clearly thrilled by his chance to pursue instrumental stylings that appeared in The Beatles, John Lennon uses Some Time in New York City as a launch into blues rock and jazz features. It’s a welcome change of pace for the veteran musician, whose solo works were a scattershot of patience-testing avant-garde experiences and some all-time great political momentum. Some Time in New York City feels like a blur of the two as Lennon portrays this album, thematically, as listing off stories in a newspaper. The album cover lends itself to that, but so too does the track listing. A bold start with Woman is the N****r of the World is Lennon at his provocative best. Here is the news, this is the headline. That sort of attitude is featured on Imagine, on Happy Xmas (War is Over), and throughout Unfinished Music No. 1. It should be no surprise that Some Time in New York City is filled with that sentiment, and much of it is in a blues style which Leonard Cohen would pull from years later.
That familiarity with Death of a Ladies Man, an all-time great from Cohen, is perhaps why Some Time in New York City works best of all. Lennon’s album would release five years before the Phil Spector-produced Cohen piece, and you can hear the similarities between the two pieces. It’s all down to Spector. That sound remains, just with less of a punchiness, on Sisters, O Sisters. Not as strong a song but certainly not unlikeable, either. That’s the main issue with Some Time in New York City. Plenty to consider, not enough of it warrants a return to catch those subtle details, though. Attica State is a solid understanding of Lennon as political provocateur, with barbed lyrics written more to gauge a reaction than make a listener thing. It’s easier to rile someone up and have them wonder why they’re raging than it is to explain what the problem is, after all.
Those who view Lennon as a political visionary will like Some Time in New York City. It is catering to that crowd, but then the sincerity of which Lennon and Yoko Ono carry themselves with across the album is simply a credit to their worldview. Born in a Prison is as on the nose as it gets, but it, too, has that same power behind it as Imagine or God. A lot of the songs featured on Some Time in New York are billed on the empty energy that comes from Spector’s production. New York City is a clear example of that, a buzzing, blues rock piece without the lyrical spirit which would make it a hit. Understandably, the upbeat sound which pairs with Sunday Bloody Sunday is hardly going to win any clear minds over, but it’s the provocateur at work, it’s the whole point of Some Time in New York City.
But that point is lost through the length, through the sheer volume of trying to get a rise from listeners. The Luck of the Irish is as horrendous as Paul McCartney’s Give Ireland Back to the Irish, so at least those once friendly writing partners were putting their foot in it even after The Beatles broke up. Repetitive features like John Sinclair and Angela channel that acoustic thrill Bob Dylan had a handle on in the years prior to Lennon’s solo career but can’t get to grips with the nuance that comes from repetition. Songs like Cold Turkey and Jamrag are thrown onto the end of this with no real reason. It makes Some Time in New York City lose focus, though that was already happening around the We’re All Water inclusion. Messy, sure, but it’s a reflection of the political world Lennon and Ono were commenting on. Life imitates art, and art interprets life, that’s the understanding the ex-Beatle works with here.
