Please consider registering
Guest
sp_LogInOut Log Insp_Registration Register
Register | Lost password?
Advanced Search
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
sp_Feed sp_TopicIcon
Some Time In New York City
sp_BlogLink Read the original blog post
19 March 2022
12.54pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 24950
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Ron Nasty said
Interestingly the website set up for The Ultimate Mixes (2022) has disappeared, with the link redirecting to the album page on John’s official site. Does this mean the idea of a UM version has been abandoned?

  

Could be. It must be the least interesting of John’s albums and the appearance of the ‘N’ word could be a controversy they are not wanting to go near. The track was omitted from ‘Gimme Some Truth : The Ultimate Mixes’ back in 2020 when it is one of the more important of John’s songs due to the song theme.

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

Vera Chuck and Dave

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

19 June 2022
10.35am
Avatar
vonbontee
Inside Von Bontee's mind
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5444
Member Since:
1 December 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

CREEM, August ’72

Screenshot_20220619-113230_Gallery.jpgImage Enlarger

Screenshot_20220619-113325_Gallery.jpgImage Enlarger

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

         offtopic-1.png

https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

20 June 2022
9.53pm
Avatar
Expert Textpert
In bed.
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5011
Member Since:
18 April 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

One less box set I’ll feel obligated to buy.

"If you're ever in the shit, grab my tit.” —Paul McCartney 

1 October 2022
7.22pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 24950
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Is a 20022 remastered box thingy still coming out or has it been scrapped? Maybe it’s all gone quiet to allow ‘Revolver ‘ the airtime.

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

Bongo

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

3 October 2022
2.39pm
Avatar
Bongo
Somewhere In Time
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1916
Member Since:
28 March 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

meanmistermustard said
Is a 20022 remastered box thingy still coming out or has it been scrapped? Maybe it’s all gone quiet to allow ‘Revolver ‘ the airtime.

  

Doubt I’ll be around for that one a-hard-days-night-ringo-8

The following people thank Bongo for this post:

Rube

  Screen-Shot-2022-10-04-at-7.52.07-PM.png   BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms!  apple01

31 October 2022
9.23pm
Avatar
Ron Nasty
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 12534
Member Since:
17 December 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

An open letter to JOHN LENNON from NME’s Tony Tyler

Lennon, you’re a pathetic, ageing revolutionary

JOHN AND YOKO/Plastic Ono Band: “Some Time In New York City ” (Apple)

Dear John,

The reason my review of your new double album is dressed up as a letter is because I pinched the idea from you in the first place. For some time you’ve been laying your bad trips on us in the form of open letters (some disguised as albums) and I feel justified in adopting the same device. Also, I want to make sure that the musicians involved with you in this latest chunk of self-indulgence don’t feel personally attacked by my opinions: it’s YOU I’m after.

For the music is excellent – although perhaps not quite up to the breathtaking standards of “Imagine “.

I don’t like the all-American production too much – reverb is OK on your voice but I think when applied to instruments it lays the whole thing too far back into the speakers – but the confidence that’s present in your phrasing is remarkable and a lesson.

“Attica State” shows real control, likewise “New York City”. Oddly enough, Yoko sings in her own way almost as effectively as you do, and although somewhat out of tune, captures the feel of the album – musically. The instrumentation is powerful and blitzy – though I wish you’d lessened down on the wild simultaneous blowing.

But your new outfit is composed of fine musicians, notably Jim Keltner and Stan Bronstein, and your own singing is almost as pungent and abrasive as ever, though not as witty. And I’ve no complaints with the jam section because it’s included in the price and, as jams go, is pretty good.

The quarrel is with the general tastelessness of the presentation. Perhaps you’d counted on more sycophanic [sic] approval of the idea and dogmas (yes, dogmas) expressed in the form of lyrics. Look elsewhere, Johnandyoko. Sycophany [sic] and yesman approval of every little thing you do is the last thing you need on your self-appointed pinnacle.

For example, because I may (and do) sympathise with your legitimate fight to remain in the US doesn’t mean I feel anything but embarrassment when you include a pre-paid fill-out petition of support in the album (perhaps I’m being harsh: my copy is an import and there’s a chance that British issues won’t contain this self-pitying little document).

Let’s start with the sleeve. It resembles a newspaper (where have we seen THAT idea before? Do Tull* me) and the lyrics are presented as stories. Not bad, but unoriginal and spoiled by a sadistic little Japanese woodcut showing a lady having her stomach slit by a Samurai chauvinist pig. Unnecessary.

Now the lyrics themselves. I was groping for a single word to sum up their initial impression on me and I arrived at Insulting, Arrogant, Rigid, Dogmatic … in short, the effect achieved was the opposite of the effect desired (I hope). I finally settled on Pathetic.

Pathetic. The only world [sic] to describe an ageing revolutionary. But it’s tough how you’ve been caught out by history overtaking you. That’s what happens when you cling to dogmas, Johnandyoko, but it’s made you seem a little sillier than you probably intended. “Angela” and “John Sinclair” have both been freed since you wrote these songs and, although the basic sentiments are justified I’d have a little more respect for you if you’d used your power to highlight a less-fashionable couple of injustices. After all, there’s plenty to pick from.

Other occasions find your ignorance catching you out – like in “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. “Anglo pigs and Scotties/sent to colonise the North” looks stupid if you examine history further back than the Boyne**. Fax and info, Johnandyoko: the Scots were originally (around 400 a.d.) an IRISH tribe. They descended on Western Caledonia with rapine and pillage and gave their name to Scotland. So the “Scotties” were only coming home. Anglo pigs? Well, we’re all pigs of one sort – even you – and please note that Mayor Daley*** is Irish.

You seem to assume that nobody cares – or that nobody grieves – but you, and I find this insulting. Perhaps you are the real cynic – otherwise you wouldn’t try to make capital out of terrible and tragic situations.

But the lyrics aren’t all as bad. Yoko’s “We’re All Water” has more wit than anything you’ve done on this record, and her “Sisters Oh [sic] Sisters” has a spirit and sense of hope that is totally absent from your self-righteous ragings. But her [?] “Woman Is The N****r Of The World” falls into the same trap. Sad.

It’ll be easy to write off a review like this one as the rantings of a male chauvinist fascist pig. I may be, Johnandyoko, but I utterly deny your right to fasten the label.

You’ve still got important things to say. So SAY them. Don’t rely on cant and rigidity. Don’t alienate. Stimulate.

You know, like you used to.

Love,
TONY TYLER

New Musical Express, 1 July 1972

Some pointers to the references in the review:

* Jethro Tull’s March 1972 album, Thick as a Brick, had a similar newspaper-styled cover (though not using song titles and lyrics to make up the stories):

JT.jpgImage Enlarger

** Battle of the Boyne, 1690, one of the turning points in Irish history, when King William III’s (aka William of Orange) forces defeated the Jacobite forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, leading to the rise of Anglican Protestantism in Ireland, a country which had remained largely Catholic; thus sowing the seeds of the religious divide which has rumbled on, often violently (thankfully not so at the moment), ever since.

*** Richard J. Daley, Democrat politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (1955-1976)

  

The following people thank Ron Nasty for this post:

Von Bontee

"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty

To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

Forum Timezone: Europe/London
Most Users Ever Online: 700
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 1
Top Posters:
Starr Shine?: 16105
Ron Nasty: 12534
Zig: 9832
50yearslate: 8759
Necko: 8043
AppleScruffJunior: 7583
parlance: 7111
mr. Sun king coming together: 6402
Mr. Kite: 6147
trcanberra: 6064
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 88
Members: 2859
Moderators: 5
Admins: 1
Forum Stats:
Groups: 3
Forums: 44
Topics: 5509
Posts: 380341
Newest Members:
frankc, viv@nelsontraining.co.uk, bornhairyman, frankkilmore123@gmail.com, onlyanorthernsong
Moderators: Joe: 5691, meanmistermustard: 24950, Ahhh Girl: 22213, Beatlebug: 18181, The Hole Got Fixed: 8410
Administrators: Joe: 5691