Bruce Beatlefan (January 31, 2006)

Oh gosh am I going to make Beatle/Lennon fans angry when I say I love this album!

Let me start by saying that a "Smart Beatle" mystique formed around John Lennon during a time when he was just spinning random, disjointed ideas off the top of his head in a very offhand manner (the songs "She Said She Said" or "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and his book "In His Own Write"). Unfortunately (and egged on by Yoko) he began believing the pseudo-intellectuals who were besotted by him and fell all over himself with his SERIOUS work. I know critics and fans rave about "Plastic Ono Band", but to me it is forty minutes of abrasive sour whine. And now this...he discovers politics (well behind the Guthrie/Dylan/Baez curve) and decides the world needs to hear his opinion (woefully uninformed and sophomoric--good grief what an embarrassment "Attica State" is) on drugs, foreign policy, feminism, etc. Please John please go back to Mr. Kite, Walruses, and Tickets to Ride!!!

Wait a minute...didn't I say I loved this album? I did. In JL-POB there is too little fun to get past the lyrical drudgery. Not so in this album! Some Time in New York City is a blast. John and Yoko, pumped up by Elephant's Memory Band, shriek and stomp and boogie with some of the finest and most enjoyable rock and roll they've ever written. "Attica State" is pathetic social comment but it sizzles. "New York City" is John's greatest rocker since 1968's "Revolution". Yoko's 1950's throwbacks ("Sister O Sister" and "Born in a Prison") and her rocker ("We're All Water") are enjoyable tunes. Cynics may say that any idiot can sound good when their music is pumped up by Lennon and company, but it is Yoko's blistering vocal on "Sunday Bloody Sunday" that makes it arguably the best song on the album.

Get this album, not to be educated by the lyrics, but for the best of all reasons: It has a beat and you can dance to it.

John (July 16, 2005)

An absolute disaster. Unlistenable. A waste of time. Don't bother. What the hell was John thinking?

two tracks have wrong listing (July 2, 2009)

The tracks Cold Turkey and Don't Worry Kyoko were recorded 1969 by Plastic Ono Band and not The Mothers of Invention.
The album is good lennon. And if you give Yoko a chance her tracks aren't that bad.

ONE COMPLAINT about this CD! (August 12, 2008)

I love the album,every song on it is really captures the era gone by. To me it just seems like yesterday...However , Why did they shorten Were All Water by Yoko? I really was excited when the CD came in and I took a listen to it and the final high pitch scream by Yoko was edited out to a gradual fade....I have been listening to this album since I bought it in 1973 (I had to sneak it in the house because if my parents had seen or heard it I would have been finished) I was very disappointed when I listened to the CD to discover this climatic end to a great piece of work had been altered.

A 4-Star and a 2-Star (July 26, 2006)

I avoided buying the album for years and years. The songs got little radio play, and the cover just didn't make it for me. It struck me as "this is one album where Yoko's pulling all the strings". When I finally bought it along about 2000, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Like many of the reviewers, the album features some good stuff from Yoko.

Angela, John Sinclair, and Born in A Prison provide haunting melodies to rival George Harrison's most melancholy moments.

I will have to agree with the general review of CD2. I do love the live version of Cold Turkey more than the studio version. And, "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" almost redeems the entire second CD. A real gem.

Thanks to reading these reviews, and the CD notes a little more closely, I now realize that George Harrison appears on the Live Jam - will listen more closely for him today. I may even go and buy the remaster and see what new stuff is there.

Hey, what's the deal with "Live Jam" and George's "Apple Jam" anyway? The Beatles were good arrangers, songwriters - but not great solo instrumentalists. The only way George and John could have pulled this stuff off, in my view, was to have Paul and Ringo in and not all their other mates. They need each other for this sort of thing.

I do enjoy listening to the CD in its entirety. But hey, John's an ex-Beatle and has much higher standards than this! Buy it if you are a Beatles completist, pop history buff, or John Lennon nut that kinda likes Yoko. The rest of you, don't risk it.

An actually good disc with Yoko songs! and then the 2nd disc.Waa, Waa (January 23, 2006)

I'm gonna make a bold statement here, and say that Yoko ono has the worst singing voice in the history of mankind. Maybe it's not true, so if you can find one that's worse let me know. Still, somehow, on disc one there is actually a...(here we go)good yoko song. AAAA!! that's right. I was pleasantly surprised to not here her screeching and wailing, like a cow in heat, and instead actually trying to sing. The song is "Born in a Prison," and is probably my favorite song on the album. As for the Lennon songs, they are pretty good, as most of his solo stuff is, lacking a tad bit of originality, and with too many horns. What's with lennon and the horns? All the songs are social protest songs, which i have no problem with. I just thought i'd let you know. It's very 60's though it is from the 70's. At least it's ideas. The second disc is awful and full of yoko wailing; it hurts the ears. You can't help but skip it. The songs are long, and full of so much pointless jamming that it drags on. Truly, the songs are just not enjoyable. Sort of a mesh of monotiny. I spelled that wrong, but anyways...overall, not bad

great music (August 18, 2005)

I haven`t heard this since around 1983 or so .I loved this record as a teenager in the 70`s ,I wasn`t into all the jam stuff back then,maybe now I would like it.Angela is a great track as well as John Sinclair,Born In A Prison is a great track too.I just bought this cd and can`t wait til it gets here so I can hear it again.