Back before he completely lost his mind, Geraldo Rivera was a TV journalist who initially made his name exposing bad behavior a la 60 Minutes. Following an exposé on the living conditions at a home for the mentally ill, he convinced John and Yoko to stage a benefit concert in the summer of 1972, which they did. In the end, two shows were staged.Nearly fourteen years later, an album of the event finally got an official release. It had been a TV special a decade earlier, and would occasionally show up on the radio; plus being John’s only full length solo concert performances outside of Toronto, what became Live In New York City had certainly gained stature. Yoko was nice enough to take out all of her songs for the LP version (yet left some in for the concurrent VHS release); purists still cried foul over the remixing and choice of performances, as most came from the afternoon show. “Welcome to the rehearsal,” John himself says at one point, and rightfully so.
The overall performance is rushed and sloppy; despite what anyone thought, Elephant’s Memory—fresh off the recording of Some Time In New York City—was simply not that tight a band. Tex Gabriel was okay on the guitar, and saxophones are a matter of personal taste, but when Jim Keltner is onstage as the second drummer that should tell you something. And why exactly did they need two bass players? Still, they took care of John’s needs at the time, and he didn’t have the patience to audition people like Paul did. (He also didn’t pretend to be democratic.)
The fact that he showed up and rose above the other guys on stage makes up for the lackluster details. The most entertaining segments are the between-song comments—especially “Someone shouted ‘Ringo!’ That was last year” and “Here’s another song I wrote after I left the Rolling Stones”. “Imagine” and “Instant Karma” at the piano make for cool listening, and “Hound Dog” is thrown in to show off his roots. The last track is a minute’s worth of “Give Peace A Chance”, a different mix from the one on Shaved Fish but just as much of an afterthought.
Live In New York City doesn’t have the raw energy of Live Peace In Toronto, or the giddiness of his appearance with Elton John in 1974, but as a historical document it’s still essential, and that’s where it gets its points. It was a pleasant surprise to be getting more authorized visits into the archives, and we no idea where it would go from here, if at all.
The album was out of print for many years, though rumors kept emerging that it had been remastered for some kind of expansion. The obvious place to put it in the era of the Lennon Estate’s Ultimate Mixes would have been a deluxe expansion of Some Time In York City, but ongoing controversy about a certain word in one of the song titles seemed to have scuppered that plan. Instead, these concerts became the focal point of its own reissue project.
Even though they’d used the title for an earlier hits collection, Power To The People was available three ways: a single-disc distillation of the two shows for one complete virtual show, half of which was not on the original Live In New York City; a two-disc set with both shows; and a nine-CD/three-Blu-ray behemoth that provided even more music from the period. None of these included either live version of “Sisters O Sisters” for no apparent reason, even as a hidden track, except possibly to keep each concert on a single disc, and the first disc of the big box was the same distillation disc of the two-disc set that was also repeated as the second and third discs in the box. What’s more, no version, live or otherwise, of That Song was found anywhere.
As before, the concerts are more important historically than musically; John sounds a little more confident at the second show, false starts are included for completeness, Stan Bronstein is still honking everywhere albeit mixed low on “Imagine” both times, and the sound is excellent. Each show also includes five Yoko songs: “Born In A Prison” and “We’re All Water” from the new album, the earlier B-sides “Don’t Worry Kyoko” (first show only) and “Open Your Box”, and a preview of “Move On Fast” from her next album. While always a matter of taste, her contributions found her grown quite adept at the rock ‘n roll thing, but we could do without her bleating on “Hound Dog”. A track titled “Law And Order” is her reading a Hitler quote over the vamp that leads into the ten-minute all-star “Give Peace A Chance” excerpted for Shaved Fish. (On all three concert discs, “Power To The People” consists of the intro of that song played over the P.A.)
The deluxe edition also included a disc each of ultimate mixes and evolution documentaries—which included snippets of demos for the songs, but none complete—of the rest of the studio tracks from Some Time In York City and a disc with oldies jams from the sessions and some elements mixes of four songs. The Live Jam sides from that album made up another disc, and another included various live and TV appearances from the period. A “Home Jam” disc offered oft-booted acoustic buskings from various hotel rooms, including some unfinished song snippets and duets with Phil Ochs. The Blu-ray discs repeated everything on the CDs in various hi-res audio options, but didn’t include any video, from either of the One-to-One concerts or other appearances. A thick book and ephemera reproductions were mild consolation.
John Lennon Live In New York City (1986)—3½
John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band Power To The People (2025)—3
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