John Lennon song by song album by album thread.

He was in retirement at that time and his comeback 4 years later was inspired by wanting to spotlight Yoko in a record about their relationship.

I really don't think it was an accident that he dialed back his radical politics in response to INS actions against him. Any immigration lawyer would have advised that.

 

Sean somehow rubs me the wrong way. It's all so cute and and just perfect what He does, but there's no heart in it. Plastic soul.

Sorry for the rant. Carry on, guys.

 

From John Lennon: Long Night's Journey into Day

"You went through a period of really heavy involvement in radical causes. Lately you seem to have gone back to your art in a more direct way. What happened?

John: I’ll tell you what happened literally. I got off the boat, only it was an aeroplane, and landed in New York, and the first people who got in touch with me was Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. It’s as simple as that. It’s those two famous guys from America who’s callin: “Hey, yeah, what’s happenin’, what’s go-in’ on? . . . ” And the next thing you know I’m doin’ John Sinclair benefits and one thing and another. I’m pretty movable, as an artist, you know. They almost greeted me off the plane and the next minute I’m involved, you know.

How did all of this affect your work?

It almost ruined it, in a way. It became journalism and not poetry. And I basically feel that I’m a poet. Even if it does go ba-deedle, eedle, eedle, it, da-deeedle, deedle, it. I’m not a formalized poet, I have no education, so I have to write in the simplest forms usually. And I realized that over a period of time – and not just ’cause I met Jerry Rubin off the plane – but that was like a culmination. "

Technically, it was released on 1996...

 

Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Score for New York City: 3.194

 

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY

From the album Sometime in New York City, 1972.

Johns musical response to the shooting of civil rights protestors by British soldiers in Derry, Northern Ireland on Jan 30, 1972, which left 14 dead. The first of two Irish-themed songs on the album & possibly it’s funkiest track.

From the rolling, military-like opening drum rolls & percussion, this track doesn’t let up for its 5+ minutes of reggae-funk; Lennon’s dismissal of Britain’s involvement in Northern Ireland powerfully shouted over wailing saxes, riffing guitars &, for once, a very effective Yoko vocal chilling in on the choruses.

Opinions vary about the subject matter & lyrics of this song, but personally, I see it as just a great rocking slab of sound & one of the albums real highlights.

4.25/5

Lyrics:

Well it was Sunday bloody Sunday
When they shot the people there
The cries of thirteen martyrs
Filled the Free Derry air
Is there any one amongst you
Dare to blame it on the kids?
Not a soldier boy was bleeding
When they nailed the coffin lids!

Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!

You claim to be majority
Well you know that it's a lie
You're really a minority
On this sweet emerald isle
When Stormont bans our marches
They've got a lot to learn
Internment is no answer
It's those mothers' turn to burn!

Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!

You anglo pigs and scotties
Sent to colonize the North
You wave your bloody Union Jack
And you know what it's worth!
How dare you hold to ransom
A people proud and free
Keep Ireland for the Irish
Put the English back to sea!

Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!

Well, it's always bloody Sunday
In the concentration camps
Keep Falls Road free forever
From the bloody English hands
Repatriate to Britain
All of you who call it home
Leave Ireland to the Irish
Not for London or for Rome!

Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!



P.s: as this was the last song written for the album, there doesn’t appear to be any demo’s or alternate versions in existence.

 

Paul’s/Wings’ musical response to the same event, Bloody Sunday: Give Ireland Back to the Irish:



I much prefer Johns song. Paul’s is like a silly nursery rhyme in comparison. Johns summons up the necessary anger. Paul could be singing about inviting the soldiers ‘round for a cup of tea.

 

A short piece about John & Paul’s Irish connection & the songs they wrote:

 

I'm sure his legal staff read him the riot act and told him to cool it with the radical rabble rousing if he wanted to remain in the U,S.

 

Sunday Bloody Sunday
Best instrumental track on the album with a real nice funky groove. Unfortunately the lyrics are anything but lyrical, the verses have no melody. Still I am thinking it could get a 3 / 5 on the strength of the groove.

Then Yoko takes over the Sunday Bloody Sunday chorus. I'm not a Yoko basher. I have gone to her art exhibits, attended her musical (she sat behind me), seen her perform live at the Knitting Factory, have about 6 of her albums and like her "screaming" music.

But her vocal on these choruses are painfully bad and get repeated an ungodly number of times.
Blood curdling.
It kicks the score down to a 1.5.

 

Paul's doesn't really seem a response to the Sunday event specifically. It seems more akin to "Luck of the Irish".

I don't really care for any of the 3, but like Paul's best, especially the wordless "(version)" on the B side. Biggest advantage Paul has is not having Yoko sing on his.

 

I got to thinking about it and I guess my reviews probably come off harsher than my rating as well sometimes.
I wasn't knocking it, found it entertaining, like your style.

 

Paul’s song was also inspired by Bloody Sunday, but in his usual style he wasn’t as direct as John.

 

(Pacific Northwest) Tacoma Washington United States
A lot of rain here and pretty mild summers, very little snow/most summer days 70s to low 80s farenheit..(21.11111°C---26.66667°C).....It gets to the mid 80s and we begin to melt and most are miserable. Rain used to keep overpopulation down, but it's not working anymore.

 

New York City
This song rocks! The best song on the album by far.
(4/5)

Sunday Bloody Sunday
exceedingly average
(2.5/5)

 

It's not an accident - you are correct to assume or know that he John knew he was being harrassed by the time he lived on Jane St. in the West Village. There would be unmarked black cars down the street and he was aware. It did affect his songwriting and he was consciously less political. He's said it in interviews plenty - he was stalked. I think it wore him out and his work suffered as a result.

 

We can't believe Lennon all the time you know - he hated this song of his and that song, he wanted to re-record the entire Beatle catalog, etc.

Lennon wrote two full books of stories plus "Norwegian Wood" and "Girl" before McCartney wrote "Eleanor Rigby". That Lennon quote seems to guide people into forgetting. "A Day In The Life" is Lennon with 3 mini-stories and McCartney with the autobio bit. "I Am The Walrus" plays like its own fantasy world. These 2 guys are too talented to box into one category. McCartney did a terrific job doing autobio songs on 'Chaos and Creation' - or "Here Today". Of course, they're not perfect but they're not limited either in my opinion. In his solo career, yeah a lot of first person songs - mostly.

 

New York City 3.0
Sunday Bloody Sunday 3.0

 

Yeah I remebered thse quotes. I do not think he was saying hat just to avoid getting deported. He just seems to have gained some self-awareness about the whole thing.

 

Happy X-Mas (5/5)

The final selection from an incredible run that was so impressive all the way through that how could anything ever stop him. On top of the world, despite the release issues, John exquisitely tied Christmas to peace with a song that lightly brings up the troubles of the world by staying positive and joyous like the holiday spirit itself. Borrowing some melody from another song “Stewball”, it’s a wise choice and his interpretation is well worth it. John and Yoko’s warm voices greet us pleasantly like they did with “Give Peace A Chance”, another terrifically catchy singalong. The sleigh bells are great, the Harlem choir, the whispering at the front, the excitations at the end. (Might as well use the word ‘excitations’ one time in my life.) It was joined with “Give Peace A Chance” on Shaved Fish.

Sometime In New York City

With the FBI, Richard Nixon, and Immigration on his back, Lennon had been dabbling with left-wing radicals that were on watchlists based in NYC and using a new band that was its own entity, Lennon dropped the Plastic Ono Band idea and the studio musicians on Imagine and went with a new raw, ragged rock sound with current event lyrics. I think his ego, being used to having everyone love everything he did, and being overpowered by his acquaintances, John lost control of a pretty good idea to have an album sung out like someone’s reading the newspaper for that day.

Of course, years later, and every year after 1972, some of the references were dated. The issues however continue to this day – whether it be legalizing pot, dealing with prisoner abuse in jails, women’s rights in a man’s world, and tensions within the UK were all going on in the last 5 years and we’re in 2020 now. So the issues are fresh but the names and references like John Sinclair and ‘Angela’ are dated. Still, it was a great idea – if only he did normal John Lennon songwriting. But instead – he shouted out lyrics like every line was a headline and for a guy who was tremendous with catchphrases I’ve heard this week – ‘power to the people’, ‘imagine’, ‘give peace a chance’, ‘come together’ – not every single lyric was headline – just the chorus.


Woman Is The N Of The World (4.5/5)

This is a good example of a slogan failing – his first failing slogan. How could it succeed? A great rock song with some menacing saxophone similar to that of King Curtis from “I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier”. This is also a big sound and the melody and insistent dark riff that carries this really work well in showing how men could be a menace to women. Perhaps feeling guilt from his own misguided life as a younger man, John was always about women’s rights in the 1970’s and those issues continue today as we see men of great power in society being jailed in recent years for how poorly they treated women.

Still, it’s awkward to use the N word and then on top of that to compare it and try to link or show overlap between slavery and segregation and women’s mistreatment. While some places of the world may have been scarier for women than other places, it may lead to some believing that slavery was not worse. Whatever the case, many times when people try to compare evils, they fail and I think it’s not the right choice. Personally, I don’t mind except for one line.

The only thing I think is questionable in the lyric is “slave of the slaves” which can also lead people to believe that women’s situation was worse than slavery and that slaves themselves would be willing to have slaves. This is the first time where we see a bit of laziness in Lennon’s lyrics and many times on the album it trips his true intentions up. The line is lazy and weakens the message with its possible implications.

Still a great song – most uncommercial title ever – of course banned and because of it – Lennon’s only single that didn’t reach the top 40.

Sisters O Sisters (3/5)

Yeah I’m a Yoko skipper and while I skip these a lot and don’t play the album as much as others, these are surprisingly more produced and more commercial than John’s work on this album – well this and “Born In A Prison”. Ono continues Lennon’s thoughts on women’s rights and tells her dear sisters what their demands are from the human race. “Wisdom that’s what we ask for”. It’s got this weird almost Motown or 60’s soul vibe with those light sax touches, light strings and funky rhythm. Yoko sounds decent here – people always joke of her screaming but she can sing in tune at least. You can tell John did that little rock out riff on the break.

Attica State (2/5)

I may never have heard a great riff played this poorly. This song really could have rocked hard and had some good quality if they could just get the riff continuously going under the bland, poorly sung vocal. Talk about bad harmonies – John and Yoko just can’t get in sync much of the time as we hear random lead guitar licks and lines that go nowhere and add nothing. The song uses the issue that is still going on 50 years later – abuse in the prison systems and focuses the cameras directly in on Attica State. Poor melody, really bland hook and no good slogan – “we’re all mates with Attica State” is just too vague and weak. The playing is awful – rips any power out of the song and could have had a great contribution if they drove home that riff.

Born In A Prison (1/5)

I don’t know why and how there could be a corny lyric with corny music that ties in lightly to John’s rough “Attica State”. Wood becomes a flute when it’s love is the corniest thing and the way she sings it like its traditional pop is so weird – not likeable ‘Ram’ weird but ‘oh geez’ weird. “Die with no vision of truth” Yoko sings in a cheerful tone – takes out the power of the line. The sax solo coda is too nightclub-like – why are we in a jazz nightclub all of a sudden cheering ‘born in a prison!’?

 

Great reviews - as always - but you & I seem to interpret the line “woman is the slave to the slave” in Woman is the n****r of the World differently.

For me, this is the key line of the whole song; even more so than it’s title. I’ve always read it as John saying: “no matter how low a mans position is in society, his woman position is always lower, i.e: even a slaves woman is beneath him”.

I don’t think that John was implying that even slaves would be happy to keep slaves, or that a woman’s role in society was comparable with slavery; although I’m sure some would argue - especially half a century ago - that many women were treated somewhat like slaves by their men: expecting their women to clean the home, have their dinner on the table etc.

 

I agreed with you - you see the way I worded that - I wrote which can also lead people to believe that women’s situation was worse than slavery and that slaves themselves would be willing to have slaves. This is the first time where we see a bit of laziness in Lennon’s lyrics and many times on the album it trips his true intentions up. The line is lazy and weakens the message with its possible implications.

I should have added that he's doing it for extra emphasis for his case.

 

Sunday Bloody Sunday is one of the better songs on the album for me.

It has a nice open mix (for a change) and some pretty classy playing from Elephant’s Memory. The chaotic chorus works with that funky groove and Yoko’s shrieking actually adds significantly to it all.

3/5

 

Totally agree!

I keep hoping they discover an all John vocal on this song, because I really like it up to the point she starts singing. I ended up editing this song to remove her vocal so I could enjoy it. I'm sure its too much to hope for a deluxe version of this album that includes a remixed version with an all John vocal.

 

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Like The Luck of the Irish, it starts off pretty well, then goes off the rails. It ends up reading more like an angry Twitter rant than a song, and this is a good example of how John and Yoko just don’t mesh as a musical act.

1.5/5