This is not an essential recording, but at least an interesting one.
As for sound quality, the music sounds surprisingly good considering that this was recorded in 1972. John's backing band sounds OK, but not exactly well-rehearsed. Of course, in typical John Lennon fashion, he screams each and every vocal (with the exception of "Imagine") and says goofy things between songs ("this song is from one of those albums I made since I left the Rolling Stones").
A problem with some live albums is that the songs sound too much like their original studio versions. That is not the case with this one (except for "Instant Karma," but that's not surprising considering the rawness of the original), partially due to the fact that most of the songs have a touch of saxophone in them. In "It's So Hard," the lead guitar can be heard more clearly than in the studio version, which is a plus. The somewhat excessive "Well, Well, Well" has been cut down to about four minutes here. "Mother," unfortunately, sounds absolutely horrid live. "Come Together" & the uptempo version of "Cold Turkey" are the clear highlights of this disc and are enough to make it worth buying. The cover of "Hound Dog" is pretty good, too (he makes it sound just like one of his own songs). "Give Peace A Chance" is simply the audience chanting the line over and over for about a minute, so don't expect to hear a live version of this song here.
Oh yeah, and Yoko's contributions to the concert are minimal, a HUGE plus. ;-)

It's hard to put John down, but this cd has some serious... issues. Where to start...
Firstly, Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band is comprised of a group of guys who,... They aren't well rehearsed, they aren't good playing together. The sax is all over the place! Every time he plays its just a mess! No subtlety...
John is busy screaming. He hardly sings. Its a shame, because he had such a haunting voice. Instead he's just...uck.

But on the plus side, Well Well Well is pretty good, and Yoko doesnt do much. Instant Karma is such a tight song, but the drums are all over the place. Those drum breaks are just emberrasing ...John tries to be funny, but it doesnt work.

John just wasn't a live artist. In the Beatles and on his own, he didnt seem to like playing live. He was a studio man. He was fantastic in the studio, he wasn't on stage.

And Come Together just didnt sound right. None of the songs really sound right. He just can't seem to get into it...

A lot of the time live albums are not good because they sound thin, and/or the studio versions of the songs are just better. With this album the performances of the songs do not sound thin and the quality of the recording is excellent. The songs sound neither better nor worse than the versions that appear on the studio albums, they just sound different. Most of the songs are tinged with a saxophone, which works well. The saxophone in "Imagine" sounds especially cool. The backup band, The Plastic Ono Elephants Memory Band gels with Lennon and plays everything fine. The song selection is good, with highlights from Lennon's first three post Beatles albums, "Plastic Ono Band", "Imagine", and "Sometime in New York City". There is also a cool version of "Hound Dog." Lennon's singing on this album has been criticized. I think that he sounds very good live. He may not sound as smooth as he does on his studio albums, be he still can carry all of the songs fine live. My only complaint with this album is its length. It could have been a bit longer. Perhaps bonus tracks from other shows could have been added. Still, it's a strong album nonetheless and most fans of Lennon will dig it. There are also cool pictures and liner notes by Yoko Ono that are in the booklet.

John really puts the exclamation point on "I don't believe in Beatles" with this brief but amazing performance. His voice is harsh, the band is sloppy, and John turns every song (including "Hound Dog") into a rebellious therapy session. It's that very unpolished rawness that makes this set so good. At this point (1972) Lennon had released solo albums that were intensely personal statements reflecting his involvement in primal therapy, and here onstage he really goes back to the rock'n'roll he grew up listening to -- his own songs are screamers and shouters mostly, owing more in their style and subject to Little Richard than to Buddy Holly. It shouldn't be surprising that his best songs here are full of venom and bite, abrasive and noisy. Yes the album is short but there's no room for filler here, just passion, as another reviewer states. It's definitely not The Beatles, and it may not be very pretty, but "Live in New York City" is real rock'n'roll as it used to be -- live, loud and a little scary. Get this before it disappears from the catalog altogether.

I thought Lennon was supposed to be a genius. If he was, it really doesn't show in this performance. First, the CD is way too short -- is 11 songs the best they could do? Second, he doesn't sing any of the songs, the entire time John screams the lyrics. Atleast Elvis was kind enough to sing 'Hound Dog.' It almost gives me a headache to listen to him screaming out all these songs. As a matter of fact, the only song he doesn't scream on is 'Imagine.' The third problem is the last song, 'Give Peace A Chance,' is SHORTENED! The full song is 5 minutes, but on this album it fades out after 41 seconds. For shame. Thankfully, however, the complete song is available on the Imagine soundtrack. Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do. All in all, save your money and get the John Lennon Anthology.