I recently purchased the 2005 STINYC, it Sounds much better than My previous CD, the Muddy 1990 version; The Songs are Dated, of course, stuck in a 1972 Time Capsule, with Extreme Left-Leanings, but they mostly Rock hard and retain a Passion for their Subject matters. Dylan must have heard "Angela", as He followed with His Leftist Hit "George Jackson" (Angela Davis' Imprisoned Lover, Shot Dead while attempting a Jailbreak for those who don't know) soon after; "Sinclair" has excellent Slide Guitar from Lennon, and "Sisters" shows this is a True collaborative effort from John/Yoko....I like the Single Disc 2005 Edition, the 1990 CD was a Double Set that had the Jams relegated to Disc 2, which I tossed out as mostly irrelevant, but I'm glad the best of that side, and 2 Bonus Cuts are presented Here to fill out 75 minutes, Good/Wise Editing from Yoko in My Opinion....

another fine restoration supervised by Yoko Ono. I think this was a commercial and career disaster for Lennon when it was released at some sky high price during the 1972 election campaign. Now it's an interesting period piece. Feminism was the hot topic that year, and Lennon sang about it like a recent convert in "Woman is the Nigger". Lyrics get silly but the vocal and production are first rate. Elephant's Memory was a nice backing group with at least one radio hit of their own ("Mongoose" I think). Yoko's "Sisters O Sisters" is lyrically quaint and musically very witty as it sort of evokes the Phil Spector heyday. And I love the singing couple on "Born in a Prison" although the lyric gets very silly. And Yoko does ruin "Luck of the Irish" with her "blarney." And her willful avoidance of western pop singing tradition can seem very strange. She also misses rhythm and meter on the "Water" song. The best Lennon numbers from this record are on the new soundtrack about his persecution from the U.S. federal government. But you'd miss the great live vocal on "Baby Please Don't Go".

Basically Ono went for broadly general artistic statements and Lennon wrote songs as almost a visceral response to heavy handed violence practiced by various governments. Unfortunately his fascination with all things "instant" prevented him from rounding these protests into strong songs.

Although sonically it sounds less muddy with the remixed sound, "Sometime in New York City" still is the worst album that Lennon recorded during his brief post-Beatles career. Certainly there are some songs with merit including Lennon's "New York City" and "Woman is the Nigger of the World" but most of the lyrics are political sloganeering put to a rock 'n' roll soundtrack. Lennon was just as political and less forced sounding on this first two solo albums. For all its lyrical drawbacks, Lennon rocks in spots with conviction and his blues playing on tracks like "John Sinclair" are memorable. Phil Spector's original mix sounds less muddy with the remix and sonic detail is clearer with better depth to the recording. At times the previous CD could sound quite mushy.

Condensed to a single disc and dropping the part of the jam session The addition of the two bonus tracks will make Lennon completist happy as it makes them more likely to listen to the last part of the CD. "Happy Xmas" sounds terrific (as usual)while "Don't Worry Kyoko" is still a slice of sonic pie with its lilting Japense sounding melody.

Lennon would regroup with the much more commerically charged "Mind Games". There craft would dominate the material. He would also be going on his "lost weekend" pretty soon away from Yoko relocating to Los Angeles to hang with best friend Harry Nilsson.

...is likely due to Yoko Ono's wish to avoid conflict with the the estate of Frank Zappa. Frank Zappa had stated in an audio interview (which, as late as 2002, could be found on the bootleg file-sharing services as "Frank Zappa Interview About John Lennon") that John and Yoko had appropriated their Fillmore East jam with him without permission. What had particularly angered Zappa was that "Scumbag" and "Jamrag" were parts of Zappa's own composition "King Kong" that John and Yoko had edited from the longer piece, renamed, and put on this album without so much as a please or thank you, let alone a royalty. Worse, they had credited those parts of the jam to themselves. Whatever the Lennons' contribution to the piece, it was still Frank Zappa's song. (For example, Paul McCartney was credited by George Harrison himself for coming up with the piano line that opened Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" -- but it's still Harrison's song. Paul McCartney did not get co-writing credit.)

Given the enormous wealth of his adversaries Zappa despaired of finding justice in a court of law, so he retaliated by writing a piece called "A Small Eternity With Yoko Ono" and telling anyone who asked his side of the story about his time with the Lennons. For my part, I'm impressed that Yoko left any part of the Fillmore East concert with Zappa on the album at all. She may not have apologized, but at least she didn't perpetuate the steal-and-rename-and-claim-for-credit crime into the next century.

I have not heard this remaster, so my rating is due to my memories of the original album. As much as I applaud the Lennons for having their hearts in the right place, I have to agree with the general criticism that the songcraft fell too easily into self-parody. I recommend the albums *Plastic Ono Band* and *Imagine* for examples of political statements in music done right. That the title track of the latter album still rankles right-wingers and Christo-fascist Talibanners today all but settles the argument.

I was looking forward to listening to a remastered version of "Scumbag" but it looks like it isn't going to happen. This is like removing the Apple Jam Cd from All Things Must Pass.