Some Time In New York City | Page 5 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

An open letter to JOHN LENNON from NME’s Tony Tyler

Lennon, you’re a pathetic, ageing revolutionary

JOHN AND YOKO/Plastic Ono Band: “Some Time In New York City ” (Apple)

Dear John,

The reason my review of your new double album is dressed up as a letter is because I pinched the idea from you in the first place. For some time you’ve been laying your bad trips on us in the form of open letters (some disguised as albums) and I feel justified in adopting the same device. Also, I want to make sure that the musicians involved with you in this latest chunk of self-indulgence don’t feel personally attacked by my opinions: it’s YOU I’m after.

For the music is excellent – although perhaps not quite up to the breathtaking standards of “Imagine “.

I don’t like the all-American production too much – reverb is OK on your voice but I think when applied to instruments it lays the whole thing too far back into the speakers – but the confidence that’s present in your phrasing is remarkable and a lesson.

“Attica State” shows real control, likewise “New York City”. Oddly enough, Yoko sings in her own way almost as effectively as you do, and although somewhat out of tune, captures the feel of the album – musically. The instrumentation is powerful and blitzy – though I wish you’d lessened down on the wild simultaneous blowing.

But your new outfit is composed of fine musicians, notably Jim Keltner and Stan Bronstein, and your own singing is almost as pungent and abrasive as ever, though not as witty. And I’ve no complaints with the jam section because it’s included in the price and, as jams go, is pretty good.

The quarrel is with the general tastelessness of the presentation. Perhaps you’d counted on more sycophanic [sic] approval of the idea and dogmas (yes, dogmas) expressed in the form of lyrics. Look elsewhere, Johnandyoko. Sycophany [sic] and yesman approval of every little thing you do is the last thing you need on your self-appointed pinnacle.

For example, because I may (and do) sympathise with your legitimate fight to remain in the US doesn’t mean I feel anything but embarrassment when you include a pre-paid fill-out petition of support in the album (perhaps I’m being harsh: my copy is an import and there’s a chance that British issues won’t contain this self-pitying little document).

Let’s start with the sleeve. It resembles a newspaper (where have we seen THAT idea before? Do Tull* me) and the lyrics are presented as stories. Not bad, but unoriginal and spoiled by a sadistic little Japanese woodcut showing a lady having her stomach slit by a Samurai chauvinist pig. Unnecessary.

Now the lyrics themselves. I was groping for a single word to sum up their initial impression on me and I arrived at Insulting, Arrogant, Rigid, Dogmatic … in short, the effect achieved was the opposite of the effect desired (I hope). I finally settled on Pathetic.

Pathetic. The only world [sic] to describe an ageing revolutionary. But it’s tough how you’ve been caught out by history overtaking you. That’s what happens when you cling to dogmas, Johnandyoko, but it’s made you seem a little sillier than you probably intended. “Angela” and “John Sinclair” have both been freed since you wrote these songs and, although the basic sentiments are justified I’d have a little more respect for you if you’d used your power to highlight a less-fashionable couple of injustices. After all, there’s plenty to pick from.

Other occasions find your ignorance catching you out – like in “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. “Anglo pigs and Scotties/sent to colonise the North” looks stupid if you examine history further back than the Boyne**. Fax and info, Johnandyoko: the Scots were originally (around 400 a.d.) an IRISH tribe. They descended on Western Caledonia with rapine and pillage and gave their name to Scotland. So the “Scotties” were only coming home. Anglo pigs? Well, we’re all pigs of one sort – even you – and please note that Mayor Daley*** is Irish.

You seem to assume that nobody cares – or that nobody grieves – but you, and I find this insulting. Perhaps you are the real cynic – otherwise you wouldn’t try to make capital out of terrible and tragic situations.

But the lyrics aren’t all as bad. Yoko’s “We’re All Water” has more wit than anything you’ve done on this record, and her “Sisters Oh [sic] Sisters” has a spirit and sense of hope that is totally absent from your self-righteous ragings. But her [?] “Woman Is The N****r Of The World” falls into the same trap. Sad.

It’ll be easy to write off a review like this one as the rantings of a male chauvinist fascist pig. I may be, Johnandyoko, but I utterly deny your right to fasten the label.

You’ve still got important things to say. So SAY them. Don’t rely on cant and rigidity. Don’t alienate. Stimulate.

You know, like you used to.

Love,
TONY TYLER

New Musical Express, 1 July 1972

Some pointers to the references in the review:

* Jethro Tull’s March 1972 album, Thick as a Brick, had a similar newspaper-styled cover (though not using song titles and lyrics to make up the stories):

** Battle of the Boyne, 1690, one of the turning points in Irish history, when King William III’s (aka William of Orange) forces defeated the Jacobite forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, leading to the rise of Anglican Protestantism in Ireland, a country which had remained largely Catholic; thus sowing the seeds of the religious divide which has rumbled on, often violently (thankfully not so at the moment), ever since.

*** Richard J. Daley, Democrat politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (1955-1976)