{"id":5848,"date":"2025-10-10T16:28:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/john-yoko-plastic-ono-bands-power-to-the-people-reviewed-new-york-protest-period-revisited-in-opulent-but-omissive-boxset-151731\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:28:58","slug":"john-yoko-plastic-ono-bands-power-to-the-people-reviewed-new-york-protest-period-revisited-in-opulent-but-omissive-boxset-151731","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/john-yoko-plastic-ono-bands-power-to-the-people-reviewed-new-york-protest-period-revisited-in-opulent-but-omissive-boxset-151731\/","title":{"rendered":"John & Yoko\/Plastic Ono Band\u2019s Power To The People reviewed: New York protest period revisited in opulent \u2013 but omissive \u2013 boxset"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Before we get to Elephant\u2019s Memory, let\u2019s tackle the elephant in the room. Power To The People covers the period John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to the US and recorded Some Time In New York City. Chronologically, it falls between Imagine and Mind Games, both of which have already received lavish boxsets. So why is Power To The People <\/em>out of sync? In short, because of \u201cWoman Is The N***** Of The World\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The elephant in the room<\/h2>\n

Before we get to Elephant\u2019s Memory, let\u2019s tackle the elephant in the room. Power To The People covers the period John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to the US and recorded Some Time In New York City. Chronologically, it falls between Imagine and Mind Games, both of which have already received lavish boxsets. So why is Power To The People <\/em>out of sync? In short, because of \u201cWoman Is The N***** Of The World\u201d.<\/p>\n

The song title was controversial enough in 1972 \u2013 indeed, that was the very point \u2013 but by the 2020s was deemed beyond the pale and Mind Games was shuffled ahead in the queue. Now Power To The People has emerged with the problematic song excised completely \u2013 not even acknowledged in extensive sleevenotes, bar a reproduction of the original album artwork \u2013 while it\u2019s surely not unrelated that the smaller, more affordable versions of this release focus on Lennon\u2019s 1972 One To One concerts rather than the studio album that Lennon and Ono recorded with the Elephant\u2019s Memory band.<\/p>\n

The decision was clearly not made lightly. But while the removal of one track from any artist\u2019s legacy is significant, the deluxe box does attempt to make up for that with 92 bonus tracks. As well as the euphemistic \u201cre-imagining\u201d of Some Time In New York City, now simply titled New York City, there\u2019s the traditional Evolution and Element mixes of the album. On top of that come (almost) complete recordings of two One To One concerts from Madison Square Garden in August \u201972 (originally released as Live In New York City and here scrubbed up beautifully but without \u201cWoman Is\u2026\u201d), plus a 17-track hybrid featuring the best moments from both performances. The latter is available as a standalone CD\/LP.<\/p>\n

A very different experience to Imagine<\/h2>\n

Three further albums spotlight the impromptu nature of Lennon\u2019s approach in this era. Studio Jam contains rock\u2019n\u2019roll covers from the sessions, while Home Jam has 33 home\/hotel demos, including four with Phil Ochs. Finally, Live Jam 2 extends the live portion of the original Some Time In New York City LP to include appearances at other benefits including the John Sinclair Freedom Rally and the Attica State Benefit. Overseen by Sean Ono Lennon, the box is embellished by memorabilia and capped by a lavish book that supplies essential context.<\/p>\n

That context is of place \u2013 John and Yoko\u2019s move to New York \u2013 and politics, as the couple supported a series of radical causes through interviews, benefits and songs. Some Time In New York City was packaged as a newspaper, and songs covered subjects found in the era\u2019s alternative press \u2013 Ireland, prisons, civil rights, feminism, injustice of all kinds. They were often written overnight and recorded the next day in a couple of takes with the Elephant\u2019s Memory, a Greenwich Village band best known for performing on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, but with Jim Keltner providing additional muscle. It\u2019s an approach John and Yoko had employed since 1969, when they talked about releasing singles as bulletins to address salient topics, but it made for a very different experience to Imagine.<\/p>\n

The new album places \u201cNew York City\u201d as the opening song and includes longer versions of \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday\u201d, which now has a chaotic and powerful outro, and \u201cJohn Sinclair\u201d, now two minutes longer (and which, interestingly, retains the word \u201cgook\u201d in the lyrics). Both interventions feel genuine and justifiable. The remaster emphasises Lennon\u2019s vocal, while bringing a crispness to the sound without diluting the raw emotion. Here, Sean Ono Lennon can take direction directly from his father, who is heard on the Evolution mix of \u201cNew York City\u201d chastising \u201cthat clean recording sound that I fucking hate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Welcome additions to the brief Lennon live canon<\/h2>\n

The Evolution mixes are highlights of the Lennon reissues, little documentaries for each song that start with the demo and then show how a track evolved in the studio with producer Phil Spector. \u201cI\u2019m going to be singing either in Liza Minelli style or Yoko Ono style\u2026,\u201d says Yoko, with terrific self-awareness, during \u201cBorn In A Prison\u201d, one of the album\u2019s strongest songs, while Lennon jokes, \u201cSorry Paul, it\u2019s all over now\u201d after recording \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday\u201d, referencing McCartney\u2019s \u201cGive Ireland Back To The Irish\u201d.<\/p>\n

The complete One To One concerts and Live Jam 2 are welcome additions to the brief Lennon live canon, but while Studio Jam is fun, there\u2019s only so much that can be gained from listening to the band running through rock\u2019n\u2019roll classics, however good they are. Of more interest is Home Jam: scraps of home recordings, phone calls and hyperactive Lennon chat. One thing that emerged from Get Back and the archival releases is that Lennon was always performing, always on. \u201cNow we\u2019d like to change the mood a little,\u201d he mugs to himself at one point, \u201cand go on to something a little lighter like\u2026 asphalt\u201d.<\/p>\n

That record ends with four of the best and most important moments on the entire set \u2013 Lennon at the St Regis Hotel in October 1971 accompanying Phil Ochs on \u201cI Ain\u2019t Marching Anymore\u201d, \u201cJoe Hill\u201d, \u201cChords Of Fame\u201d and \u201cRinging Of Revolution\u201d. Lennon is quiet for once, focusing on his excellent rhythm guitar and listening attentively to Ochs\u2019 simple but effective songs about injustice. In his silence, the concept of Some Time In New York City is quietly being born.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post John & Yoko\/Plastic Ono Band\u2019s Power To The People reviewed: New York protest period revisited in opulent \u2013 but omissive \u2013 boxset<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before we get to Elephant\u2019s Memory, let\u2019s tackle the elephant in the room. Power To The People covers the period John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to the US and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,89,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-john-lennon","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}