On January 4, 2022, John Lennon fans awoke to the news that a special commemorative edition would be released. 50th anniversary of Some Time in New York City albummaybe most controversial album recorded by exbeatle after the group broke up. The announcement came specifically via a website created with the official endorsement of Lennon’s heirs: “Sometimes in New York. Final Mixtures (2022)”. That’s all the website said. Enough for the anticipation of popping up on the Lennon and Beatleman forums.
It wasn’t a big surprise either. Released on June 12, 1972, Some Time in New York City is John Lennon’s third album in his solo career. The previous two albums, “Plastic Ono Band” (1970) and “Imagine” (1971), had been reissued in special editions by the time they turned 50, along with remixes, unreleased songs, and interview tracks, so they made a lot of sense. that of the world ‘Final Blends’ project Continue with the next albums. However, June 12, 2022 passed without any new news about the announced launch. Not only that. Shortly after, the website announced that ‘Some Time in New York City’ was coming soon. ‘Final Blends’ mysteriously disappeared from one day to the next. As we enter January 2023, there is still no trace of the album.
Universal Music GroupThe record company, which is responsible for marketing John Lennon’s recordings through the Calderstone Productions sub-label, has not made any statement about the cancellation of a project to date. It was not officially announced.. However, there is little doubt that a reprint of ‘Some Time in New York City’ with extras was ready for publication and was shelved at some point and for some reason. Have sea lennonThe only son of John and Yoko Ono and the main custodian of his father’s artistic legacy, he indirectly confirmed this by giving approval to various posts appearing on social networks that secure this. But why did the album release stop?
political correctness
In the absence of an official version, different theories circulate. Some are pointing a question of rights From tracks recorded by Lennon and Ono Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and they were originally included in the double LP. Others argue that the launch’s dubious commercial prospects (“Once Upon a Time in New York City”) best selling song album by the author) is recommended to be allowed to run. But the most coherent explanation (which is also the most surprising) is that the whole question a matter of political correctness.
This was revealed by those responsible for “Nothing is real”, probably the most popular (and also the most recommended) of many podcasts devoted to information about the Beatles. Universal, in its version, had resisted treating an album with a feminist anthem as the opening theme as a luxury. ‘Woman is the black of the world’is in the title very offensive word ‘nigga’, the Lennon mansion was radically opposed to any possible form of censorship. The disagreement between both parties would eventually lead to the halt of the project.
an old polemic
This would then be a continuation of an argument that arose 50 years ago when Lennon concluded: The first and only ‘single’ taken from the album It would be exactly ‘Woman is the Negro of the world’. The musician later justified the existence of the “n-word,” a term full of racial connotations if the person using it was white, claiming that the song tried to equate it. the pressure women face every day that blacks suffered in the south of the United States during the days of slavery.
His remarks didn’t stop many American radio stations from refusing to play the ‘single’, although the album was released without the song’s title or lyrics being changed in any way. In fact, the addition of an image they appear on the album cover (which mimics the aesthetic of a newspaper) Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong dance naked. Many copies of “Some Time in New York City” were sold with a sticker declaring it to be a double album; In each case, the sticker was strategically placed to cover the image of the two leaders.
Ugly duckling
‘Some Time in New York City’ still remains, half a century after its release The ugly duckling in Lennon’s discography. The double album, owned by John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band, contains 10 studio-recorded songs (three composed by Yoko Ono) and six live-recorded songs. With its defiant claims on issues such as sexism, racism, colonialism, suppression of opposition and prison policy, its author’s most overtly political albumhere, adopting a much more raw language and voice than he used in his previous ideological manifestos, such as ‘Imagine’ or ‘Merry Christmas (War is over)’.
The bookstore tone of the album and the smugness of the live recordings angered critics who gave “Some Time in New York City” rather harsh reviews (“Rolling Stone” magazine gave it a go). “artistic suicide in the beginning”). The public didn’t respond much better, and sales were very disappointing (it didn’t hit #48 on the charts in the United States). Horrified by the failure, it took a year for Lennon to reenter a studio.
In the summer of 1973, he began recording his fourth solo LP with the old beat. ‘Mind games’was published on October 29 of that year. So the 50th anniversary is approaching. Then we’ll see if the ‘Ultimate Mixes’ project is definitively shelved, or if what happened with ‘Some Time in New York City’ is an exception that will cement its reputation as a cursed record.