Live in New York City (John Lennon album)

This article is about the John Lennon live album. For similarly named albums, see Live in New York.

Live in New York City is a posthumous live album by English rock musician John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band.^[5] It was prepared under the supervision of his widow, Yoko Ono, and released in 1986 as his second official live album, the first being Live Peace in Toronto 1969.^[6]

Live in New York City
Live album by John Lennon
Released	10 February 1986 (1986-02-10)
Recorded	30 August 1972
Venue	Madison Square Garden, New York City
Genre	Rock, blues rock, hard rock, rock and roll
Length	42:30
Label	Parlophone/EMI Capitol (North America)
Producer	Yoko Ono
John Lennon chronology
Milk and Honey (1984) Live in New York City (1986) Menlove Ave. (1986)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
MusicHound	[2]
Rolling Stone	(favourable)[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

Live in New York City reached No. 55 in the UK, and No. 41 in the US, eventually attaining a gold certification by RIAA.

Performances

Recorded on 30 August 1972 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Lennon performed two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, a benefit concert for the Willowbrook State School for Retarded Children in New York,^[7] at friend Geraldo Rivera's request. Rivera introduces Lennon and Ono at the beginning of the album, and he is referenced in Lennon's impromptu revised lyrics in the opening song, "New York City".

The benefit concerts, billed as One to One, also featured other performers in addition to Lennon, including Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Melanie Safka and Sha Na Na, although their performances are not included on this album, nor on the simultaneous video release.

Live in New York City captures Lennon's last full-length concert performance, coming right after the release of Some Time in New York City. Backing Lennon and Ono were Elephant's Memory, who had served as Lennon and Ono's backing band on Some Time in New York City. Although the material Lennon performed was largely drawn from his three most recent albums of the period (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Imagine and Some Time in New York City), he also included in the setlist his solo hit "Instant Karma!", his Beatles hit "Come Together" and paid tribute to Elvis Presley with "Hound Dog" before leading the audience in a singalong of "Give Peace a Chance". "Come Together", originally in the key of D minor, was performed in E minor.

Criticism and editing

On the CD and vinyl editions, eight of the eleven songs were from the afternoon performance. The VHS and LaserDisc video versions contained fourteen songs, ten of which were from the afternoon show. Both editions included between-song dialogue taken from both shows.

Upon its early 1986 release, Ono was criticised by former members of Elephant's Memory for using mostly the afternoon performance which they regarded as weaker than the evening show. They also took issue with the simultaneous video release of the concert, which was alleged to have been edited to show Ono as prominently as Lennon. ^{[citation needed]}

However, on the album release, Ono's vocal performances on such numbers as "Hound Dog" had been mixed out completely. Additionally, all of her solo performances, which included "Sisters, O Sisters", "Born in a Prison", "We're All Water", "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", "Move on Fast" and "Open Your Box", were deleted from the audio edition of the concert, to create a pure Lennon album.

The video release retained the Lennon complete set-list and also included Ono's "Sisters, O Sisters" and "Born in a Prison". Portions of the evening performance later saw release on the John Lennon Anthology.

Historical significance

The concerts documented on Live in New York City were Lennon's only rehearsed and full-length live performances in his solo career, and his only formal, full-fledged live concerts since the Beatles retired from the road in 1966. Lennon never mounted a tour during his post-Beatles career. The concerts also marked the last time he performed live with Ono or with Elephant's Memory.

In a contemporary review, Cash Box said that "This performance, five years before the debut of The Sex Pistols, presaged, among other modern trends, the whole punk movement." and that "Yoko Ono, the album’s producer, and Capitol are to be commended for bringing these important recordings to the public."^[8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Lennon, except where noted.

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"New York City"		2:56
2.	"It's So Hard"		3:18
3.	"Woman Is the Nigger of the World"	Lennon, Yoko Ono	5:30
4.	"Well Well Well"		3:51
5.	"Instant Karma!"		3:40

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"Mother"		5:00
7.	"Come Together"	Lennon–McCartney	4:21
8.	"Imagine"	Lennon/Yoko Ono[nb 1]	3:17
9.	"Cold Turkey"		5:29
10.	"Hound Dog"	Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller	3:09
11.	"Give Peace a Chance"		1:00
Total length:			42:30

Video track listing

All tracks are written by John Lennon, except where noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Power to the People"
2.	"New York City"
3.	"It's So Hard"
4.	"Woman Is the Nigger of the World"	Lennon/Ono
5.	"Sisters, O Sisters"	Ono
6.	"Well Well Well"
7.	"Instant Karma!"
8.	"Mother"
9.	"Born in a Prison"	Ono
10.	"Come Together"	Lennon–McCartney
11.	"Imagine"	Lennon/Ono
12.	"Cold Turkey"
13.	"Hound Dog"	Leiber/Stoller
14.	"Give Peace a Chance"

Personnel

• John Lennon – vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, Wurlitzer 200a electric piano
• Yoko Ono – vocals, piano, Wurlitzer 200a electric piano, percussion
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Elephant's Memory:

• Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel – lead guitar
• Gary Van Scyoc – bass guitar
• John Ward – bass guitar
• Stan Bronstein – saxophone
• Adam Ippolito – piano
• Richard Frank Jr. – drums

Charts

Chart performance for Live in New York City

Chart (1986)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[10]	66
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[11]	33
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[12]	71
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13]	65
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[14]	12
UK Albums (OCC)[15]	55
US Billboard 200[16]	41

Certifications

Certifications for Live in New York City

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[17]	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

• One to One: John & Yoko, a 2024 documentary film

Notes

1. The original single credited Lennon as the sole songwriter. In 2017, the National Music Publishers Association revised the credit to include Ono.^[9]