“New York City” by John Lennon

 

“New York City” was released in the album Some Time in New York City in 1972, a collaboration between John Lennon and Yoko Ono (a famous Japanese multimedia artist, singer, and songwriter). Lennon had the inspiration for the song during his visit to the city itself and the many different people he met during his stay. The song included in this post is interestingly not the only version of the song, only the final version that was released in 1972. A previous version of the song was also used in Lennon and Ono’s film Clock (filmed in 1971) and another acoustic version was used during the John Lennon Anthology published later in the year of 1971.

The album Some Time in New York City had many songs that took a serious perspective in discussing various political issues. However, the song New York City contrasted the serious nature of the album and portrayed the nostalgic Rock and Roll nature of Lennon written “straight from the heart”. It is believed that the first recording was mainly improvisatory due to unclear lyrics and the repetition of the phrase “Que pasa, New York”. However in later versions, the lyrics became more simplified and solidified which would be published later on.

The song’s content still strays along the subtle lines of political topics in the beginning, discussing extreme social activists such as Jerry Rubin and David Peel. However the lyrics later begin to describe his experience of being recruited into the Elephant’s Memory into the Plastic Ono Band, his experience of developing films with Ono, and the joy of exploring the streets of New York City despite certain struggles (there was evidence that president Nixon’s administration was attempting to deport Lennon due to his and Ono’s advocacy for antiwar). This is evident below in the lyrics taken from the song;

“Well nobody came to bug us
Hustle us or shove us
So we decided to make it our home
If the Man wants to shove us out
We gonna jump and shout
The Statue of Liberty said, ‘Come”

I enjoy this song because I love the rock and roll songs by Lennon. I equally enjoy his more whimsical songs like Imagine which is what I mostly listened to. But I am glad to have found this song and enjoy its upbeat nature (nothing in particular about the lyrics speak to me though, I mostly appreciate the musicality of the song).

 

Reference Websites

New York City

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/opinion/la-oe-wiener-john-lennon-deportation-20101008

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_(John_Lennon_and_Yoko_Ono_song)