LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY / MADE IN ENGLAND

LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY : Recorded at the Madison Square Garden in 30th August, 1972 to help improve the living conditions of the mentally handicapped children, John always have his heart in the right place. The concert, however is not as stellar as someone of his status should have been but still, as his only full fledged concert,  this is an essential addition to the John Lennon cannon. The recording is somewhat marred by his backing band, The Elephant Memory Band who is the same band who backed him on his disastrous "Sometime In New York City" album. Mercifully, Yoko's songs are excluded from this set although it was shown in its entirety in the video.

New York City ( Lennon ) : Started with the crowd chanting one of his previous hit 'Power To The People', the concert open with the better tune from "Sometime In New York City" A great song though not a great performance. The vocals are mixed rather low in some places, which rob the song of some of its power.

It's So Hard ( Lennon ) : This next track came his most well known album "Imagine". John sounded laid back and not terribly exciting. John slows the pace so that his singing sounds virtually like a spoken recitation. "Welcome to the rehearsal," he even chirped at the end of the number.

Woman Is The Nigger Of The World ( Lennon / Ono ) : I've never liked this song from "Sometime In New York City" but strangely, this live version is more tolerable. A better performance than the previous two.

Well, Well, Well ( Lennon ) : John sounded like he's back on track with this next offering. Somebody in the audience shouted for Ringo just before the song starts. John retorted "That was yesterday or four years ago.".

Instant Karma [ We All Shine On ] ( Lennon ) : One of John's better solo output, this is another decent performance. However, without the magic of Phil Spector,  the song sounded somewhat hollow and don't quite capture the sound to equal the power of the original.

Mother ( Lennon ) : One of my all time John Lennon's solo song, this was criminally under performed. Sounded like John was just drifting through the song, it's so frustrated to see John butchering his own song.

Come Together ( Lennon / McCartney ) : One of only three Beatles that John performed during his lifetime. This one sounded like John is having fun although he got his lyrics muddled up.

Imagine ( Lennon ) : Mercifully, he managed to delivered a stellar reading of this, his signature song. Though he is playing the organ and not the piano as on the record, this is the undoubtedly the best performance on the set. He relates the song to the audience, amending the lyrics a little to say "Imagine no possessions, I wondered if we can" and expressing his feminist learning by adding " a brotherhood and sisterhood of man"

Cold Turkey ( Lennon ) : His first classic after The Beatles broke up. Somehow, this song never sounded as good live as in was in the studio. The original distorting guitar lead was by Eric Clapton but since they couldn't enlist the service of Mr. Clapton here, the solo here was noticeably different. I wouldn't have recognised the song had I heard the solo here.

Hound Dog (  ) : The only non original song here, John let rip with this excellent version of this one time idol, Elvis Presley standard. It was played in exactly the same tempo as the original and it served as an excellent finale to an otherwise not too great performance.

Give Peace A Chance ( Lennon / McCartney ) : What other song to close the concert than this famous song that once helped closed the Vietnam War. As Yoko recalled "The concert was filled with love of brotherhood and sisterhood. We passed out tambourines to the audience, true to our slogan, 'You are the Plastic Ono Band". Everybody joined in on the stage at the end when we sang "Give Peace A Chance" People could not contain themselves and marched down Fifth Avenue singing 'Give Peace A Chance'

DOP : 7th November 1999.

ELTON JOHN : MADE IN ENGLAND : Nope, you didn't see wrong. This is Elton John and not John Lennon on the cover of this mini CD. I found this gem of a CD by chance while browsing through the CD rack. I don't think it's in the market now.

Made In England ( Elton John / Bernie Taupin ) : Now this is pleasant surprise. I have given up on Elton John since the starts of the 80's saved for 1989's 'Sacrifice' and the Princess Diana Tribute ' Candles In The Wind 1979'. This is good old fashioned pop as we know it. Surprised that it wasn't a hit.

Whatever Gets You Through The Night ( John Lennon ) : Now this is more like it. With Elton John's more than adequate's backing band, this is the John Lennon that we've known and loved. Making good on a bet with Elton John that if this song reached No.1, he'll showed up and play live with him, and this is what John did when 'Whatever Gets You Through The Night' did reached No.1. The crowd was esteemed. This was history not to be repeated again.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ( John Lennon / Paul McCartney ) : The second song to be played here was a Beatles' classic with guitar by John Lennon and vocal by Elton John. Great combination.

I Saw Her Standing There ( John Lennon / Paul McCartney ) : The final number by the duo, John introduced this song as 'from an old estranged  fiance of mine call Paul'  and then let it rip. Does made your mouth salivating for more but alas, this was not to be. This performance turned out to be the last performance ever by the late great John Lennon due to circumstances too painful to recollect.

DOP : Unknown.