October 2025 – Records, CDs and Music:

John Lennon 1972.

When I first became a Beatles fan and was getting into their solo catalogs, John Lennon’s music from 1972 was a scary thing. Of course I was raised a pop music fan and was an avid follower of all things Top Forty so discovering the height of Lennon’s political side really didn’t register with me very well – not a shock really.

I was just thirteen years old the first time I heard his 1972 double album “Sometime in New York City” (in 1979) and after one play I let it sit unloved in my collection for many years. Occasionally I would try it again but after a couple of songs would take it off and back it went on the shelf.

Fast forward to 1986 and the release of the live album entitled appropriately enough “Live in New York City” and my views of this period in Lennon’s recorded output began to soften.

The “Live in New York City” album came from Lennon’s One to One concerts held at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972. These concerts featured a selection of songs from the “Sometime in New York City” as well as some of his solo hits at the time and one lone Beatles track “Come Together”.

The sound of Lennon’s last full concert appearances after The Beatles was rough and ragged and fitted the material he and Yoko Ono were doing in 1972 and was full of the political side of John Lennon which was equally rough and ready.

I enjoyed the concert but the sound of his backing band, Elephant’s Memory, just seemed too rough and sloppy and though it was great to hear Lennon live I still wasn’t a huge fan of this time period in his career.

Fast forward again to the present, this past couple of weeks in fact, and the release of the newly remixed and reimagined “Power to the People” 2 CD deluxe set which features both the afternoon and evening shows from Lennon’s One to One concerts from 1972 and this time the snow has finally melted from my view of this era.

First off I have to say that I do love the sound of this newly remixed show – a lot. Lennon’s sounds great, especially on the afternoon show, and this new remix takes the ragged edges off the his vocals and majorly beefs up the backing from Elephant’s Memory with superb thundering bass as well as a clarity and punch that was sorely missing form the 1986 version of this show.

I also really appreciate Lennon’s political views much more than any other time in my life. This year has such an overwhelmingly vile political climate that hearing Lennon singing so passionately about his political point of view brings me a bit of hope in equally troubled times.

Actually the timing of this reissue is the perfect antidote to the times we live in as if Lennon himself was sending a postcard from the great beyond saying don’t give up, keep up the fight, which is something I wouldn’t have felt so strongly all those years ago hearing this same material.

Here’s my couple of sticking points though about this release.

First off, which has been discussed ad nauseam other places, is the admission of the song “Woman is the Nigger of the World” which was the highlight of not only the “Sometime in New York City” album but the One to One concerts as well.

Sean Lennon, John Lennon’s son with Yoko Ono, has come out and said the omission was due to lawyers fearing it would endanger not only John Lennon’s commercial viability in this current media landscape but his reputation as well.

I mean I get where Sean Lennon is coming from but still taking off this song is such a direct assault on Lennon and Ono’s work at the time that removing it causes all sorts of red flags that conjure up censorship that it makes me uncomfortable.

I still think Sean Lennon did an admirable job of cleaning up the sound of not only the One to One concerts but the studio material form the “Sometime in New York City” material as well that even though this release is flawed it doesn’t take away the enjoyment of the material that is there.

The other thing that’s concerning to me is the slight tuning of Lennon’s voice through use of modern technology. It does work on the one hand as it makes the concert material sound more inviting but on the other hand it’s not the historic presentation of the material that I guess I was hoping to see.

Having thought about it for a bit this second concern doesn’t bother me as much knowing how doctored live albums from the 60’s and 70’s could be so using today’s technology to achieve the same goals as artists back then isn’t quite as off putting as I do think both the One to One concerts are such a pleasure to hear now that I can readily live with the choices made to clean the sound up.

I guess since John Lennon himself didn’t approve of this approach is what put me off initially but having heard Sean Lennon’s perspective on compiling his father’s work it’s obvious he cares deeply for his parents music and is Lennon’s blood so if he sees fit to make these changes in good conscience I can relax and enjoy the sound myself without feeling that it’s not done without thought and consideration.

Now I’ve only bought the 2 CD set of the One to One concerts. There is a massive 9 CD, 3 Blu-ray package with a lovely hardback book that was issued of this material as well which does include a modern remix of most of the songs from the infamous “Sometime in New York City” album as well as fine selection of demos and live material from the era that looks superb and I’m sure is a fine addition to any Lennon fans collection.

At the moment the price of the huge box is not within my budget but if I see it at a discounted price in the future I may jump on it as I’d love to add it to my collection.

Until that time however there is a terrific sampler CD from the huge box set available exclusively with the December issue of the British Mojo magazine.

Coming in at just over 46 minutes, the Mojo sampler not only gives you five songs from the One to One shows but you also get my favorite two songs from the “Sometime in New York City” album, “New York City” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, in superb remixed and improved sound but you also get the song “Attica State” as an evolution documentary (eight fascinating minutes from demo to studio workout) as well as a home jam of the song “Send Me Some Lovin'”.

I must say that these new remixes from the “Sometime in New York City” are so well done and make these songs breath new life that they are my favorite remixes Sean Lennon has done of his father’s work so far.

Even though the remix of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is fairly radical by removing a lot of the sax from the original mix in my opinion it really works and makes this track so much more powerful and is a joy to hear.

So overall of the material that I’ve bought from this 1972 period in Lennon’s journey I must say this is probably the most successful remixing of Lennon’s solo material I’ve heard minus the two flaws I mentioned above and it really enhances my enjoyment of this time period in Lennon’s work.

Maybe in time I’ll get my hands on the larger set of this material but if you’re a Lennon fan and don’t have the budget or inclination to spring for the large box set the 2 CD version would be a good choice but even better the Mojo sampler would be the way to go to hear a nice sampling of this material.

I will say that since Mojo Magazine may not be easy to locate in your area, you can order it direct (https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/) from them and don’t worry about any extra cost due to tariffs the cost online is what I paid and it came without any issues with added expense from tariffs.

As usual take a gander above and below at these two new wonderful Lennon CDs (and magazine) and until next time be well and happy and …

See you soon!

Today I thought I’d do a different sort of blog post than my norm.

Instead of highlighting a record or some sort of great vinyl find, I thought it might be fun to take a look through the way back machine once again and showcase some groovy Monkees dolls that I own. Yes, you heard right dolls.

You see back in late 1966/1967 The Monkees were not only a hit on television with their ground-breaking show “The Monkees” they were also, and some say more importantly, an absolute sensation as a recording act.

In the short span of a year and a half from August 1966 to December 1967 the group not only managed to have five million selling Top Ten US hits (“Last Train to Clarksville”, “I’m a Believer”, “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Daydream Believer”) but they also managed to have four number one multi-million selling albums (“The Monkees”, “More of the Monkees”, “Headquarters” and “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.”) that also stayed an astonishing 37 weeks at the number one position between the four of them.

Even in the heady days of Beatlemania and the mid-sixties British invasion of the American airwaves sales like that were quite an impressive feat.

Of course with that level of fame and popularity naturally there followed a boatload of memorabilia featuring The Monkees image and likeness including bubble gum cards, plastic guitars, board games, comic books, Halloween costumes and yes my friends dolls.

There were two types of dolls featuring The Monkees released in 1966/67.

Probably the most famous and most memorable doll was the four-headed hand puppet made by Mattel that not only featured fairly accurate doll heads of each Monkee (see photos above) but this particular doll was a talking hand puppet.

This somewhat weird looking but fun doll featured the actual voices of the group saying short phrases that were supposed to conjure up some typical Monkee humor that would have been featured on their television show.

(Note: Below I have actually recorded five of the phrases from my puppet which is still working. It’s not he best quality and there seems to be a skip on the disc inside but if you’ve never heard these snippets they’re a lot of fun. I wonder where these were recorded and if the tapes for the puppet still exist? I’m guessing a hard no but you never know!)

The other dolls to come out were a part of a series of musical groups that were featured in doll form called Show Biz Babies by Hasbro. I believe The Mamas and The Papas, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, Bobbie Gentry and Spencer Davis were among some of the other dolls made available.

All the Show Biz Babies were sold on a backing card that contained a real life photo on the back and a plastic record tucked inside that I think featured information about the person that the doll represented.

I managed to track down all four Monkees Show Biz Babies (no easy feat) several years ago and all of them have their backing cards as well as their plastic floppy records though Mike’s record looks a bit sun warped unfortunately.

(Note 2: I’ve never actually played these records. I should try someday (floppy records are a pain, ahhhh) and if I do I’ll record what they contain and post it here.)

I actually think these dolls are pretty cool looking and love the packaging as well as it just screams the 1960s and totally takes me back to my childhood.

I was too young at the time they were released (I had never heard of Show Biz Babies until about twenty-five years ago) so even though I never owned them as a child they are super fun and I would love to find some of the other Show Biz Babies that were made but they are really hard to find.

I did however get the talking hand puppet as a gift as a very young child and amazingly it has survived all these long years and still manages to talk which is really amazing to me as I remember beating this thing around a lot as a toddler.

Strike that, I was told by a family member the talking box in my Monkee puppet was repaired along with my sister’s Chatty Katy doll. Maybe the skip comes from when the box was broken. I have no memory of the repair but at least you can still here most of the phrases – I think lol.

Anyway, take a gander at the photos above, If you’ve never seen or heard of these dolls they are a lot of fun and if you locate one of the puppets that still talks then you’re in for a treat. Now that I think of it, these really are a part of The Monkees recording history – long stretch as it is. So it’s not that weird a post here after all LOL.

Take a listen below and you’ll hear what they sound like; these are the ones I could get to play at least: