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John and Yoko; Courtesy of Trafalgar Features.<\/p>\nPost-Beatles, John Lennon was never the tireless road dog that Paul McCartney was (and incredibly remains). He was more comfortable holing up in a studio or just soaking up everyday life unhampered by the rigors of touring. John made some furtive forays onto the stage here and there, but his August 30, 1972 One to One show at Madison Square Garden with Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band is the only proper, full-length apr\u00e8s-Fabs concert he ever performed.<\/p>\n
Power to the People \u2605\u2605\u2605 (3\/5 stars)
Directed by:\u00a0Simon Hilton
Running time: 80 mins<\/p>\n
A shorter version of the One to One Show was released back in the \u201980s. Now, Power to the People producer Sean Lennon (John and Yoko\u2019s son) and director Simon Hilton have given this slice of \u201970s music history a new coat of paint. Re-edited and restored as a feature-length concert documentary, it captures the electric connection between John and his fans.<\/p>\n
In \u201972, a young Geraldo Rivera televised an expos\u00e9 about Staten Island\u2019s Willowbrook State School, a residential institution for children with mental disabilities, uncovering grievous neglect and manifold abuses. The story went viral, and next thing you know, John and Yoko were moved to gather up some high-powered peers (Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Melanie, Sha Na Na) and put on a big benefit show to support the kids.<\/p>\n
But the story behind the event isn\u2019t what Power to the People is about. For that and the context of the life the Ono Lennons were living at the time, check out Kevin MacDonald\u2019s 2024 documentary One to One: John & Yoko. Hilton\u2019s film presents the straight-up show, and not only do we hear and see it better than ever before, we also get more of it on film than ever (though a couple of Yoko\u2019s tunes, including the righteously conceived but unfortunately titled \u201cWoman is the N***** of the World\u201d remain unseen).<\/p>\n
John and Yoko; Courtesy of Trafalgar Features.<\/p>\n
We get to watch what happens when the man who was arguably \u201960s pop culture\u2019s largest-looming figure fully slides into \u201970s mode. Dominated by his early-\u201970s solo albums, the setlist shows how he\u2019d grown far more politicized lyrically but was embracing simpler musical forms than in his days of psychedelic exploration. There\u2019s still very much a hippie holdover vibe \u2014 small tambourines had been passed out to the audience, who hit them jubilantly throughout \u2014 but it\u2019s coming from a slightly matured perspective in accordance with the new era.<\/p>\n
John and Yoko are backed by Elephant\u2019s Memory, a pre-existing NYC band who became the latest version of The Plastic Ono Band for the studio album Some Time in New York released earlier that year. Besides being a blistering gang of rockers, they\u2019re an epically mutton-chopped, gloriously berobed bunch who couldn\u2019t look more \u201970s if you gave them their own Saturday morning Sid and Marty Krofft TV show.<\/p>\n
Saxophonist Stan Bronstein (a glam-rock vision in leopard print and black-and-red satin) and guitarist Wayne \u201cTex\u201d Gabriel are the MVPs, doing a lot of the heavy lifting and never letting up. The band comes off tight, punchy, and well prepped, but Lennon can\u2019t resist deflating the proceedings by commenting, \u201cWe\u2019ll get it right next time\u2026 glad you liked the rehearsal\u201d after a slightly iffy ending to \u201cInstant Karma.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hard-charging \u201cNew York City\u201d packs almost a proto-punk energy, as Lennon lays out his current lifestyle, namechecking NYC friends like Rivera and musician David Peel along the way. And the minimalist punch of earlier solo tunes like \u201cWell Well Well\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s So Hard\u201d is intensified onstage.<\/p>\n
Yoko sits behind an electric piano during John\u2019s tunes, stepping up to the spotlight for her own compositions, some taken from her own catalog. Ono had a long history as a multimedia avant-garde artist before ever meeting John, and her experimental vocal ululations have long been unfairly satirized. But hearing her belt out uncompromising tunes like \u201cWe\u2019re All Water\u201d and \u201cOpen the Box,\u201d you can make a case for her prefiguring everyone from punk pioneers X-Ray Spex to experimental hellraiser Diamanda Galas.<\/p>\n
Between Yoko\u2019s deftly deployed vocal wail and John\u2019s primal scream therapy-inspired delivery on tunes like \u201cMother\u201d and \u201cCold Turkey,\u201d it\u2019s expressionism a-go-go on the Madison Square Garden stage. Especially when Bronstein\u2019s squealing sax gets into the act on the latter tune as things take a left-field turn.<\/p>\n
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As far as his famous past went, the man who sang \u201cI don\u2019t believe in Beatles\u201d on his first solo album seems still to be mostly in scorched-earth mode, though beginning to open up just a bit. \u201cWe\u2019ll go back to the past for just one,\u201d he allows while making a comic throat-cutting motion before launching into a fierce, almost feral take on \u201cCome Together\u201d where the double drummers (Jim Gordon joined the regular Elephant\u2019s Memory crew) really earn their money. We\u2019re reminded that America hadn\u2019t yet extricated itself from Vietnam when John shouts \u201cstop the war\u201d mid-song.<\/p>\n
Speaking of timely amendments, when Lennon extends a line in \u201cImagine\u201d to \u201ca brotherhood and sisterhood of man,\u201d however ungrammatical, it\u2019s as if he\u2019s compelled to come out on the right side of history no matter how much updating it requires.<\/p>\n
For the encore, during which everyone inexplicably dons hard hats emblazoned with Japanese lettering, the band lays into \u201cLaw and Order,\u201d a two-chord, syncopated funk vamp over which Yoko reads Adolf Hitler quotes from 1932 that sound unsettlingly Nixonian, before it all transforms into \u201cGive Peace a Chance,\u201d with John and Yoko both flashing double-fisted peace signs as they lead the audience in the now-legendary pacific chant.<\/p>\n
It turns into an all-hands finale as the other acts from the bill (plus additional friends) step out onstage and join in. It eventually gets endearingly surreal watching Stevie Wonder, Melanie (whose keening tones sound not unlike Yoko), Bowzer from Sha Na Na, Allen Ginsberg, and Phil Spector stand shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n
We know now that Lennon was at an artistic apex in the early \u201970s, and he would do some personal and musical wandering in the wilderness in the time to come. So, this expertly souped-up snapshot of him at the peak of his powers in his only \u201creal\u201d solo show seems especially precious.<\/p>\n
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