The John Lennon Estate has released a powerful new video decrying the cost – both human and financial – of war, political violence, and gun deaths. The video is for a newly remixed and re-imagined version of John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s 1972 protest anthem, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” written about Bloody Sunday, the January 30, 1972, massacre of 13 unarmed protesters, including six children, by British soldiers during a protest march in Derry, Northern Ireland. The tragedy also famously inspired U2’s classic 1983 song of the same name.
Directed by Simon Hilton and David Frearson (with graphics and guerilla street art animation by Frearson) and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, Delphine Lamandé-Frearson, Sophie Hilton, Faye Jordan and Grace Davyd, the captivating video illustrates, through a kinetic text narrative and statistics, of how many civilians and soldier’s lives have been tragically lost from violent conflicts around the world, and the perpetually escalating financial costs incurred – including The Troubles in Ireland, the Vietnam War, the Iran-Iraq War, Lebanon, Tiananmen Square, the Lockerbie bombing, the Bosnian War, the Rwanda and Darfur genocides, the Chechen Wars, 9/11, the Iraq War, Syria, the Ukraine War, the War in Gaza and from mass shootings in the United States of America. It poignantly ends with the reminder that more than 1.5 million people have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980. He would have been 85 on October 9th.
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” was released by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory on their 1972 political blockbuster album, Sometime In New York City, which was created as an audio newspaper in which they wrote songs ripped straight from the headlines and about the injustices they were witnessing. The song has been completely remixed from the original analog tapes and is now presented in an extended form and stripped of the overly heavy production sound that previously constrained the blistering excoriation of political violence.
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” is featured on the new box set, Power to the People, a 12-disc collection that chronicles and celebrates John & Yoko’s non-violent political activism in NYC in the early ‘70s. Songs from Sometime In New York City have been reordered, rejuvenated and completely reimagined as a new set of Ultimate Mixes, entitled New York City.
Power to the People was produced by Sean Ono Lennon and his five-time Grammy Award-winning production team. The centerpiece of the collection is the One To One Concert that took place on August 30, 1972, at Madison Square Garden in NYC, featuring John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory and special guests. These two performances were John’s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles. The exhaustive 123-track box set features 90 never-before-heard and previously unreleased tracks, including a wealth of unreleased demos, home recordings, jam sessions, live cuts, unique mixes, and much more. All tracks have been completely remixed and re-engineered from the original analog tapes by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon, using brand new HD multitrack transfers by Rob Stevens, with the mixes mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios. The set was overseen by compilation producer Simon Hilton.
The set offers an aural time capsule of John and Yoko’s first NYC era, when they traded Tittenhurst Park, their estate in Ascot, England, for a small apartment located at 105 Bank St. in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and includes the music they were inspired to make during a time of great civil unrest and the deeply unpopular Vietnam War. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is a critical reminder of the need for peace – to save lives, save money and strive towards a brighter future for all.
