John Lennon NYC

John Lennon NYC, illustrated here on the rooftop of his New York City apartment, on August 29, 1974 age 33.

It was midday, and John Lennon, nearly 34 at the time, was up on the roof of his rented East 52nd Street penthouse.
He had been at the Record Plant all week, mixing “Walls and Bridges”, his fifth solo album.

He was also recovering from his year and a half of carousing, most notoriously in Hollywood, while estranged from his wife, Yoko Ono. “It was kind of the Sunday night after Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend,’ ” remembers photographer Bob Gruen, then 29.
“John was back in New York, sobering up, cleaning his life up. He loved it when people treated him like a normal person rather than a Beatle, and that could happen here.”

“It was a beautiful, sunny day,” says May Pang, Lennon’s companion at the time. “John smoked his French Gauloises and drank lots of strong coffee.” Gruen asked Lennon to put on a T-shirt he’d bought on the sidewalk for $5—white with NEW YORK CITY in bold type, the black sleeves cut off with a buck knife for a tougher effect.
It seemed right: “John had been in the city awhile,” says Gruen. “He was becoming a New Yorker.”

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