Lennon Gone 28 years now...

I remember the hippie chick at my office crying about it. I really did'nt think much about it
at the time, but have since many times thought how tragic this was.

 

What a senseless loss to the world. After all this time, it's still miserable to think about.

 

It feels especially weird this year, because the anniversary falls on a Monday, as it was in 1980. I just remember how "normal" the day felt until the news hit.

 

Yeah, me too. I've probably told this story before. I was 13 years old at the time and had started getting into the Beatles through my older sister and her then-boyfriend (now husband). That weekend I had bought the recent Rarities album and a used mono Meet The Beatles. I would sit in my room with headphones on and listen to music most evenings -- usually the Beatles. Earlier that night my turntable stopped cold in the middle of playing an album and my father helped me fix it. My parents were watching Quincy and there was a bulletin. My mother came in my room and pantomimed for me to take my headphones off. "John Lennon was shot," she said. I couldn't comprehend that at all. I was thinking he happened to be in a liquor store or something when a holdup occurred (don't ask me why, but that was the scenario I had in my head at that moment). I said, "What's he doing out at this time of night?" (I was 13 and it was a school night.) The concept that this hadn't been an accident, that someone intentionally had wanted to kill John Lennon was something I could not wrap my mind around. My sister had the radio on and it was wall-to-wall Lennon and Beatles. (Just like for Elvis a few years before -- even today, when I hear more than one song by an artist on more than one station, I say out loud, "What, did he die?") At one point they played "Band On The Run" and I thought, "What?" We were up pretty late and I remember my father remarking, "well, if he was gonna kill him at least he could have killed him during the day!"

It still makes absolutely no sense.

(Several months later I was going through my albums and found a dead bug squished on the back cover of John Lennon's Imagine album.)

 

I was 7 years old that day. I was already aware of the power of music and loved the Beatles. I remember exactly where I was and who I was with when I first heard it. As I get older, I still can't believe that someone shot him. Simply insane.

 

Yeah, thats how I remember it. Back then I had no t.v. set, and I did'nt know about it till I got in the office. Somehow, at the time, I kind of shrugged it off. But as time went by, I realised how terrible this was, as I found out what actually happened, how Lennon lived so openly, only to have this happen to him.

 

Your boss was right and I am sure John would have thought you were crazy also. And yes I love John as much as the next guy. People die, life goes on. I honour him by listening to his and the Beatles great music. John was a great man, but not a God.

 

It's not like John died of old age. We all react differently to deaths, especially tragic ones, and that's the way it is. Rick's boss wasn't right, IMO.

 

Here's a little something I made a while back. He'll be missed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDLNU2jJBo

 

I still remember getting the news and the dull, shocked feeling that followed it. I was 16 at the time and in the night that followed there was radio-programme about him that I have taped from the radio, static included... I hardly knew the Beatles then, but it was the first time I heard And Your Bird Can Sing, Cry Baby Cry and Working Class Hero. It was a sad and strange experience and the start of a love for all things Beatle and Lennon...
28 years...

 

On December 8, 1980, I went to the El Mocambo ("under the neon palm at College and Spadina") to see Carlene Carter. I even went up to her dressing room between sets to get my copy of her first album signed. (I still have it, by the way.) When I got home after the show, I turned on my stereo to listen to CFNY for awhile before going to bed. They were playing a Beatles song, which was unusual, since the "Spirit of Radio" never played the Beatles. When the song ended, the DJ started talking about the death of a legend, and that's how I learned about what had happened that night in New York.

It seemed even more tragic that I got the news so soon after attending such an enjoyable event - made all the more memorable by the fact that I actually met the artist. To this day, I still think of John Lennon every time I listen to one of Carlene Carter's albums.

 

I was 12 at the time, so I must have been in 7th. grade. I specifically remember I was watching Monday Night Football in my bedroom that evening when Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford made the announcement. In 1980 not a lot of kids had a television in their own room... that is one of the reasons I remember the night and EXACTLY where I was so vividly.

I wasn't a huge Beatles or Lennon fan per se, but I certainly recognized their (his) importance to the music world and I knew his death was a BIG DEAL... I just didn't realize how big at the time.

Looking back now, I wonder "what if." Would the Beatles have reuinited for an album and a tour like so many other bands, or would Lennon simply have kept on releasing "his" music? Either way the events of 1980 were a tragedy.

 

I was 10 when Lennon died. I was home sick from school that week and I hadn't heard the news that night. Like another poster, I had a TV in my bedroom but fell asleep before Cosell broke in with the news.

When I woke up the next morning, I already knew I wasn't going to school and I woke up late. My mom was the one who told me. She knew even then I was a die-hard Beatles fan and she attempted to break it gently and said "Mike, I have some bad news. Last night one of the Beatles died."

I still remember my response too. I waited a moment and asked "Was it Paul McCartney?" She said no and told me it was John. I was relieved for about a second, and then creeped out again. Stuck in my house on that super-cold day I remember flipping around the radio to non-stop Beatles/Lennon music and callers and talk. Not very much on TV, though. Our local cable channel had a picture of Lennon with his hame and "1940-1980" on the screen all day in lieu of their typical color bars.

It was Christmas season. "Double Fantasy" was suddenly impossible to get but my mom worked at Two Guys (remember them!) and made sure the record department manager held her a copy. My oldest sister convinced my mom to give it to me early -- it was part of a treasure trove of solo Beatles LPs, I mean a really BIG one of maybe 10 or 15 albums, I got that year. The song that really struck me... Beautiful Boy. It was a hell of a thing to think there was a 5 year old kid without a dad because some crazy creep shot him dead. I thought a lot about that kid back then. I was just a kid.

 

I was also 10 I remember everywhere you went after this day all the store were playing Beatles & Lennon sons constantly. Everyone was unified in their mourning.

 

I'll chime in with a reposting of what I wrote in the solo year album-by-album thread...

As others have mentioned, it's difficult to divorce the musical contents of this album [Double Fantasy] from the events surrounding it. I'd fallen for the Fab Four in early 1980, at the impressionable age of 14, but I was pretty ignorant of the solo releases of the non-McCartney members of the group at that time...

I remember sitting in 10th grade home room class, thumbing through the current issue of Newsweek and stumbling upon an interview with J&Y. A new album? His first in five years? From my favorite Beatle? Wow, was I psyched to hear something from that. A couple weeks later, sitting in "drafting" class (where the radio was always on), I remember hearing the "ding, ding, ding" and then hearing another guy in class saying "Oh no, this is that awful new John Lennon song"...

I put down my pencil and listened intently. A couple weeks later, I remember looking at the new lp and wondering whether I should shell out $7.99 for an album with only 7 songs that I really wanted to hear (I'd heard the most gawd-awful things about Yoko's music, despite never actually having heard it). Besides the single, Woman & Wheels & Losing You & even Cleanup Time were in pretty heavy rotation on the various FM stations I listened to in the Minneapolis area at the time, and I liked all of 'em.

Like Chief, I really think John's 1980 stuff is about his most accessible material since some of his vintage Beatle stuff (circa Hard Day's Night or Rubber Soul). The "leftovers" issued in '84 aren't nearly as rewarding to me, but they are unfinished, after all...

I think John sounds healthy, happy & reawakened on the DF songs. Over the years, we've been able to see that these songs were far more "crafted" than John let on at the time, some having gone through multiple evolutions before achieving their finished form, but I really think that's fascinating. Had John ever worked in such a fashion before? Generally, the Beatles recorded too quickly for him to tinker with songs in such a a way, and most of his 70s output was similarly done in diary-like fashion, as commentary/confession on what he was experiencing. Yet the Lost Lennon Tapes & Anthology show that some of his '80 songs gestated and morphed from one thing to another - it's sort of tantalizing to envision what his future work style would have been like...

I remember going to bed that Monday night, still not having bought DF, and lying in bed spinning the dial, literally trying to catch one of his new tunes before I fell off to sleep. Then a somber sounding dj said that he had some bad news to break and I thought, "oh no, the Russians probably invaded Poland" (the big news of the day had seen them amassing troops next to the Polish border). But no, that wasn't it. He said that apparently John Lennon had been shot in NYC and they were awaiting word on his injuries. I was completely stunned. I walked into the next room, picked up the phone, and dialed a different radio station. When the dj answered, I said "Yeah, I just heard something about John Lennon getting shot ... do you guys know anything about that?" "Yeah. He's dead. We'll have it on-air in two minutes." Click...

Now, ironically, my own kid is 14 years old and also totally hooked on the Beatles. I'm kinda sad that he never got the experience of hearing "John Lennon's newest record" on the air, but I'm glad he never experienced that night. It's amazing how a lot of folks (myself included) seem to have never really recovered from that night.

With all the tawdry books that came out in later years, it's also hard to get to the truth of what John Lennon was like in 1980. Many believe that he was still a pretty screwed up guy, based on Goldman & others. I can't help but listen to the songs that he issued, and the vibrant, intelligent wit that he displayed in those final interviews and think THAT was the real thing. At least it was for me...

 

As do I , as it is my birthday. That day I heard about it will forever tug at me...
Worst "birthday present" ever.

 

For me, John's death never allowed closure on the issue of the Beatles and, of course, we were robbed of his future contributions to the world of music.

In regards to the Beatles, I'm sure John would have revisited that part of his life in very warm and fond way as the years went on, much like the remaining members did with Anthology. I believe some sort of reunion would have taken place well before the mid 1990s. It took him ten years to distance himself from the pressures of being a "Beatle." As time went on, I'm sure he would have fondly embraced the past as well as redeveloped working relationships with the other three Beatles. And, yes, they may have worked together again as The Beatles. John never totally dismissed it and even alluded to such a possible reunion in an interview where he was walking on a beach with a reporter and was asked the inevitable reunion question. His answer came across as sincere in that he would not rule out a future reunion with the boys. THAT possible reunion is what I believe the world was robbed of when he was killed, along, of course, with his ongoing solo contributions. What a waste it was indeed.

 

You will find John Lennon on the following list ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferncliff_Cemetery#Notable_Interments.2C_Burials.2C_Cremations

 

An awful shock, then. I felt robbed of future John music and (of course) the possibility of some sort of Beatles reunion. His death probably affected me more than any other outside my immediate family. A bleak time. For years, I felt denial, anger, etc.

At some point in recent years, I came to be more at peace with what is (after all) reality; George's passing is still a bit raw, though. The idea that I'd be able to grow old along with the individual Beatles was an implicit belief; and crucial to me, somehow. Corny or childish I'm sure, but there you are. But John and George would probably say, if they could, "well then - make something more out of your own life." That was always part of the message, right? Always do something more positive.

I just got new biographies of George and John (the Norman and Shapiro books), so I suppose I'll be revisiting all my feelings about them...

...and I'll be playing Lennon Legend in the car today.

 

Why did you feel compelled to post this?

 

Just a terrible, sensless act. It seemed like John had finally found happiness, and he was back making music again. Worst day in Rock N' Roll history. I always play John's music on this day.

 

I was a 7-year-old Beatles fan at the time. I remember my mom getting me up for school that next morning, and telling me she had some "very bad news". That moment is burned into my mind -- I could tell you what I was wearing that morning as she told me what had happened.

I couldn’t understand it then, and I can't understand it now.

 

As I've written before, I remember being angry when I heard about it the next morning, because I thought he'd been mugged.

I also remember that in '81, the Stars on 45 Beatles medley went to #1, probably because "John" sounded so much like the real John and it pleased so many to "hear him again."

 

It wasn't long ago I read a People magazine article concerning Sean Lennon's reflections of his father, and his death. His sense of loss can't be measured on any scale. I can't even begin to imagine what he went through at the age of five. So today I think of him.


I personally remember it like yesterday. I was nine in the fourth grade, so I didn't catch the MNF announcement. My mother, and Tom Brokaw (Today show) gave me the news the next morning. When a member of a band makes an impression on you at the age of three (White Album), it's hard to digest.