John Lennon remembered 34 years later

[David1961]

For those of us who were around 34 years ago when John Lennon was shot, do you remember what you were doing when you heard the news?

I was in college and was watching Monday Night Football when they announced he had been shot. It was big news on my college campus. A few days later, the students on our campus held a candlelight vigil in his memory.

[W2R]

I don't remember what I was doing, but what an awful, despicable murder.

Imagine what John Lennon could have accomplished during the past 34 years, had he remained alive. It's mind-boggling to even think about it. He was tremendously talented and his talent was continuing to bloom and mature even further than it had.

I think he was possibly the most talented person of his entire generation. I know that sounds like overkill, but his songs still blow me away after all these years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhq-yO1KN8

Also, my hunch is that Paul McCartney would have done more in the past 34 years, if John Lennon had remained alive. They seemed to have a light rivalry that perhaps would have spurred Paul on and inspired him to even greater heights of musical accomplishment than he attained.

[rbmrtn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David1961 I was in college and was watching Monday Night Football when they announced he had been shot. It was big news on my college campus. A few days later, the students on our campus held a candlelight vigil in his memory.

Identical. We had large park area in the middle of campus, candlelight vigil went there, people singing imagine.

[steelyman]

I, too, was watching Monday Night Football. I think it was Patriots-Dolphins. So I heard about it from Howard Cosell.

I agree with W2R: he was a shining star and his band revolutionized music.

[robnplunder]

I was in college co-op room when I heard the news. My roommate was a bigger Beatles fan than I was. He was crushed for a few days at least.

John was more than a musician, someone who tried to changed the world for better. I appreciate that about him.

[Sue J]

I didn't know about it until the next morning. I woke to my radio station playing all John Lennon songs and hearing sad DJs announce what happened. My first thought was of his young son.

[Birdie Num Nums]

MNF here too, when Howard Cosell announced that John had been shot. I went to San Francisco the next day for a few days of training and it seemed the whole city was in mourning for Lennon. I had fantasies for weeks thereafter, imagining that I had been there at the Dakota and took a shot to save John's life. That summer, 1981, I went to England and Liverpool, and there was tons of John Lennon-related graffiti up and down the alley where the Cavern Club had been.

What he could have contributed the past 34 years not only musically but as an involved human being concerned about the world is indeed unimaginable. I still miss the guy, as The Beatles gave color and sound to my youth.

[Onward]

I went to a local radio station and took part in a vigil. I even got interviewed on the radio talking about John.

I was an even bigger Beatles fan then than now. These days I still love the music but think his politics were, uh, a bit sheltered.

And as for his taste in women: well, to each his own, mate.

[Car-Guy]

I don't remember what I was doing but I do remember hearing it on the news.

[golfnut]

I was watching MNF with my gf. Was and still am big fan of him and the beatles!

[candrew]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onward I went to a local radio station and took part in a vigil. I even got interviewed on the radio talking about John. I was an even bigger Beatles fan then than now. These days I still love the music but think his politics were, uh, a bit sheltered. And as for his taste in women: well, to each his own, mate.

I learned of John Lennon's death shortly after arriving home from work the evening he was murdered. It was a tragic irony that a man who spoke of and fought endlessly for peace would die such a senseless and violent death.

Politics aside, I still find much in common with Lennon's stands on issues of social, economic, and racial injustice.

Nixon didn't care much for Lennon's politics either. Due to Lennon's anti-war activism, the Nixon White House added him to their list of "enemies" that included attempts at deportation.

And as for his taste in women - Lennon and Yoko Ono gave every appearance of loving one another in spite of Lennon's once reported infidelity.

John Lennon was an amazing individual, great musician & lyricist. The world has been a less kind place to live without his presence.

[steelyman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Also, my hunch is that Paul McCartney would have done more in the past 34 years, if John Lennon had remained alive. They seemed to have a light rivalry that perhaps would have spurred Paul on and inspired him to even greater heights of musical accomplishment than he attained.

Nellie McKay tells a story about when Paul wrote "World Without Love", a tune that ended up with Peter and Gordon (Peter is Peter Asher, Jane Asher's brother). It begins:

Quote:

Please lock me away And don't allow the day Here inside Where I hide With my loneliness.

Paul played it for John and asked him what he thought of it. John said,

"S'ok, if you stop after the first line."

[Bikerdude]

I don't remember where I was, however I don't remember where I was when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash in 1959. Equally tragic events in the music industry, maybe even more so in 1959.

[harley]

MNF, Howard Cosell. I was devastated. I had just started my first IT job that day at National Geographic. I showed up to work on my second day wearing a black armband. I never did live down the reputation of being a weirdo there.

[Another Reader]

I was on my way home when I heard about the shooting on the car radio. The announcer said he had been shot, but no further information was available. Before I got home, they announced an unconfirmed report that he had died.


I had moved recently and had just signed up for a new (to me) inexpensive TV antenna alternative known as cable TV ($6.34 a month). CNN had been launched a few months earlier, and when I got home, I watched the aftermath on CNN. People were already gathering in Central Park, carrying candles and singing his songs.

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I think he was possibly the most talented person of his entire generation. I know that sounds like overkill, but his songs still blow me away after all these years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steelyman I agree with W2R: he was a shining star and his band revolutionized music.

+1. Still one of my favorites all these years later.

[harley]

I am a huge fan of Lennon, and think he was a huge talent and a wonderful song writer. I'm also a huge fan of McCartney. But over the past 10 years or so I've become convinced that Harrison was the better songwriter from the Beatles after their break up. There was way too much talent in that group.