John Lennon's Death +30 Years

[DVS]

Like the story asks, do you remember where you were when you heard about John Lennon's murder? I do.

Just like when John Kennedy was murdered, I'll remember where I was when both men were killed. As with 9-11, when Bobby Kennedy was murdered, and when Martin Luther King was murdered, I remember where I was.

December 8th, is 30 years since John Lennon was killed. I won't mention the killer's name. I don't know if it was because I was a musician, or because the Beatles and their music were involved so much in my childhood, into my adolescence and still, to this day, late into my adulthood. It seems simplistic to say their music is very much a part of me. It was much more than that.

Not only were the Beatles a major part in the British invasion, they also played a major role in changing not only how pop music sounded, but how it was written and recorded. Before they and other bands like the Rolling Stones came across the Atlantic, pop music was created and processed through the Brill Building, in New York. It was very much a pop music factory. But, the British invasion changed all of that. The Beatles didn't want that to happen, because they idolized the Brill artists. But, it was just a change that happened.

As for changing the recording industry itself, I could go on and on about how the Beatles made changes there, mostly because they weren't trained engineers and hadn't been told that what they wanted to do wasn't possible. They were the first to do so many things, it boggles the mind. Oh, I don't try to assume all of you care about such things, but just know that you could be listening music in a totally different way, if it hadn't been for the Beatles and their experimentation.

John's first son, Julian, sounds and looks very much like his father. But Yoko really doesn't seem to like him that much. She's not his mother. Sean is John and Yoko's son and so he gets much more of her attention. I don't think he has that much of John's talent in him. Sadly, I think he has more of Yoko's personality. You would understand, if you've ever heard Yoko's singing.

I've never much cared for Yoko Ono, but I guess she caught John's heart and from then on, they were inseparable. Did she break the Beatles up? I think she had a part in it, but Paul was already thinking of leaving. It's all history, now.

John Lennon himself was very much a peacenik. Look it up, if you aren't familiar with the term. It will describe John Lennon in his latter adult years, once the Beatles had disbanded and he embarked on his solo career. The song "Imagine" is a classic that speaks volumes. As well as "Give Peace a Chance", which both are still very strong songs.

Anyway, I just wanted to mark the day and bring a little Beatles history to those who weren't aware of it. This Wikipedia article only talks about a few of the things in which they were first. John was a major part of that. And he was taken from us in a selfish, senseless and cowardly act. Ironically, he once said that above all things, he was most concerned about being shot by some crazed fan.

 

[rekane]

The first album I bought with my own money was "Magical Mystery Tour". I was singing "Hey Jude" when I was two years old. I grew up with the Beatles and their music was an integral part of my childhood.

I was 15 and was actually finishing up a paper about gun control when I heard John Lennon had been shot. I was in my room, on my bed. The clock said 10:02. I was stunned. I called my sister and told her. We cried.

It was a pivotal moment for me. The world seemed like a safer place before.

 

[FloggingMolly]

I missed it by 3 years, but still a sad and untimely loss.

 

[Ravenwind]

I don't remember it much, as I was far too little at the time, but I have vague memories of seeing it on the news at my grandparents' house.

As a musician, I think it sucks he died so early- there was so much more that he could have done with his music, like Paul or George have.

As "being accidentally indoctrinated into recognizing every Beatles song by my dad", meh. Few songs are quite as irritating to me on a personal level as Imagine is (I would say Thrice's Lullaby suitably responds to Imagine, imho).

 

[Cattypuss]

I remember it very clearly. My radio alarm came on at 7 a.m. and the news item was about his shooting - so it was the first thing I heard when I woke up. I was a massive Beatles and Lennon fan at the time.

I was 13. I had a music lesson that day at school and I remember the music teacher asking me why I looked so glum and I was astonished that (a) I looked any different from usual, but that (b) it wasn't OBVIOUS to him why anyone would be looking glum that day.

Edited to add.... at the time I remember thinking that, although he was very old, he probably still had a lot of new music left in him.

Now I realise that I'm older than he was when he was shot.

 

[goodgirlfl]

I remember very well where was when I heard the sad news.

I lived on Long Island, NY at the time. I was in HS, it was a school day. I woke up to my clock radio listening to WPLJ. The first thing that I heard that morning was that John Lennon had been shot and killed outside of the Dakota in NYC.

I wont be able to forget that day because not only did we lose a legend, it was the day after my 18th birthday.

RIP Mr John Lennon

 

[KoPilot]

Not my generation at all, but I have a little anecdote to share:

In my freshman painting class, we had a student who was absolutely obsessed with Lennon. Most of the paintings she did were portraits of photos of him, and the professor was none too pleased. During a particularly hard critique of her work one day, he asked her if John Lennon would actually want her wasting her talent painting portrait after portrait of him instead of being inspired by his music to pursue ideas of her own.

I don't think she ever painted him after that.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

I remember it well. My first response was, WTF? Why would someone shoot him, when all he'd ever really tried to do was to entertain and bring pleasure to others? My second was that I hoped the asshole spent the rest of a long, long life in prison being viciously and painfully gang-raped several times each and every day.



Yeah, I was an angrier person back then.

 

[DVS]

I thought it was ironic, in a sad way, that when the NYPD couldn't afford bullet proof vests, Lennon bought 1000 of them.

 

[YourCaptor]

Freddie Mercurys death date was 2 weeks ago.

 

[Etoile]

I was born 5 weeks after John died. It hasn't prevented me from being an intense lover of the Beatles, nor from marking his death every year. My dearest friend lives across the street from the Dakota and it chills me to walk by there. I've been to Strawberry Fields in the park many times. I'mI'm visiting my friend this weekend and I'll be stopping by.

I live in fear of the day I hear Paul or Ringo have died. I cried when George died. But nothing compares to the way John was ripped from us.

 

[janeyruth]

John Lennon

I don't miss John Lennon.

He was a nasty, arrogant and vindictive phony. While pretending to be some kind of working-class hero, he was, in fact, the most upper-class snob of the any of the Beatles.

This most unpleasant man was a boorish homophobe, racist, misogynist, and anti-Semite. He treated his wife, Cynthia, like shit, basically abandoning her once she gave birth to their son, Julian.

He took great pleasure in hounding the group’s manager, Brian Epstein, who in spite of his success in making the Beatles the biggest band in the world was always reminded by Lennon that to him he was nothing more than a “queer Jew.”

And before you say something stupid like, "Oh no, that's impossible, he was for peace and love. He wrote 'Give Peace A Chance'" I suggest you read the fucking book...

http://www.amazon.com/John-Lennon-Life-Philip-Norman/dp/006075401X

 

[catalina_francisco]

I don't miss John Lennon.

He was a nasty, arrogant and vindictive phony. While pretending to be some kind of working-class hero, he was, in fact, the most upper-class snob of the any of the Beatles.

This most unpleasant man was a boorish homophobe, racist, misogynist, and anti-Semite. He treated his wife, Cynthia, like shit, basically abandoning her once she gave birth to their son, Julian.

He took great pleasure in hounding the group’s manager, Brian Epstein, who in spite of his success in making the Beatles the biggest band in the world was always reminded by Lennon that to him he was nothing more than a “queer Jew.”

And before you say something stupid like, "Oh no, that's impossible, he was for peace and love. He wrote 'Give Peace A Chance'" I suggest you read the fucking book...

http://www.amazon.com/John-Lennon-Life-Philip-Norman/dp/006075401X

LOL, and just like the internet, we know, if it is written then it must be 100% true.

Catalina

 

[DVS]

LOL, and just like the internet, we know, if it is written then it must be 100% true.

Catalina

While I know some is true, he was far from a phony. He did treat Cynthia and Julian very badly, but I know a lot of that was also because of Yoko. She was a very bad influence on John. After John's death, Yoko has continued to distance herself from Julian, in favor of Sean as "the" son of John. Listen to the two sons and you'll know the genes each have. Julian sounds and looks like John. Sean sounds like Yoko and while he has some features of his father, he looks more like her.

I saw an interview with Julian, years ago, when he had a song on the charts. He said he had to recover things of John's that Yoko discarded, to get things from his childhood. Yoko gave them away, because they were "pre Yoko". Most anybody who knew John before Yoko came around disliked her. She totally consumed his time. Someone once said she followed him around like a lemming.

Just like most stories of this type, there are errors and misquotes in this book. Even in Cynthia's book, there are quite a few errors, and she was very close to John, in the early years. You'd think something like that would be researched, because people will read it and assume it is all true.

In spite of his failures, John Lennon was a musical genius. While I know John was less than a perfect father to Julian and less than a perfect husband to Cynthia, John was only human and no human is perfect. He will remain one of my favorite song writers, one of my favorite recording artists and a member of my all time favorite band. Nothing written in a book can tarnish any of that for me.

 

[mrtomthumb]

The first album I bought with my own money was "Magical Mystery Tour". I was singing "Hey Jude" when I was two years old. I grew up with the Beatles and their music was an integral part of my childhood.

I was 15 and was actually finishing up a paper about gun control when I heard John Lennon had been shot. I was in my room, on my bed. The clock said 10:02. I was stunned. I called my sister and told her. We cried.

It was a pivotal moment for me. The world seemed like a safer place before.

when I was 12 and we were stuck for 2 weeks at lake Champlain fishing with only a small pool hall with a limited jukebox selection. I remember me and my cousins shooting pool and me spending all my quarters on playing Hey Jude over and over again,,

I also remember my best friend years earlier riding up to me on his bike after school crying telling me John Lennon was shot.

just like this news today about some crazy fuck shooting this congress woman...

we need to do something about the guns...

too much violence.

 

[mrtomthumb]

I don't remember it much, as I was far too little at the time, but I have vague memories of seeing it on the news at my grandparents' house.

As a musician, I think it sucks he died so early- there was so much more that he could have done with his music, like Paul or George have.

As "being accidentally indoctrinated into recognizing every Beatles song by my dad", meh. Few songs are quite as irritating to me on a personal level as Imagine is (I would say Thrice's Lullaby suitably responds to Imagine, imho).

as a musician you find Imagine irritating?

thats just a fucking masterpiece.

its one of the best examples of the power of music and words together...

maybe give it another chance and listen with fresh ears....

I know that can be hard after a lifetime off feeling a certain way..

that is a song that is worth it though.

 

[DVS]

as a musician you find Imagine irritating?

thats just a fucking masterpiece.

its one of the best examples of the power of music and words together...

maybe give it another chance and listen with fresh ears....

I know that can be hard after a lifetime off feeling a certain way..

that is a song that is worth it though.

Too much of a good thing can always turn you off to it. I got tired of playing certain kinds of music, when I was in college. Today, I'd rather not hear some of it because it reminds me of times I'd rather forget.

While I agree with you about Lennon's "Imagine" and McCartney's "Yesterday", I'm sure there are some people who don't feel the same way and will never change.

 

[Netzach]

While I know some is true, he was far from a phony. He did treat Cynthia and Julian very badly, but I know a lot of that was also because of Yoko. She was a very bad influence on John. After John's death, Yoko has continued to distance herself from Julian, in favor of Sean as "the" son of John. Listen to the two sons and you'll know the genes each have. Julian sounds and looks like John. Sean sounds like Yoko and while he has some features of his father, he looks more like her.

I saw an interview with Julian, years ago, when he had a song on the charts. He said he had to recover things of John's that Yoko discarded, to get things from his childhood. Yoko gave them away, because they were "pre Yoko". Most anybody who knew John before Yoko came around disliked her. She totally consumed his time. Someone once said she followed him around like a lemming.

Just like most stories of this type, there are errors and misquotes in this book. Even in Cynthia's book, there are quite a few errors, and she was very close to John, in the early years. You'd think something like that would be researched, because people will read it and assume it is all true.

In spite of his failures, John Lennon was a musical genius. While I know John was less than a perfect father to Julian and less than a perfect husband to Cynthia, John was only human and no human is perfect. He will remain one of my favorite song writers, one of my favorite recording artists and a member of my all time favorite band. Nothing written in a book can tarnish any of that for me.

While we pile on the Yoko hate, there's another side to that story too. I'm not that up on the interpersonal marriage dynamics and there's always a mountain of shit between marriages, but what I do know is that Yoko was and is an artist in her own right - John met her at one of her own openings, she was successful and relevant in art long before she ever met him in Japan and in New York.

While her involvement in the music was probably not the best of ideas, her own ideas are just as expansive and just as important in their own right.

I think Yoko gets blamed for the end of an idea that had played itself out.

 

[FurryFury]

I was never much into or aware of The Beetles.

I don't remember where I was. I sort of vaguely remember it being on TV and thinking how sad it was.

FF

 

[DVS]

While we pile on the Yoko hate, there's another side to that story too. I'm not that up on the interpersonal marriage dynamics and there's always a mountain of shit between marriages, but what I do know is that Yoko was and is an artist in her own right - John met her at one of her own openings, she was successful and relevant in art long before she ever met him in Japan and in New York.

While her involvement in the music was probably not the best of ideas, her own ideas are just as expansive and just as important in their own right.

I think Yoko gets blamed for the end of an idea that had played itself out.

Yes, that's true that she was and is an artist and if I remember correctly, John said that the first time John saw her, she was up on a step ladder hanging something for one of her shows. And while I've heard that people who knew John before he'd met her thought she was a bad influence, I'm sure there are many who could say the opposite. Obviously, John thought she was worth keeping around.

I've seen interviews with Paul and Ringo who said she was always with John, even during rehearsals and recording sessions at Apple. Those sessions were for band members only, and nobody else was suppose to be allowed. Paul even said that he could have brought his own wife, but they all considered spouses were a distraction. He said it was their job and a time for creative interaction between his fellow band members. Paul said it was increasingly difficult to communicate with John with Yoko always sitting there.

I have also heard interviews with people from the early years of the Beatles who said that Yoko didn't hesitate to say she disliked their new songs and tried to get John to leave the group and do his own thing. It was mentioned in the book "Paul McCartney, many years from now" that Yoko was a classically trained pianist when she was young, but her father made fun of her small fingers and told her that her playing would never amount to anything, so she gave it up. Later, she tried music composition, but focused on avant-garde art, instead (I thought that was strange, hearing some of her avant-garde vocals. You'd think someone with such training would know her vocals were less than pleasant to the ear).

But, there were a lot of different things going on at the same time. Some of the lyics of the White Album can tell a story of what was going on during that time. Apple Corps was not doing well financially, because nobody was managing it. Brian Epstein had been their only manager, and after his death, they tried managing themselves. There were just too many aspects to Apple Corps and money was going to things that weren't ever completed.

Paul wanted to bring his wife Linda into the mix and take over Apple Corps, because the money in her family (the Eastman family) could prop the company up. But the other Beatles decided against Paul's offer and it was decided to hire Allen Klein to bring Apple out of the hole it was in. That started a war of who's idea was best for the company and Paul said in the end, nobody won.

In the beginning, the bulk of the song writing was credited to Lennon and McCartney, even if the song was totally Paul's or totally John's. But, the longer the band was together, the more George was writing songs, too. But because of the number of Lennon and McCartney songs, George got limited space on the albums. He got to dislike how he was treated as a secondary writer to the other two. Ringo also got into writing and he was treated the same way.

In fact, both Ringo and George left the band in the late 60s. Ringo just before the recording of the White Album started and George, after a fight he had with Paul. Both were both coaxed to come back by the other Beatles.

Eventually, Paul just got tired of the fighting about the business of Apple and all of the other things going on and went to John's house and told him he was fed up and done. His wife Linda was also probably part of the break up, because she had business smarts and could see the writing on the wall, so to speak.

It is said that John was mad that Paul was the one to break up the band, because he was thinking of doing the same thing. I guess he thought that Paul had stolen his thunder.

When it comes down to it, they were 4 guys, together since their early teens, living unreal lives together and they were all just growing apart. All were beginning to come into their own and going separate ways. The business fighting was part of it, wives were part of it, and creative differences were part of it. So to say Yoko broke up the band is a cop out. Sure, she was part of it, and probably more of a visual part of it, than some of the other reasons, but by far she wasn't the only reason for the band to finally call it quits.

 

[Etoile]

Just want to mention that "Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story" - can't remember the author's name - has some interesting insight into Yoko's role in the Beatles. I checked it out over and over from the library when I was a kid, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to find now for under a couple hundred bucks! The author was one of the groupies who hung around Apple (George wrote a song about the "Apple Scruffs") and she observed how completely Yoko dominated John's life, thoughts, etc. when they got together. But she also said that the other three were perfectly responsible adults and could have handled the situation themselves if they wanted to. The author's contention is that while Yoko was certainly the catalyst, the others let it happen, too.

 

[catalina_francisco]

Just want to mention that "Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story" - can't remember the author's name - has some interesting insight into Yoko's role in the Beatles. I checked it out over and over from the library when I was a kid, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to find now for under a couple hundred bucks! The author was one of the groupies who hung around Apple (George wrote a song about the "Apple Scruffs") and she observed how completely Yoko dominated John's life, thoughts, etc. when they got together. But she also said that the other three were perfectly responsible adults and could have handled the situation themselves if they wanted to. The author's contention is that while Yoko was certainly the catalyst, the others let it happen, too.

Have to agree. I am not a big fan of Yoko, and lived through the era of her entering his life and what happened after (had an older sister who was severely into Beatlemania and kept me educated ), but bottom line is she is the woman he chose to spend his life with. He was an adult and as such free to make his choices. Sometimes the person you fall in love with does not please those around and often the displeasure comes from a selfish place.

He might have married Cynthia first, after she became pregnant, but of the two women, I think Yoko comes out as being a stronger and more positive figure in John's life. John and Yoko played an active role in many charities including their own, and Yoko has continued with those throughout the years to present day...they also shared an interest in the arts...Cynthia went through a few more marriages and sold off many personal items of John and their time together after his death, as well as wrote a couple of books about their life. She seems to have chosen to build her life around the 6 short years they were married and lamenting how she was wronged and financially benefiting from it instead of moving on and building a life of her own. She lived off interest from a trust account John set up for Julian instead of doing something to add to it herself. All that is sad and a life wasted. At least Yoko had her own career and mind, with and without John.

Catalina

 

[DVS]

Just want to mention that "Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story" - can't remember the author's name - has some interesting insight into Yoko's role in the Beatles. I checked it out over and over from the library when I was a kid, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to find now for under a couple hundred bucks! The author was one of the groupies who hung around Apple (George wrote a song about the "Apple Scruffs") and she observed how completely Yoko dominated John's life, thoughts, etc. when they got together. But she also said that the other three were perfectly responsible adults and could have handled the situation themselves if they wanted to. The author's contention is that while Yoko was certainly the catalyst, the others let it happen, too.

I guess you could say they all kind of..."Let It Be".