|
Post by -Wings- on Dec 8, 2005 14:57:36 GMT -5
Not that anyone here needs a reminder, but today marks the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death.
It's weird. I was born a little less than three years after the assasination, yet I'm still shocked when I think that John Lennon is no longer with us. When so much of my Beatle fandom is centered around the mystery of Paul McCartney and what happened to him, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that, inarguably, John (and George) is gone and has been for quite some time.
Would the world be a more peaceful place if John Lennon was still alive today? It's hard to say. Would it be a little brighter? Unquestionably. And yet, when you think about it, he never really left us in the first place... his voice, his message, and his soul remain in his music. From Please Please Me through Milk and Honey, John Lennon will live on, and the Mark David Chapmans of the world can do nothing about it.
|
|
|
Post by plastic paul on Dec 8, 2005 19:22:15 GMT -5
All's i can say is thank god for John Lennon's incredible ability with words and backwards singing so that we could all hear the truth.
You appear to be pretty much the same age of my sister then Wings, i was born a little under 6 years after the fabled night yet i agree with every word you said.
|
|
|
Post by TotalInformation on Dec 8, 2005 21:02:45 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by JoJo on Dec 8, 2005 22:02:12 GMT -5
It happened late at night, I was a freshman in college, and the next day I spent the day holed up in the library studying for finals. I had no idea, until that evening I went into my dorm, climbed the stairs, and saw a handwritten sign written on notebook paper: John Lennon: 1940-1980
I said what? John Lennon is dead?? To which I got a chorus of "you didn't know"?! Impossible, it couldn't be, I was numb with disbelief. Today, we may have been chasing down news stories on the internet, but at the time, we all gathered around the few TV's scattered around campus, most dorms had one TV in the main lounge. People would talk about their feelings occasionally, but I remember mostly the silence, just watching the story unfold.
I think had John lived, the world may very well be a different place, yes. John pointedly spoke his mind, and he needed only to open his mouth to have the undivided attention of hundreds of millions of people. Would this fact be lost on those who might find that a threat? Sadly..no.
Had he lived, I think he would have worked at "balancing the books" perhaps dispelling some illusions, the business with Paul being but one. I think at the time he died, his life was heading in that direction.
|
|
|
Post by lili on Dec 9, 2005 12:51:13 GMT -5
John was a very direct person. You're right, he spoke his mind. It's no wonder he kept himself in a drug-induced haze for years following Paul's death. He was probably afraid to allow himself to feel anything. He knew once he did, he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth SHUT
|
|
|
Post by LOVELYRITA on Dec 13, 2005 23:07:52 GMT -5
I can remember I was not working the next day and my oldest brother and I were up watching "Prisoners of Cell BLock "H"" when a news report interrupted with the first report that John Lennon was shot outside his apartment building in NYC. I remember being stunned and my brother half shocked and half jokingly responded "Did Koko,( meaning Yoko), shoot him?" While I don't think she actually shot him, she was part of the horrible scheme. I don't think it was Mark David Chapman, there was someone else. He's like the Lee Harvey Oswald, dork with a gun murder suspect. They almost always throw some nerd into the picture of a major assassination or assassination attempt. When the second report interrupted and saying he was dead, I was stunned. It's taking me back 25 years just thinking about it. Miss him, and I miss my oldest brother, who passed away in 1991. He was the one who bought all the Beatles records and then gave them to my sister. Then little old me wore them well myself. I can hear the crackles in the background.... Which is interesting to hear them on CD andnot have that "forest fire" background.
Not only does this site share discussion on PID, but it's a type of therapy for dealing with some of the things about growing up with the Beatles. They were like family to me, with their music...You bring their music into your home and into your life. THese songs are the soundtracks to many of our lives. It's part of who we are.
|
|
|
Post by lili on Dec 14, 2005 10:16:51 GMT -5
Rita, I couldn't have said it better myself.
|
|
|
Post by beatlies on Dec 15, 2005 7:21:30 GMT -5
Some coverage I heard of the CIA Lennon murder anniversary in NYC:
Dec. 7-8: A DJ of the only "classic rock" station left in New York, Carol Miller, remembered on her late night shift after playing "Stepping Out" who she and her neighbors near the Dakota in the 1970s would often see John Lennon on the street, and that he would talk to people, including her, while getting his hair cut by the barber Bob at the "Vis a vis" haircutting place, and that she asked Bob ahead of time when John Lennon was going to be there because she wasn't in the mood to talk and didn't want to talk with him! She also said that to be honest, "he did not look happy" and that he looked "too thin ...he was on a macrobiotic diet" and that "toward the end" [1979? 1980?], "he looked freaked out."
Dec. 8: Randi Rhodes, talk show host on WLIB "air america radio" station said disparagingly of CNN coverage she saw that "they called him a 'dead poet' and interviewed the author of "Lennon Remembered and that was how they covereed it." She went on to mention the 10 missing pages of Lennon's FBI File and tried to make jokes about it "what was in those ten missing pages, was it the answer to who is the walrus? Why won't they release those ten pages? Is the walrus in those pages? ... I know, it's Yoko singing on the Shaved Fish album, they don't want to release the sound of her on Shaved Fish to the public ..." [sic --Yoko is not on the Shaved Fish album. It's a John Lennon compilation.]
|
|
|
Post by lili on Dec 15, 2005 11:09:36 GMT -5
I saw John sometime within a few months of his death. He looked very drawn, very somber. I didn't even recognize him. Shortly afterwards, the friend I was with exclaimed that he was John Lennon ! It was sad, because I was too shocked by his appearance to be excited about seeing him in person.
|
|