Posted on 12/08/2010 6:53:25 PM PST by SamAdams76
Not exactly in the league of Pearl Harbor and 9/11, or even the JFK assassination, but for those who are old enough to remember, it was a pretty big deal when John Lennon was assassinated in New York City exactly 30 years ago today, on December 8, 1980.
So I thought I'd put a post out there to see if anybody has any thoughts from that day, how they learned about it and how they felt about John Lennon and his music at the time and more importantly, how they feel about him today now that we have had 30 years to get older and wiser.
Not all Freepers were smart enough to be conservative their entire adult lives and I have no problem stating that I am one of those who started my adult life ignorant, stupid...and liberal to the core.
Not that it was all my fault. I was born and raised in Massachusetts just a few miles from JFK's birthplace in Brookline. Therefore I was raised to believe that Republicans were evil and if you didn't have the obligatory portrait of JFK hanging on your living room wall (usually over the fireplace), you were suspect.
Well anyway, I remember very clearly what I was doing on December 8, 1980 as it was a time of great transition for me and my conversion to a rock-solid conservative was just beginning to take root (but would still take several more years to complete).
I was 18 years old and working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. I had graduated high school the previous spring and had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. However, I delayed my entry into boot camp so that I could have some "partying" time now that I was finally out of school. My report date to Parris Island was still over two months away (February 10, 1981).
The night of December 8th, I was watching Monday Night Football as my New England Patriots were playing the Miami Dolphins. Now this was way before Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and so the New England teams were typically awful during that era, but this particular year, they had a winning record and were still in contention for the playoffs at the time of this game.
Late in the game, Howard Cosell made the announcement about John Lennon. I will never forget the shivers that ran up my spine as he told about how he was shot, rushed to the hospital and then pronounced dead-on-arrival in his characteristic deadpan style.
I immediately forgot about the game (Pats ended up losing anyhow), turned off the TV and turned on my radio, which already was playing nothing but Beatles and Lennon records up and down the dial. Remember that this was before 24-hr cable news stations so the only way to get breaking news was to turn on your radio.
Now I was too young to remember The Beatles when they were still together and in their prime but as I came of age in the 1970s, you couldn't escape being exposed to their music, which was still in heavy rotation on most rock stations. So I was a big fan of their music and always harbored hope that they would get back together again as a group now that I was old enough to appreciate it.
Obviously the assassination dashed that dream forever and over the next few days, I listened to tribute after tribute come over the radio. Almost every rock station out of Boston pretty much dedicated the next several days to nothing but Beatles/Lennon music, tributes and documentaries. It was almost a full week before they went back to regular programming.
Looking back at those times 30 years later, it is almost like I was a different person in a totally different life. Having gained three decades of maturity and wisdom, I wonder what I ever saw in John Lennon and how I could have been so stupid to think he was some kind of saint or messiah.
Before writing this post, I looked at some of his 1970s era interviews on YouTube and he comes across to me now as a long-haired doper without a clue, unable to speak even a coherent sentence. Well, not too unlike many of our entertainers today, that think their stardom gives them special insight on how the world should be run (and with whom our young people put so much stock in).
I also find Yoko Ono even more despicable. During most of those post-Beatle years, she was always pretty much up his butt, controlling his entire life. What he saw in that woman, I'll never know. During my YouTube session, I saw video of her (and John) standing proudly next to a poster that accused the United States of having committed Holocaust on a scale worse than Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia (in Vietnam). Now that is pure evil right there.
As anti-American as John Lennon was in those days, he certainly had no desire to leave our country and in fact, fought for years to stay here despite efforts by our immigration department to deport him. And despite all the phoney-baloney lyrics that made him such a liberal icon (such as "Imagine"), he lived in the most exclusive area of New York and traveled by limousine and private jet.
Yet 30 years ago, John Lennon was a hero to me and here, on the 30th anniversary of his death, I find it hard to reconcile the person I am today with the person I was 30 years ago.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, my conversion to conservatism was just starting to take root in December of 1980. Ronald Reagan had just been elected president and while I cast my vote for John Anderson that year (the first election I was old enough to vote), I was secretly glad that Reagan won instead of Carter, but still did not have the self-confidence to say so to my friends and family. I was just a few months away from becoming a US Marine, which would accelerate my political conversion all the more.
In closing, while I now despise the man John Lennon was and especially what he represented, I am still sad that he died at the hands of a demented assassin. He certainly did not deserve to go out that way. On the other hand, he also did not merit being the martyr that people made him out to be post-assassination.
December 1980 was definitely a turning point in my life and this anniversary definitely brought back some memories...
That’s #27.
I agree with you on REVOLVER, not sure about RUBBER SOUL, since I haven't given it a serious listen in decades.
That was their great period, those years bracketing Sgt. Pepper.
Somebody said a while ago that if you get two hoodlums together in a certain combination they egg each other on and become like one monstrous, soulless machine . Alone, they might be merely obnoxious; but a weird synchrony happens when those particular characters cooperate, evil spawns.
I think this kind of summing of powers happens in art as well: neither Paul nor John alone produced anything approaching what they achieved during their collaboration.
Others have said that each was the antithesis of the other: John was the cynical, soured idealist, Paul the romantic optimist.
So, you can understand their inevitable split.
Still it's a shame. You need friction to have traction.
Yes, it was a murder but please explain why you feel it was not also an assassination. The word assassination is generally defined as a deliberate act of killing someone, especially one who is a public figure, for financial gain, on behalf of a political agenda or for obtaining personal public recognition.
Therefore I believe it is accurate to describe the killing of John Lennon as an assassination.
Interesting. I loved the early Beatles stuff most of all, Rubber Soul is my favorite album. They started losing me after Sargent Pepper and The White Album. I remember reading an article written not long after Lennon died and the author stated that basically conservative youth loved the early Beatles stuff and were turned off by their later druggy material. That fit me to a tee.
I haven’t read the preceding posts, but things happen in our lives that are only viewable in hindsight. I was born in ‘71 and couldn’t care less about the Beatles. But they contributed to where we are today.
I am 39 and love Eminem. In 30 years Ill probably hate him if I’m still alive. But, it is what it is, at the time...
I got off the ship around noon on Dec 9th in Olongopo. As soon as we crossed the bridge over sh!t river, we saw folks crying...shouting "John Lennon is Dead!"
It was heartbreaking for me...not because of his obvious commie essence, but because of the loss of such an ENORMOUS talent.
He was the best tenor any of us will ever hear.
I'm listening to Beatles records tonight, skipping all McCartney and Harrison songs.
Wow. Just wow.
I was a big Beatles fan as a pre-teenager/teenager but I lost interest in the Beatles as single artists. I was horrified that he was shot dead int he street but I didn't have this overwhelming sense of lost that others had.
I totally agree but in fairness, there are not too many people left who have first-hand recollections of Pearl Harbor Day. Still, I observed the anniversary yesterday and recognize it as a very important day in our nation's history.
Disagree. Even when I was a hopelessly misguided liberal adolescent I could not stand him.
There's that line in the song "American Pie" about Lennon reading a book on Marx. Or was that Lenin?
At least step up to the Stones:)
I was a freshman in college. I was in the community bathroom getting ready for bed, with the rest of my dorm mates, and I heard the news on the radio that was playing. None of us stopped what we were doing. I thought it was sad, but I shrugged my shoulders and continued brushing my teeth.
No, not at all. I never listened to or liked Diamond/Manilow . Odd how you would make that up.
Was it really THAT late when the news came out? That’s not the way I remember it.
I distinctly remember the moment when I first heard about it: I was driving, on MOPAC in Austin... on my way to visit a young lady name Charlotte... about whom I cared a great deal. I was heading to her house, with a Christmas gift... she lived at home, with her parents... so, I would have thought it was in the early evening...
I was in college.. at the University of Texas. Miss Charlotte was in the choir with me.. and, she was SO CUTE! Apparently, I liked her a LOT more than she liked me.... but, whatever. We BOTH loved music. So, I was pretty upset to hear that John Lennon was dead.
I remember... one of my first thoughts was: “Well, there will never be a reunion concert now!”
I always thought McCartney had more talent than Lennon... but, they were a great team. Lennon was always just a BIT TOO WEIRD for me... I was as CONSERVATIVE then....as I am now..... But, I still was saddened by the loss of a musician I respected..
But, mostly... I remember seeing Charlotte that night. The moonlight lit up her hair after she kissed me that night. :-P
Was it really THAT late when the news came out? That’s not the way I remember it.
I distinctly remember the moment when I first heard about it: I was driving, on MOPAC in Austin... on my way to visit a young lady name Charlotte... about whom I cared a great deal. I was heading to her house, with a Christmas gift... she lived at home, with her parents... so, I would have thought it was in the early evening...
I was in college.. at the University of Texas. Miss Charlotte was in the choir with me.. and, she was SO CUTE! Apparently, I liked her a LOT more than she liked me.... but, whatever. We BOTH loved music. So, I was pretty upset to hear that John Lennon was dead.
I remember... one of my first thoughts was: “Well, there will never be a reunion concert now!”
I always thought McCartney had more talent than Lennon... but, they were a great team. Lennon was always just a BIT TOO WEIRD for me... I was as CONSERVATIVE then....as I am now..... But, I still was saddened by the loss of a musician I respected..
But, mostly... I remember seeing Charlotte that night. The moonlight lit up her hair after she kissed me that night. :-P
Well said. Pinging Bono of U2, pinging Bruce Springsteen...
Yes, it was cold outside.
I was listening to the radio that night when the programming was interupted. It was around 7:30 or 8:00 pm PST as I recall.
Ridiculous.
It was sad for awhile after because Lennon had just released his new album and it was kind of haunting listening to his songs on the radio afterwards. There were some really nice tunes on his last album and he seemed to have had a musical reawakening. That chump creep loser Chapman should have shot himself instead!
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