John Lennon killed on this day('Dead On This Day, Still Dead' list)

Ananova ^ | 12/8/03 | History

[Diddle E. Squat]

Murdered at 10:55pm eastern on 12/8/80. At 11:15pm Howard Cosell interrupted the Monday Night Football game between Miami and New England, as it was going into overtime, to announce:

"One of the great figures of the entire world, one of the great artists, was shot to death horribly at the Dakota Apartments, 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. John Lennon is dead. He was the most important member of the Beatles, and the Beatles, lead by John Lennon, created music that touched the whole of civilization. Not just people in Liverpool, where the group was born, but the people of the world."

Not that I agreed with his politics, but anyone watching that night will remember that weird moment.

[lucidloony]

Revolting cat. Did you not get invited to the prom?

[Prime Choice]

Oops, last one was a tie. Best of three, or paper rocks scissors?

I defer to your Elite Posting-Fu, good Freeper. : )

I do better as second banana anyway. ; )

[CyberCowboy777]

[T Lady]

No problem...although this tragedy made that particular night anything but mundane...I think it was about a week or so before all the talk and coverage finally calmed down. Even after all these years, it's still hard to believe John Lennon is dead...had he survived, he'd be 63 years old...of course that's hard to imagine, too. No one ever thinks of Musical stars growing old, at least when you're young yourself. But then the time passes...and wow! Before you know it you've hit the big 4-0 (as I did last year). It's a trip just thinking about it; my own mother (who's the same age Lennon would have been) still can't get over the fact that all of her children are past forty. Where did all that time go?!

-Regards, T.

[Diddle E. Squat]

But 'Yes, we have no bananas'?

[eddie willers]

Now thats a good un!

[KellyAdmirer]

All you folks crowing about Eagles albums and Fleetwood Mac albums being the best or something, well, all I know is that when I walk into Best Buy these days, or walk into Tower Records, they don't have a special rack of 35-year-old Eagles albums or Pink Floyd albums or Bee Gees albums in the place of honor at the front of the store, front and center.

They have Beatles albums.

Now that's something to think about. The real mark of a heavyweight band. And if you asked members of those groups, I think they would agree.

[CyberCowboy777]

While I like Dark Side of the Moon better - the arrangements, the perfection on PS is amazing.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I hear ya, but I would put the Eagles up there with the Beatles in the 'one of the greatest' category. Higher than the Rolling Stones(perhaps the real most overrated band in history.)

U2 is about the only modern group I'd include at that level.

[Larry Lucido]

I bought a Playboy, and I read the John Lennon interview that evening

Playboy has articles??

[CyberCowboy777]

Joshua Tree is outstanding.

[the invisib1e hand]

well, you didn't exactly ask, but: I was in a Waffle House in Orlando, ordering a coffee to go. The waitress told me. It was weird. I had recently purchased my first Lennon record, Double Fantasy, which was really very good musically, and he seemed to be in a good place otherwise...

[Diddle E. Squat]

In fact I could make a good argument that this is perhaps the best/most moving rock song ever(or at least the best intro):


I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I want to reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name

I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building
Then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do

The city's aflood
And our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust
I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building
Then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do
Our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh, and I see love
See our love turn to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh, when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do



When they played it at the Superbowl after 9/11, with the names of the victims scrolling on the screen, just wow. Something I will never, ever, forget.

[Jeff Chandler]

Anyway, all the discussion points are moot, since to the international connaisseurs, "objectively speaking, these guys were perhaps the greatest pop music songwriting team ever! (in spite of the few duds they created)."

Okay, smart guy, name a pair of pop songwriters who had a better grasp of popular music lyric forms and produced as consistently over a greater span of time.

If you want to discount the entire pop music genre as inferior to classical, you won't get an argument from me, but within the genre, they were the best. They transformed the entire popular music industry. If they hadn't, they could have made a fortune writing on Tin Pan Alley

[Delta 21]

I have all 5 LPs and narry a scratch on 'em!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Oh yeah.

[CyberCowboy777]

Now here is an interesting thing - I am not old enough to own any LP ever!

[jocon307]

"TIGER BEAT PING LIST!"
I want on that list! And whatever happened to my beloved Frenchman Phillipe Forquet? Where is he now? I probably don't want to know.

[CyberCowboy777]

P.O.D. did a cover of "Bullet the Blue Sky" that was alright.

[Delta 21]

I think I was just insulted!