<p>I was 33 years old and at my boyfriend’s house, and he told me. It seemed unbelievable. Another friend of mine had been a big fan of both Lennon and the singer Harry Chapin and was quite broken up when one died in 1980 and the other died in 1981.</p>
<p>“We didn’t have cable TV at the time, so with limited channels, football was the thing to watch on Monday nights.”</p>
<p>I must have been really bored to have had the football on. </p>
<p>I don’t think I knew until the next day. My husband and I (married young) were living in upstate NY and had no tv at all. . The next morning I was driving to work and they played three John Lennon songs in a row so I knew something was up. After the songs they announced his death. </p>
<p>I don’t remember where I was on that actual day (I was a junior in hs), but I do remember a year later, there was something where we were all supposed to be quiet for, I don’t know, maybe 10 minutes in reflection. I was with my best friend, we were both huge Beatlemaniacs, and her parents were having a party and the two of us went out on the front lawn and were quiet for those 10 minutes. Then we came back inside and all the parents (lightly) razzed us that they were impressed we, as two teenage girls, could be quiet for 10 minutes :-)</p>
<p>I have a real hard time with the John Lennon lionization. Due to the sad circumstances of his death, he has been made out to be some kind of all-I-want-is-peace-love-and-understanding type, when he wasn’t that way in his personal life at all. He never really used his power / wealth / fame for peace the way thatGeorge Harrison did, or that someone like Bono does. Indeed, he gave very little to charitable causes. He sang “imagine no possessions” when he lived most lavishly out of all of Beatles. He beat his first wife Cynthia, was notoriously anti-Semitic esp towards Brian Epstein, and how he treated Julian Lennon is truly abominable - as well as how he allowed Yoko to treat Julian with such disrespect. Julian recounts that Paul McCartney was more his father than John ever was, and Paul adopted Linda’s daughter, who was the same age, and made her his daughter along with his “blood” children. I think that reveals a LOT about character, and while we all are imperfect and flawed human beings, John just wasn’t a very nice person.</p>
<p>Musically, of course he was extremely talented - but I also get tired of the nonsense that he was the hard-edged one and Paul was the silly-syrupy-love songs one. It just doesn’t fit any serious study of the Beatles to think this way. John wrote just as many sweet love ballads, and you can easily see the progression from John contributing the bulk of the work, to John / Paul being equal (around the Help and Rubber Soul albums), to Paul taking over because John’s contributions were so erratic. </p>
<p>All you have to do is look at the White Album. Paul’s contributing songs that last - rockers like Back in the USSR, Birthday and Helter Skelter … “granny tunes” like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da … ballads like I Will and Blackbird. There’s exactly one song on the album that John contributed that ever stood the test of time – Revolution. The rest of his contributions to that album, with the possible exception of Julia, are pretty much throw-away songs. Or Let It Be. Paul contributes Let It Be, Get Back, and The Long and Winding Road. John’s contributions to that album are also throw-away songs. So much talent on John’s part - completely wasted by his descent into heroin. It’s a shame, but as a certified Beatlemanic ™ I can’t engage in John-glorification!</p>
<p>I always love PG’s Beatles commentary-I figured you’d weigh in, PG. I loved the Beatles, but even without knowing all the details of how poorly he treated some people in his life, I always thought John Lennon had a rather nasty, sour personality. Interesting to know how rarely he actually put his money where his mouth was.</p>
<p>That said, I remember being in a state of shock after his death. </p>
<p>This is the song that Paul plays in concert to memorialize his friendship with John:</p>
<p><a href=“Paul McCartney/John Lennon - Here Today - YouTube”>Paul McCartney/John Lennon - Here Today - YouTube;
<p>And this is what John recorded directly to / at Paul after the Beatles breakup. </p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>I rest my case :-)</p>
<p>Look at the films of their early concerts. The promoters used to bring in handicapped people (both physically and mentally) to fill the first few rows. John Lennon would routinely make fun of them on stage by mocking how they spoke, moved, and clapped their hands. There are many examples of this on YouTube, but here’s a good one:</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>So watch this, and then reflect on the beautiful words of Imagine. It rings hollow to me. Can you imagine a celebrity doing this today? But because the man was tragically gunned down, he got elevated to sainthood. </p>
<p>^^^WOW!</p>
<p>I was in grad school and while I can’t recall exactly where I was (probably working on my dissertation) I DO recall the call from my parents b/c by brother was working as a resident in the ER at Roosevelt Hospital when they brought John in.</p>
<p>Some more factoids (since now you’ve got me started and I’m waiting for a phone call, LOL)</p>
<ul>
<li><p>John liked to play working-class hero, but was actually the most well-to-do. The other Beatles grew up in council houses (working class public housing) where John grew up in a “posher” middle class home, a clear step above socioeconomically. People tend to think it’s the other way around.</p></li>
<li><p>If you listen closely to The Long and Winding Road, you can hear the mistakes he made when playing bass (normally Paul was bass, but in this one Paul played piano). You can also hear him say f-ing hell on Hey Jude. </p></li>
<li><p>Sgt Pepper was Paul’s idea. Paul was the avant-garde one exploring theater, finding new artists (he helped discover James Taylor, wrote for Badfinger, etc.), listening to musique concrete, doing tape loops on Revolver, etc. while John lived in the 'burbs and spiraled into heroin addiction and couldn’t be bothered with the group or rehearsals.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Lest you think I’m all about Paul, though, I’ve got a major sweet spot for George. Now THAT is a talent I miss!</p>
<p>John changed a lot from the guy who wrote Girl to the man who wrote Woman is the Nigger of the World.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I really don’t understand the depth of your distain for Lennon. I think for the most part, the only people who “lionized” him were exceedingly impressionable teenagers. Obviously adults loved and still love Beatles music, but does that still rise to the level of lionization today? And for many years now, since Julian became an adult and famous in his own right, we’ve known that John Lennon was a bit of a horse’s ass in his personal life. A lot of us realize that people whose talents we enjoy have feet of clay in other aspects of their lives.</p>
<p>I don’t get it, either. Besides, the man has been dead for 40 years. Talk about beating a dead horse. </p>
<p>I was working in a school district. When John Lennon died, I realized that the students weren’t even alive when the Beatles were becoming famous. </p>
<p>“Pizzagirl, I really don’t understand the depth of your distain for Lennon.”</p>
<p>Oh, I know exactly why I feel this way. It’s very visceral and personal .I identify very strongly with young children who are in “step” types of situations.</p>
<p>My parents were divorced when I was young and my mother remarried when I was 5, I was adopted and my stepfather became my father in every way, shape and form. So in a way, since I’m the same age, I relate strongly to Heather McCartney (Linda’s daughter, not the second wife) and to Julian Lennon.</p>
<p>If you look at the videos of Paul’s wedding, you see the affection with which he treats then 5-or-6-yo Heather - she was now his daughter and that was that. That’s a major plus on the Paul side. That speaks very highly of character, IMO. </p>
<p>And then I look at John, who basically abandoned Julian, didn’t provide for him financially, spoke harshly to him, and when Sean was born made it seem as though Sean was his only son. He even said his first son was “out of a whiskey bottle” or somesuch. </p>
<p>So to recap - Paul marries a woman with a 5 yo daughter, treats / loves that child as his own. John can’t even handle being decent to his own 5 yo child, and treats his “second child” (Sean) as his only son. Yeah, I think that says a lot about people. We all have feet of clay, and we’re all human, and no one is perfect, but there are certain “sins” that resonate very strongly with me personally, and treating a young child that way resonates very strongly with me. So there you have it. </p>
<p>^ Who cares, besides you? He has been dead for 34 years. </p>
<p>So don’t read my posts, Emilybee. Other people cared enough to start a conversation about where were you when John Lennon was shot. I participated in the conversation. If the topic of John Lennon is of no interest to you, so be it. It’s not of interest to a lot of people one way or the other and that’s perfectly cool. </p>
<p>No. If you choose to post something, I have the right to respond if I so choose. If you don’t like what I am posting - you can choose to ignore me. </p>
<p>This is just a thread about where people were when the heard JL died. Not one poster here was even lionizing him. </p>
<p>Can’t say he was even on my radar screen in those days. Suppose I enjoyed Beatles music as much as the next person but my world wasn’t impacted one way or another when he was shot. Doing the math, I find that his death occurred during the second year of my new career. Can’t remember where/when I learned of his death. </p>
<p>On a related note, is it accurate to say he was murdered or assassinated? I associate assassinations with political figures rather than celebrities but I heard one ‘talking head’ mention the anniversary of his “assassination”. What do you think?</p>