December 8, 1980 wasn't a particularly cold night here in Largo, Florida. I'd gone out to a local bar with friends to relax, playing songs on the jukebox while Monday Night Football played on the TV behind the bar. With Christmas a little over two weeks away, it was just a laid back night, with talk teetering back and forth between the three of us. I got up, plunked a few quarters in the machine, and returned to the table as "Hey Jude" began to play. It was just about 10:50 pm as I glanced up at the clock above the bar.
In New York, the weather had also been fair. John Lennon and Yoko Ono had had a very busy day. John had gone for a hair cut earlier, to prepare for a photo session with Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz that afternoon. Following the session, the duo were interviewed by San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin, for the RKO Radio Network, after which they left their apartment to mix the song "Walking on Thin Ice" at the Record Plant Studio. While leaving, they were approached by fans asking for autographs, one of whom asked for an autograph on his copy of the Lennons' recent "Double Fantasy" album. Photographer Paul Goresh captured the image of John signing the album for the "fan" who would later murder him.
It was just about 10:50 pm. John Lennon was shot while returning home, having exited his limo at the curb on 72nd Street rather than have it drive into the secure courtyard. His killer lurked in the shadows, firing several shots, all but one of which struck him. Within minutes, he was unconscious. A few moments after, he was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.
It's a horror that is sadly not an isolated incident. All across the world, people lose their lives to violent acts every day. Some people have become numb to the news unless it's a tragedy of epic proportion, such as with a school shooting, or an act of bloody carnage in a public place.
Like so many who die senselessly, John Lennon was -- first and foremost -- someone's spouse and father. He had a wife, children, many loved ones and friends. He had a life. How he chose to spend it, whether he was a celebrity or not, is irrelevant. Had he been a janitor in an apartment building, his life would have had just as much value. Conversely, some people disliked Lennon because the celebrity he enjoyed made him such a public figure that every lifestyle choice, good or ill, became the subject of public scrutiny.
Yes, he had experimented with mind altering substances of varying types in his youth. Yes, he had made public statements which had been taken out of context. Yes, he divorced his first wife. By the same token, yes, he went on a macrobiotic diet to clean himself up. Yes, he had been an outspoken advocate of world peace, speaking out against war, famine and poverty. Yes, he had worked through the marital problems with his second wife, reconciled, and started a second family, to whom he was so devoted that he retired from recording for five years.
John Lennon was a human being. He's been called the voice of a generation because The Beatles emerged as the Kennedy assassination cast a long shadow across the face of the world. Their impact acted as a pressure release for the heartbreak that America's youth was suffering from. They were swept up and away by a celebrity they were ill-prepared for, being four young men in their early twenties. They were not college-trained professors of theology, philosophy, or political science. They were four wise-cracking lads who wrote and played rock and roll for a growing audience, who changed the world as the world changed them. As the violence in the world continued, in the form of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and more, John Lennon was deeply affected by it, speaking out against it in songs such as "All You Need Is Love", "Give Peace A Chance", and what has become his anthem, "Imagine".
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon, former Beatle and returning recording artist was murdered by a fan, but so too was the man who publicly can remain the voice of a generation by representing the husbands, fathers, brothers and friends who are murdered each day through random acts of violence. He remains the voice of the world, who look to the day when people will "give peace a chance" where their fellow human beings are concerned.
Speculation runs high wondering what the future would have held for John and Yoko had he not been killed, had December 8th simply given way to December 9th way back in 1980, and John Lennon had lived to see his 73rd birthday this past October.
First of all, I believe that John would have forged a stronger relationship with his son from his first marriage, Julian Lennon, and that he and his sons, Julian and Sean Lennon, would have eventually enjoyed a good deal of musical collaboration together.
He and Yoko had planned a follow-up album to "Double Fantasy" for a 1981 release ("Milk and Honey", which was released in a slightly altered form in 1984), and in his last interview with RKO Radio, John spoke of a possible tour for later in 1981.
I believe he would have been more outspoken than ever; he and Yoko had planned to stand with striking airline workers in California. He was supposed to fly to LA later in December 1980. There was also talk of his appearing on a special Mike Douglas Show from Hawaii that same month.
As for The Beatles, the Anthology had been planned and discussed for years, originally called "The Long and Winding Road". John had expressed interest in seeing them again, possibly attempting to record together, just days before his death. Therefore, it's easy to assume that the Anthology would still have been produced, and it's possible that it would have resulted in the four of them working together if the atmosphere had been amicable. Whether that would have resulted in "Free As A Bird" or "Real Love" is questionable because those songs, plus two others, were saved in a coffee can on cassettes marked "For Paul", presumably John's way of reaching out to Paul were he to die. Yoko gave Paul the songs, which resulted in what we got. His love of life and music was infectious; had he lived, I don't think he would have ever retired again. I doubt he would have hardly sat still long enough.
Certainly, John Lennon would have always pushed the envelope of what was popular music, always taking his work in new directions, always challenging the norm, influenced by others as well as influencing the musical art world. His love of trying new things would have resulted in a John Lennon deeply affected by existence of the Internet, which he would have used to create and promote everything from new music to new works of art and world peace.
Tonight, December 8, 2013, some 33 years after his senseless, tragic death, I pause to remember the man John Lennon was, and through his words and music, continues to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment