John Lennon was murdered 25 years ago today by a celebrity killer at about 11:45 pm EST in his adopted home city, New York, in front of his apartment at the Dakota, which he shared with his wife Yoko Ono and their five year old, Sean.
Millions of people were greatly affected by John. At the memorial service in John's beloved Central Park a few days after the murder, it was estimated that 100,000 people attended. There was also a 24-hour vigil in front of the Dakota from the night he died until after the Memorial.
Of course, John Lennon also meant nothing to millions of people. Not unusual, IMO. All he was was a singer-songwriter. Yet for others, somehow John was so much more.
I started this thread for people who want to make comments about John Lennon, positive or negative.
For me, there was a heartbreaking quality in John's voice, yet at the same time great joy and an affirmation of life. It's been said that he was the embodiment of irony, that the positive and negative imbued all his thoughts due to the circumstances of his childhood.
As most people know, John's father left the family when he was about four or five, IIRC. In those days, the early 1940s, a single working class mother simply could not take of a child, so John was raised by who John calls "my Aunty." It was John's aunt who introduced him to music, first with the piano.
John's mother returned when he was about 16. They had just begun to re-establish a deep relationship when his mother was killed by a drunk driver, a policeman, when John was 20. Thus in one way or another, John was abandoned by both his parents. IMO, it added depth to a lot of John's music that many rockers of that era simply didn't have. It has been said that the success of the Lennon-McCartney songs was the counterpoint between Paul's positivism bordering on sentimentality combined with Lennon's irony, bordering on sarcasm.
My favorite album is: "John Lennon: Rock 'n Roll." It's a simple a series of early rock music John made in 1975, one of several Beatle group and Beatle solo albums produced, ironically enough, by the now-accused-of-murder, Phil Spector. The songs had influenced John as a young kid and young man, and I thought he sang them with the heart they had been sung with by the teens who had originated them and the soul of a 35-year-old man who was on his lost weekend that lasted 14 months. Yoko had kicked John out and said don't come back until you're ready to commit. Yoko even gave John her assistant, May Pang, as his companion since Yoko knew nothing ever got done unless a woman was there to take care of John.
After his 14-month fraternity party with the likes of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Keith Richards, and the party hearty guys of British R'nR, John said, "I was out of control. I was having parties like I was still in college. It was great for a while, but guess what folks, I was 35. My body couldn't take it," meaning the booze, the drugs, and the women. So John returned to Yoko, totally committed. They had Sean and John became the house-husband for just short of five years.
In fact, John didn't even pick up his guitar for almost five years. Instead he baked bread, took Sean to the park, the zoo, the circus, and just gave all of himself to his son. Then, in October-November of 1980, John felt the muse again. He picked up his guitar and wrote all the songs for the album "Double Fantasy" in three weeks.
The celebrity killer, whose name I refuse to say because it's just what he wants, flew from his home in Hawaii twice to kill Lennon. The first time he saw John with Sean and couldn't do it. The second time, John was returning from a recording session of "Double Fantasy." As Lennon was about to leave for the the killer said, and has proof, that John had signed the killer's copy of a Beatle album and had been very solicitous, saying, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" But the killer was in a world of his own, another killer influenced by the great and wonderful book The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. To him, John was the ultimate phony (if you've read the book, that will make sense) and needed to be killed.
John would have been 65 on October 9, 2005. John's son Sean's birthday is also Oct. 9. At the time of his death, John had also re-established relations with his first born son, Julien, to the point where, according to Julien, he could call John from Great Britain, say, "Dad, can I come for a visit?" and John's response would be "Sure!" But it had only started getting comfortable in the last year or two.
So, "John Lennon: Rock 'n Roll" ia my favorite album, with my favorite song from
Millions of people were greatly affected by John. At the memorial service in John's beloved Central Park a few days after the murder, it was estimated that 100,000 people attended. There was also a 24-hour vigil in front of the Dakota from the night he died until after the Memorial.
Of course, John Lennon also meant nothing to millions of people. Not unusual, IMO. All he was was a singer-songwriter. Yet for others, somehow John was so much more.
I started this thread for people who want to make comments about John Lennon, positive or negative.
For me, there was a heartbreaking quality in John's voice, yet at the same time great joy and an affirmation of life. It's been said that he was the embodiment of irony, that the positive and negative imbued all his thoughts due to the circumstances of his childhood.
As most people know, John's father left the family when he was about four or five, IIRC. In those days, the early 1940s, a single working class mother simply could not take of a child, so John was raised by who John calls "my Aunty." It was John's aunt who introduced him to music, first with the piano.
John's mother returned when he was about 16. They had just begun to re-establish a deep relationship when his mother was killed by a drunk driver, a policeman, when John was 20. Thus in one way or another, John was abandoned by both his parents. IMO, it added depth to a lot of John's music that many rockers of that era simply didn't have. It has been said that the success of the Lennon-McCartney songs was the counterpoint between Paul's positivism bordering on sentimentality combined with Lennon's irony, bordering on sarcasm.
My favorite album is: "John Lennon: Rock 'n Roll." It's a simple a series of early rock music John made in 1975, one of several Beatle group and Beatle solo albums produced, ironically enough, by the now-accused-of-murder, Phil Spector. The songs had influenced John as a young kid and young man, and I thought he sang them with the heart they had been sung with by the teens who had originated them and the soul of a 35-year-old man who was on his lost weekend that lasted 14 months. Yoko had kicked John out and said don't come back until you're ready to commit. Yoko even gave John her assistant, May Pang, as his companion since Yoko knew nothing ever got done unless a woman was there to take care of John.
After his 14-month fraternity party with the likes of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Keith Richards, and the party hearty guys of British R'nR, John said, "I was out of control. I was having parties like I was still in college. It was great for a while, but guess what folks, I was 35. My body couldn't take it," meaning the booze, the drugs, and the women. So John returned to Yoko, totally committed. They had Sean and John became the house-husband for just short of five years.
In fact, John didn't even pick up his guitar for almost five years. Instead he baked bread, took Sean to the park, the zoo, the circus, and just gave all of himself to his son. Then, in October-November of 1980, John felt the muse again. He picked up his guitar and wrote all the songs for the album "Double Fantasy" in three weeks.
The celebrity killer, whose name I refuse to say because it's just what he wants, flew from his home in Hawaii twice to kill Lennon. The first time he saw John with Sean and couldn't do it. The second time, John was returning from a recording session of "Double Fantasy." As Lennon was about to leave for the the killer said, and has proof, that John had signed the killer's copy of a Beatle album and had been very solicitous, saying, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" But the killer was in a world of his own, another killer influenced by the great and wonderful book The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. To him, John was the ultimate phony (if you've read the book, that will make sense) and needed to be killed.
John would have been 65 on October 9, 2005. John's son Sean's birthday is also Oct. 9. At the time of his death, John had also re-established relations with his first born son, Julien, to the point where, according to Julien, he could call John from Great Britain, say, "Dad, can I come for a visit?" and John's response would be "Sure!" But it had only started getting comfortable in the last year or two.
So, "John Lennon: Rock 'n Roll" ia my favorite album, with my favorite song from
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