30th Anniversary of John Lennon's Murder

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=artslot

I can still remember. I was in 6th grade in 1980 when I heard the news for the first time

I loved the man's moxie in interviews. He always took people to task

[soxxy]

I was somewhat older and living on the UWS of Manhattan, not far from the Dakota. I remember hearing sirens, ambulances, police vehicles, etc., and wondered what the heck was going on.

[Jayar]

Wrong thread.

[missflick]

I was almost 13 at the the time. Here was the conversation between me and my father, as I watched the evening news:

Me: "Dad, who was John Lennon?"
Dad: He was a member of The Beatles.

(Pause)

Me: "Dad, who were The Beatles?"

(And yet, I knew who Paul McCartney and Wings were).

[skatingfan5]

Ada lives 30 minutes from me. Must go stalk her to see how much she has lost...

I'm assuming this post was meant for some other thread.

I remember hearing the news late at night and being in total shock and disbelief that one of the Beatles was dead. I also remember hearing several songs from the just released Double Fantasy album playing endlessly on the radio.

Last night on Nightline, they played clips from his last interview -- just three days before his murder. Very, very sad.

ETA: missflick, you would have known who John Lennon was if he hadn't essentially removed himself from the music scene for five years to be a "house husband" and stay-at-home dad to his son Sean. He was just re-entering the music world when he was killed.

[CynicElle]

I was a childhood Beatlemaniac because my older sisters left most of their Beatles records behind with my dad when they moved out, so John's death broke my heart even though I was only 11 at the time. I thought I must have misheard the radio announcer -- who on earth would gun down John Lennon?

[Patsy]

Thank you for this memorial notice.

[Gypsy]

My sister and I had been working late and were driving home. They played Imagine on the radio and then annouced it was by the "Late" John Lennon. We were in such shock.

We sat up the rest of the night listening to Beatles music.

[Maximillian]

I remember waking up and hearing the news on my clock radio. I was six years old.

[kedrin]

makes me sadder every year.

[Finnice]

I was sixteen and shocked, when I saw it from the news. Even though I was not really from the Beatles generation, he was something to appreciate.

Today, my younger son, 16, wearing his Beatles hooded jacket reminded me which day it is. The music of Lennon lives forward with the younger generations.

I have already sung Imagine and Happy Xmas (War is over) to remeber his great work. Younger little Finnice played the bass.

(And will next seek JWe`s 2004 exh of Imagine from YouTube).

John Lennon peace and love

[Rob]

I was in Paris on vacation. It was sort of surreal because I had just seen him in the store where I worked a week before, and I had been listening to Double Fantasy a lot because I got it the day it came out. It was first reported that he had been shot in a random NY shooting, then it came through the next day that he was the target.

[Civic]

I was a senior in college, studying for finals when I heard the news. IIRC, Lennon's murder was one of the first in which a celebrity was killed by someone with whom he had no connection in real life.

[JasperBoy]

A sad day to remember.

[Marilou]

I was sixteen and shocked, when I saw it from the news. Even though I was not really from the Beatles generation, he was something to appreciate.

Today, my younger son, 16, wearing his Beatles hooded jacket reminded me which day it is. The music of Lennon lives forward with the younger generations.

I have already sung Imagine and Happy Xmas (War is over) to remeber his great work. Younger little Finnice played the bass.

(And will next seek JWe`s 2004 exh of Imagine from YouTube).

John Lennon peace and love

I was 19. I was a huge Beatle fan for as long as I can remember - and longer according to my mother. And when my own children know almost every word, guitar lick and drum beat to every Beatle song ever written/recorded - I think of the legacy. It is in indeed a sad day.

[tlk]

Gone too soon.

[judiz]

I was attending college on Long Island and a massive Beatles fan. My roommate and I were planning on going to the Dakota that night to see if we could get John's autograph when he returned from the studio. At the last minute we wound up rescheduling the trip for the following night. Had we gone as planned, we would had been there when he was killed. I always wondered if it would had made a difference?

[Southpaw]

I was in sixth grade, just a few days shy of my 11th birthday, and I was getting ready for school and saw the coverage on the morning news. Then I turned on the radio in the digital alarm clock and changed the station from WABC to WNEW because WNEW back in 1980 was the hard rock station that played Led Zeppelin and I knew this was a big deal because I had been listening to the Beatles on 8-track since third grade. I figured WNEW would have more interesting coverage of the event. So I listened to Scott Muni on WNEW that morning, and never went back to the pop tunes of WABC. It was one of those life-changing days for me. Then I started listening to Led Zeppelin and Bowie and The Who and The Doors and that was that.

A few months later in June 1981, when we had the sixth grade class play, we sat on stage like a bunch of little Reagan era hippies and sang Imagine.

RIP John Lennon, Scott Muni and WNEW.

[Kruss]

I remember waking up and hearing the news on my clock radio. I was six years old.

Same here, except I was 16.

[manleywoman]

I was listening to an interview with James Taylor today on NPR. He lived in the Dakota as well. He said me met Mark Chapman a day or two before the murder and Chapman shoved him up against a wall. Very odd.