He was taken from us 27 years ago 8 December 1980. I've started my yearly vigil with Guinness brew and broke out my original albums. I hope you'll raise a glass to him and remember what he's meant to a lot people around the world. For me he's just as important as someone like Martin Luther King. I don't think it could be argued his effect on people was less impactive. No disrespect to MLK, he was and is still incredibly important. Unfortunately John's not taken seriously as society overlooks druggy, hippy rockers. Well, that's how I see it anyway. I love and appreciate what you did for me John!

8th December 1980 is really a sad day in music history. John Lennon was such a great and talented person. I'm so sure, if he would have been not murdered by Mark Chapman, The Beatles would have been reunited in the mid 90s for a World Tour!

People say i'm crazy doing what i'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When i say that i'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game

People say i'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When i tell them that i'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go

Ah, people asking questions lost in confusion
Well i tell them there's no problem, only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if i've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry
I'm just sitting here doing time

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go

Ladykiller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 8th December 1980 is really a sad day in music
> history. John Lennon was such a great and talented
> person. I'm so sure, if he would have been not
> murdered by Mark Chapman, The Beatles would have
> been reunited in the mid 90s for a World Tour!


I'm personally pretty convinced they never would have done so, for several reasons.

Personal differences aside, I think they knew they couldnt top what they had already done and wouldnt have tried - plus the fact that Lennon never really seemed interested in touring after he left the band, and Harrison basically quit touring in the mid 70's due to stagefright.

Harrison was on record as saying that while he could imagine working with Lennon and Starr, there was no prospect of him ever working in a band with McCartney again. I know things thawed between them somewhat near the end of his life, but I cant simply imagine John, Paul and George co-existing on the road for a prolonged period.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-08 02:15 by Gazza.

It's all speculation in any regard. We will never know. No sense in speculating. imho.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Many people tend to remember exactly where they were
and what they were doing, when they hear the news of
someone of such huge importance meeting an untimely
fate.

It was like that on November 22, 1963, and for me,
I felt that shock and disbelief on the morning of December 9, 1980, after getting news of what happened the night before.

Yeah EG,I remember watching Monday nigt football.(might of been the dolphins & jets)when Howard Cosell came on announced Lennon's death. Very surreal.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

I remember that night too.

Gazza, you may be right. Doing a little research prompted by your thoughts--Sems that the Cirque de Soleil project "Love" was conceived by Harrison and brought to life by McCartney, Starr, and the two widows, anyway, nice collaboration there. Tension lessening toward the end, as you say.

SweetCharmedLife, that has to be one of my favorite songs, not just of JLennon's but of all songs.

Thanks angee I agree.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Uh-huh.

...not to mention Imagine.

Gazza Wrote: Harrison was on record as saying that while he could imagine working with Lennon and Starr, there was no prospect of him ever working in a band with McCartney again.

I can't find the reference, but I remember reading that George had a shrubbery on his property that he named Paul McCartney. He used to walk his dog there every day for a whizz...

Can't believe it has been 27 years since John died, and can't imagine what he'd have done given the chance. Strange to think that Julian is older now than John ever was. One of far too many losses.

Well they did eventually work together again...on the Anthology... Afterwards there were a few interviews where Harrison was a bit disparaging towards the whole project, but he seemed to often feel bitter on and off, depending on his mood and he was a self confessed manic-depressive going through bouts of depression (seemed more pronounced after his bad bout of hepatitis in the late seventies)...and according to interviews him and McCartney were back on good terms prior to Harrison's death. However, Harrison was not speaking with John and both were upset with each other up until Lennon was murdered.
On the speculation The Beatles would have toured.... there were some interesting stories in Rolling Stone and other sources after Lennon's death about how he testified in a closed court proceeding against Beatlemania, saying they were infringing on The Beatles trademark and that the Beatles had plans to reunite for a film and recoding project, which would have been Anthology (when it was still called The Long and Winding Road)...he mentioned they were going to record. Also, in interviews with the producer of Double Fantasy there was many conversations in the studio while recording the album where Lennon remarked he missed writing with McCartney and would like to get together with him after Double Fantasy came out....and McCartney actually called the studio, but Yoko answered and said John was not available. Sad!
I don't think they would have toured, but they definitely would have put out more new music.
Lennon RIP! A sad day indeed, and such a waste to be killed so violently when he was on the cusp of returning to his passion.
He is missed!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-08 13:35 by whitem8.

As much as everyone wanted a Beatles reunion...I have to agree that the magic could never have been recreated. Here's a toast to John...and all that he brought to the world...musically and otherwise.

Why do we remember the date of John's murder, rather than his birthday*.
Same with John F. Kennedy. We remember that he was killed on Nov. 22, 1963.
But who knows his birthday?

It still makes me depressed to have to say that John Lennon was killed...
I heard it from Howard Cosell while I watched Monday Night Football
27 years ago... Our pathetic "WHY?" still echoes 27 years later.

And yesterday another lunatic punk with a gun becomes famous after
killing 8 people in Omaha. F***ed up world, ain't it? Who's next?

(John Lennon was born October 9, 1940)

whitem8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and he was a self confessed bi-polar going through
> bouts of depression (seemed more pronounced after
> his bad bout of hepatitis in the late
> seventies >

Please produce the quote where Harrison confesses he's bi-polar.
Anyway, in the Anthology, it's pretty clear that George and Paul
seem like old friends that don't have much in common anymore.
Look at the footage with them together. You can sense it a mile away.
It happens to us all, really.

War Is Over If You Want It

thanks for that, John

Yes, indeed, the bonus material as well when they are jamming and George seems very ambivalent. I don't have an exact quote, but several sources have described him as bi-polar, which was another reason behind his seclusion and stage fright.

whitem8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well they did eventually work together again...on
> the Anthology... Afterwards there were a few
> interviews where Harrison was a bit disparaging
> towards the whole project, but he seemed to often
> feel bitter on and off, depending on his mood and
> he was a self confessed bi-polar going through
> bouts of depression (seemed more pronounced after
> his bad bout of hepatitis in the late
> seventies)...and according to interviews him and
> McCartney were back on good terms prior to
> Harrison's death. However, Harrison was not
> speaking with John and both were upset with each
> other up until Lennon was murdered.
> On the speculation The Beatles would have
> toured.... there were some interesting stories in
> Rolling Stone and other sources after Lennon's
> death about how he testified in a closed court
> proceeding against Beatlemania, saying they were
> infringing on The Beatles trademark and that the
> Beatles had plans to reunite for a film and
> recoding project, which would have been Anthology
> (when it was still called The Long and Winding
> Road)...he mentioned they were going to record.
> Also, in interviews with the producer of Double
> Fantasy there was many conversations in the studio
> while recording the album where Lennon remarked he
> missed writing with McCartney and would like to
> get together with him after Double Fantasy came
> out....and McCartney actually called the studio,
> but Yoko answered and said John was not available.
> Sad!
> I don't think they would have toured, but they
> definitely would have put out more new music.
> Lennon RIP! A sad day indeed, and such a waste to
> be killed so violently when he was on the cusp of
> returning to his passion.
> He is missed!

yes he certainly is missed; what a sensitive and great post, ty.
such a remarkable talent and human being.
i try to remember him laughing his ass off with george during 'I'm Down' at shea, playing the organ with his elbow and just cracking each other up over and over again to the point where he and George can't even sing the harmony lines for all the laughter...i try to remember him like that.
such joy and power. your post says it all for me.

I have never heard that about George.

Mike Oldfield dedicated to John Lennon his song "Moonlight Shadow"

Beelyboy! Man you hit the nail on the head man. I went back and watched Anthology just to see that scene from Shea with the boys all having such a blast. What a wonderful moment. I also love listening to the out take of And Your Bird Can Sing when Lennon and McCartney are just unable to keep it together and are just laughing their asses off...

Dream No. 9

The Killing of John Lennon opened in the UK yesterday to controversy and mixed reviews.

And sorry, I miss typed, I didn't mean bi-polar I meant to type manic depressive... I was reading a psyche file of someone with bi-polar!

there's probably a psychiatric term for typing "bi-polar" when you mean "manic depressive"
but meanwhile last time i checked (and these definitions change a lot) "bi-polar disorder"
was the currently-preferred synonym for "manic depression". people use these terms casually all the time,
without necessarily knowing what they're talking about, so ... maybe George did have a mood disorder,
but someone saying it somewhere isn't a very convincing diagnosis.

love & light to John and to George, and thanks & praises

sweetcharmedlife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah EG,I remember watching Monday nigt
> football.(might of been the dolphins & jets)when
> Howard Cosell came on announced Lennon's death.
> Very surreal.

It was actually the Dolphins and Patriots,but I too recall this night. I thought when Cosell announced Lennon's name...John was waiting in the wings as he was that night in 1974 when he appeared in the booth with Howard to promote Walls and Bridges. It was a terrible, terrible night.

SomeTorontoGirl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Can't believe it has been 27 years since John
> died, and can't imagine what he'd have done given
> the chance. Strange to think that Julian is older
> now than John ever was.



Also strange to think that when John was the age Sean is today, the Beatles were already over and he had already released his best solo work.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-08 15:30 by tatters.

Perhaps, as much as anything else, it was due to the manner in which he died, but to this very day, the death of John Lennon affected me as much as the passing away of close relatives.

For so many of us, the music (and a whole load of dreams with it) truly had died that terrible day.

Barn Owl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps, as much as anything else, it was due to
> the manner in which he died, but to this very day,
> the death of John Lennon affected me as much as
> the passing away of close relatives.
>
> For so many of us, the music (and a whole load of
> dreams with it) truly had died that terrible day.



Yes, that's exactly how it felt. Maybe it was too much time spent alone in my room listening to his records that caused me to feel like he was a member of the family; like an uncle or a much older brother, and that's what caused me to cry when he died. I almost never do that, but I cried when my father died, I cried when various pets died, and I cried when John Lennon died.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-08 16:53 by tatters.

John Lennon, JFK, and MLK were all great men who offered much to the world and were all killed at too early an age for what they did.

I guess we were not around for their birth, but we were there brutal deaths and the world was robbed from who knows what else they might have been to contribute.

I think the important thing to do is to keep their memory alive in our hearts and try to carry on in whatever way we can their important work.

Marv Peck

Y'all remember that rubber legged boy

I remember going to the pub that evening. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. The only song playing on the juke box was his latest single. Again and again. There´s a nice piece in Uncut this month. RIP John.