I think he’s grumbling about all this Greatest Generation stuff and how the WWII vets seem to be the only people that contributed anything to America in the last 50 years.
And personally I think the Boomers will make the Greatest Generation stuff look small when they really get into gear celebrating their contributions to America.
Because let’s face it, this thread is proof the Boomers are already pushing their own version of “We’re the Greatest!”
I only objected because LW has generally been considered musically negligible, more on the “popular” than the “good” side, in his day. Glenn Miller or Frank Sinatra might be better examples, even though Sinatra resembles Lennon in seeming never to have really gone away.
That’s the big reason for the media coverage.
I wouldn’t compare Lennon’s death to D-day, but for the first 50 yrs after the D-day the local paper would published an article to mark the day, but since then they only do an article every 5 years. It’s the way of the world. Next year you won’t see anywhere near this much Lennon coverage.
The current coverage doesn’t seem overdone to me. There was an article in the paper yesterday. I heard a 90 second story on NPR this morning. I’ve seen several threads here, but really haven’t felt inundated.
As some other posters have mentioned, Lennon’s manner of death fuels the interest. There’s really not that many show-biz “assasinations”. There have been accidents, and overdoses, and Sam Cooke getting shot by a jealous husband, but very few “assasinations.” Dime Bag Daryll (who I knew nothing about) was killed by a fan not long ago, but that’s the only similar event I can recall.
And, I’d like to mention that my 11 year old daughter went to school today in her Strawberry Fields Forever shirt. Pretty much on her own, she has become interested and knowledgeable about the Beatles. Knows about the Quarrymen, and Pete Best and the Silver Beatles. We play their music in the car sometimes, but she grew up hearing more Michelle Shocked than John Lennon.
She’s also fascinated with the Marx Brothers.
~Baal~
Other tragedies in history on December 8th, according to FARK:
2004 Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell’s murdered.
1997 Steve Austin loses his intercontinental title to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
1997 Spice Girls win the Billboard Music Awards album of the year, completing the downfall of pop culture
1995 National Motorists Association’s victory over the 55 mile per hour speed limit. Actually, that’s kind of cool.
1983 Slim Pickens rides a thermonuclear warhead to his grave.
1961 The birth of Ann Coulter.
1960 Fabian visited Elvis Presley at Graceland and lent him his pants when Elvis ripped his own demonstrating karate.
1864 The death of George Boole, inventor of Boolean Algebra.
1854 The Immaculate Conception’s dogmatic recognition.
And from Wikipedia:
1998 Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.
1991 Leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine met to dissolve the Soviet Union and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. Actually, that’s kind of cool.
1987 The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.
1969 An Olympic Airways DC-6B crashes near Athens during a storm, killing 93 people.
1966 The Greek ferry Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
1941 The Chełmno concentration camp in Poland, the first Nazi extermination camp to use poison gas, began operations.
1941 Takashi Sakai and the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Hong Kong and quickly achieved air superiority by bombing Kai Tak Airport.
1941 After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan.
1941 China officially declares war against Japan, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve gotta say that December 8, 1941 sucked the most.
I don’t know how that was taken from my post, but no, the war veterans are deserving of honor. As they die, important pieces of our world history go with them.
I was more lampooning the media’s addiction to boomer-related stories by mockingly suggesting how they’d continue running important boomer stories until the last one dies, as if boomers (by virtue of having been born) are as important as war veterans (who made tremendous and brave sacrifices for the world).
Do you see any difference between Lennon who was gunned down and politically active in the anti-war movement and Welk who died of old age and Cobain who had a much smaller musical impact then Lennon and commited suicide?
Please reread DMark post while you are at it.
Jim
I was twelve when he died and I always feel a little chagrined that my thought was “Well, he was 40. His career was over anyway.” :eek: