Yeah, I know we’ve been through this.
I still recall the moment on December 9th when I heard the news today, oh boy.
Peace.
A sad day.
I have a memory of my dad coming home from work and telling the family, and that he called Lennon’s killer a “bastard,” the first time I ever heard him curse.
But I was also only 4 years old, so it’s very possible that memory isn’t real.
I was studying for a final exam in my dorm room (I think it was Calculus I) with the MNF game on my 11" B/W TV on in the background when Howard Cosell announced the news
About a half hour later, most of the dorm had an impromptu vigil, toasting Lennon and sharing what booze with had stashed in our rooms. (Legal drinking age was 18 BTW)Imagine if John were alive today. A letter published in Rolling Stone the month after his death said so much in three words. All it said was “Damn. Goodbye John.”
I was in my bedroom, studying for my first set of university finals. What really struck me hard was that he had recently released his comeback albulm. I still tear up when hearing (Just like ) starting over.
I don’t recall the notice. I remember the next day, with a convoy of my codemonkey cow-orkers driving south into San Francisco to join a mass vigil in Golden Gate Park. We are not to speak the name of the asshole who shot John for the notoriety. Our fittest punishment: ignore the turd.
I was watching Monday Night Football with my Dad when Howard Cosell announced John Lennon’s death. I was shocked and just went to my room to listen to Beatles for the rest of the night. In fact my English Lit teacher didn’t use his curriculum for the day but instead had us read Strawberry Fields Forever and then just played Beatles & Lennon music for the class.
The MNF broadcast is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcdz1IRVoM
My brother is older, he went tovigil up in Central Park.
I didn’t hear about it until the next day. I woke up as usual with my clock radio playing rock and roll. Gradually I realized that every song was either a Lennon or Beatles tune, and I thought “uh-oh”.
Then my phone rang and I knew who it was without having to pick it up: my old buddy from college who I used to listen to the Beatles with nonstop in his dorm room. We commiserated for a while and then, not knowing what else to do, I got up and went to work. I spent the whole day in a haze. It was the most distressing death of a musician that I’ve ever experienced.
Weird to think that Lennon’s been dead almost as long as he was alive.
I was working at a college radio station (Brandeis). We had a news ticker, and when a new story came in, it would ring a number of bells depending on the importance of the story. This time, it rang ten bells. Everyone went in to look. Sad time.
But, within an hour there were already John Lennon death jokes.
I was in college at the time. I did not hear the news until the next morning! As a big Beatles fan, I was quite traumatized. Very upsetting day!
I was on the bus home from work. I heard people talking about it and just sank into a hole of horrified sadness. I remember exactly.
Exactly the same for me.
I was working the graveyard shift in a West Texas convenience store. A guy who carried newspapers out to the smaller towns around us always stopped at my store for coffee on his way out and would give me a copy. I remember a small front-page story about the stock market’s doings. When the store got its own newspaper delivery a couple-three hours later, that story had been replaced with the Lennon shooting. My roommate was a HUGE Beatles fan, and I’m the one who broke the news to him when I got home from work. He called in sick to his job and spent the day dropping acid and listening to Beatles songs.
I lived in a college dorm (a huge one) at the time. I had just about drifted off to sleep when I heard a guy we all called Jersey going down the hall spouting off about how Lennon had just died and it was a good thing because he hated the Beatles. Within ten minutes, nearly every room with a stereo on all eight floors was blasting Beatles and Lennon solo songs. This continued all night. I guess it sucked to be Jersey that night!
No other celebrity death traumatized me like Lennon’s did.
I was in college, studying for finals, listening to the radio, with a bunch of dorm buddies. Suddenly, all studying was over for the night. There was much gnashing of teeth and drinking of beer and sobbing.
This was our generation’s JFK.
My generation had JFK, RFK, MLK, and Lennon.
Sad for him, his family, friends, and the world. The what-ifs, but we lost a voice in these troubling times.