Cosell had interviewed Lennon twice that year (1974) – once on his (Cosell’s) radio program, and then in the MNF booth, and he, I think, was surprised at how well he got on with Lennon. Here’s a clip from the MNF interview:
For some reason I wasn’t watching TV that evening, and didn’t even watch the news that night so I didn’t find out about it until the next morning.
I had a clock-radio, and it was programmed to turn the radio on first, then sound the actual alarm about five minutes later (kind of eased me into full consciousness rather than jolting me awake). That morning, I had a “dream” about John Lennon being shot, and then woke up to find out that it had actually happened. It took me a minute to realize that my half-asleep mind must have picked up it being talked about on the radio and turned it into a dream before the alarm woke me up.
I was 11 and didn’t know who he was. But my sister was 15 and had very recently got really into the Beatles and particularly John’s new surge in the charts, so she was affected quite seriously. It was the first time she had had to process a celebrity death that mattered to her, and she was in quite a dishevelled state for a week or more.
I was 27. My wife and I were watching a show (don’t remember what) and they broke in to report the news. We were shocked and devastated. Madame P. felt so sorry for poor Yoko, trapped in her apartment building trying to come to terms with her loss while outside a growing crowd kept singing “All we are saaaaying is give peace a chance” over and over and over.
I must be the only person who wasn’t watching Monday Night Football that night. Instead, I was watching Johnny Carson with my Mom. Suddenly, NBC broke away from Johnny for an “NBC News Special Report,” and the announcer informed us that John Lennon had been shot in New York City, and was going to the hospital.
They went back to Johnny Carson for a bit, then broke in again to tell us that John Lennon was dead.
Hard to believe that was 40 years ago. Some years later, I had the chance to purchase a print of Lennon’s artwork. It’s a limited-edition print of a “family self-portrait” of John, Yoko, and Sean; signed and numbered by Yoko. Made in happier days, of course, and a nice reminder of John as a family man, not just as a Beatle or solo musician.
I was 16. I woke up the next morning, and my mother had the morning paper on the kitchen table, face-down, and said, “Look at the headline.” Because the big story before this had been Lech Walesa and the Solidarity riots in Poland, my first thought was that Poland got nuked, but instead, it said something like “Ex-Beatle John Lennon, 40, murdered in NYC.”
You’re not the only one who first thought of Poland when the radio station I was listening to broke in with a news bulletin. However, I didn’t expect nuclear weapons. I thought the Soviets had sent in the army to take care of the unruly Poles like they previously did with the Hungarians, Czechs, and Afghans.
Do keep in mind that I was 16, and had just awakened.
And just a few months later, the Pope and Reagan were shot within days of each other.
I went to the vigil in Central Park, along with thousands of others. I seem to remember that it was a few days following the murder.
The 1970s had been filled with rumors of imminent Beatles reunions that, as we know, never happened. My first thought when I heard of Lennon’s death was “so much for the talk of a Beatles reunion.”
In general, Lennon’s death didn’t affect me at all. I didn’t know him personally, nor did I feel any sort of special connection to him or his post-Beatles music; I thought most of his solo stuff was crap. And it had been a long time since the Beatles; they’d been split up for over a decade. Music had moved on, and so had I.
Besides, when I was nine, President Kennedy was assassinated. When I was fourteen, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated, just two months apart. Those were earthshaking events. The killing of one has-been musician barely registered compared to those.
By brother and his friends were there with you. I was too young to go.
“Has-been.” OK. 
My apologies for failing to be appropriately worshipful of Lennon.
Maybe this will help.
Oh no. We think you’re edgy.
Guess there’s a first time for everything.
“Appropriate” level is just to not be so dismissive of one of the greatest song writers of our time. It’s okay to not like some big deal pop star, but objectively your opinion flies in the face of all evidence. I think Kurt Cobain was a nob, but I’m not going to ignore he was special for so many people.
Sums up my thoughts at the time as well. I didn’t get why people were so upset by it.
RTFirefly and Northern_Piper-
No one forced you to worship John Lennon, nor did anyone compel you to participate. Instead of displaying your apathy and coldheartedness in a thread that was obviously meant as a tribute, maybe, you could have just skipped it.
One of my favorite Lennon tunes.
Sadly, it turned out to be prophetic.
I was 11 years old when my mom told me that morning as I was getting ready for school. I was a huge Beatles fan already.
I still remember the first time walking into John Lennon’s bedroom in 2015. It was weird to look around that room and yet kinda see him as a normal teenager as I had been in the 80s. There’s copies of Lewis Carroll in the sitting room and I could see John sitting there reading them and ignoring his schoolwork.
I watched online most of the Lennon tribute stuff from the Cavern Club the last two days, amazing.
I’ve often wondered how JD Salinger reacted to finding out how much his book and the character of Holden possessed Mark David Chapman to do what he did that night.