I was 17 and I remember my classmate Extremely Cool Sue standing up at the end of morning assembly* and saying how horrible it was that John Lennon had been shot the previous evening. First I’d heard of it.
But she was CRYING.
Extremely Cool Sue NEVER cried. Never ever.
I knew a bunch of Beatles songs just from their omnipresence in my childhood and teen years, and had various musical faves of my own, but that was the first time it really hit me how much a famous performer that some random person had never even met might mean to them.
*Morning Meeting, actually, Quaker school, but never mind that now.
Guessing: Probably less than McCartney and the Beatles were bothered by Charles Manson’s use of Helter Skelter to justify his murders.
Salinger didn’t offer much commentary on contemporary events, or anything else. He liked movies from the 1940s and 1950s, focused on very young people in his stories and in his love life, and retained personal traits and styles from his military days.
Artists can’t be responsible for crazy people latching onto their creations in crazy ways, and I think Salinger was more dismissive of his fans than most authors, so I doubt he was much troubled about Lennon’s assassination. (Vonnegut, on the other hand was a Beatles partisan.)
Paul McCartney just performed a three hour set at Glastonbury (at the age of 80!) and sang “I’ve Got a Feeling” with an isolated John Lennon performance.
“I know it’s virtual, but there I am singing with John again, we’re back together.”
EDIT: this video isn’t from the Glastonbury performance but from a secret warm up gig last night I think.
