Remembering John Lennon

Music is powerful and has the ability to leave a mark in the strangest of ways.  And when it’s lost, it changes things.

I don’t remember it when it happened.  I would have been nine.  Just a kid.  No idea just how dark the world could be.

It was this day in 1980, former “Beatle”,  John Lennon was killed outside his New York City Apartment building, shot to death by  Mark David Chapman.   A guy who asked John Lennon for an autograph in the afternoon, and that later that night, as John Lennon was coming home from the recording studio, would shoot him and take his life.  How does that happen?

It makes me so sad just thinking about it.    News spread quickly of what happened, with a lot of people hearing it for the first time when Howard Cosell broke the news during a game of Monday Night Football.  No funeral.  Instead, Yoko Ono asked fans to participate in a “10-minute silent vigil” from wherever they are on December 14.

Can you imagine what that would have been like?

Every few years, Chapman gets a parole hearing, and every time, he is denied. At one hearing he explained the motivation for his crime: “I was obsessed on one thing and that was shooting him so that I could be somebody.”

Such an incredibly sad event in time.  This is a really interesting article written the day after he died that shows just how much people were impacted at the time.  It was a shock to everyone.

The power of music.  Connecting to another person through music and lyrics.  Powerful indeed.

I credit my mom with my love of the Beatles and John Lennon.   My mom loved the music of the Beatles.  She loved all music, but I remember many living room dance parties with the Beatles playing so loud.  Twist and Shout will forever be a favourite.

I imagine she would have cried hearing the news that day.  So thankful she gave me a love of all music.

I guess I started listening to the music of John Lennon on my own.  Digging into the lyrics and the meaning.  Watching documentaries and learning more about his life in and out of the spotlight.

I could sit and listen to his music all day.   My son loves the music as well and so does my 14 year old.

Imagine is just one of those songs that stands the test of time.   But so many others give a glimpse into how he felt and things he went through.

Amazing the power of a song and artist that it gets passed down through the generations.

Today, we remember the legend that was John Lennon.  And thank him for the music and all that he gave to the world.  And wonder, just how different the world would be if that night never happened.

Categorised in: Afternoons

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan