Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

'Ono has a replica of the gun that killed John at the Dakota. Yikes!'

Yikes, indeed...it's obviously a 'totemistic sort of thing', as Spinal Tap's manager said about his cricket bat. I don't find it any stranger than wearing a replica of an ancient Roman execution implement, however...

I give up. What ancient Roman execution implement are you talking about? Lions?

Well, that would explain a lot about Detroit, but no....

I'm just glad that modern Western Religion didn't begin in Transylvania, home of Vlad The Impaler...

Jerry, he's talking about +.

It's a sensitive subject for some...let's get back to $ & %!

And me, a product of the Catholic School system!

This last turn just made me start laughing!

I remember a comic (I don't remember who) talking about how Johnny Carson didn't let him do some jokes about crosses on the tonight show.

He basically joked, "why would god like to see people wearing crosses? Isn't that like walking up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant?"

OK, I like some of Ono's music, many don't. Whatever.

I'm not real familiar with most of the stuff that Ono has done in her "musical" career (in quotes because it appears to be performance art in intent as opposed to popular music - assuming intent can be determined). I have to admit though, I always found her vocals on "Luck Of The Irish" to be kind of charming - sort of child-like. It seemed to me to really fit the song.

Ultimately, Ono has committed the same sin that Paul did, she outlived a hero.

How would we view John if the roles were reversed and Paul had died in 1980 and John had resumed his recording career? Would we all turn down the sound on the telly and make rude comments?

An interesting hypothetical, Harley...but I think Lennon was killed (by a psychotic individual, for sure) because of who he was and what he stood for publicly, and whatever these qualities morphed into in the mind of his assailant.

If Paul gets shot, it'll be because someone wants to jack his Lexus...

That comic on Carson was the late, great Bill Hicks. A comic genius who died way too soon. Hilarious stuff.

I'm not sure we'll ever be certain of why a person would ask John Lennon for an autograph one afternoon and then kill him that night. If he had been done in by the CIA, the FBI or MI6 (assuming they REALLY exist), or any number of other acronym-wearing groups, then I'd agree, but it just doesn't seem to make sense to me that THIS person killed John Lennon for those reasons. Others would have, in fact, others may have tried before. But the guy who did it didn't seem to have a particular reason for doing it.

In the end, that's the greater tragedy. If you're going to kill someone (and I'm certainly not recommending it) you should at least have a reason. This wasn't a political killing or a killing for power or money or revenge. It would be easier to understand if it were.

Unless the whole "Manchurian Candidate" conspiracy theory turns out to be accurate, we may never have an indication of the "why".

I disagree with you, though about Paul. If he gets killed now, it'll probably be by someone looking for notoriety (think: John Hinkley) or someone who is so pro-John and/or pro-Yoko that they feel like they would be serving their heroes by doing it.

Strange stuff indeed - this hatred. It should be used VERY sparingly.

You is so right about that, brother...

My wife used to work at the legendary Wax Trax records here in Denver...some of the guys who work there recall that this goofy suburban freak used to frequent the store. They all got to know his name...one day, one of them burst in the door and yelled: "Hey, guess what Hinckley just did?"

One of the ironies of our age is that when someone wants to take out a left-winger (Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, the Kennedy brothers, Lennon) they show up loaded for bear and 'get the job done'...but when the target is a right-winger (George Wallace, Ronnie Ray-gun, the Pope) the shooter's either so lightly armed or inept that they wind up just embarrassing themselves. I guess they lack the requisite training...

"And where did Oswald receive his training?"

"In the Marine Corps, sir!!!"

I seem to recall that Mark David Chapman signed into a hotel in Hawaii near the time of the shooting as "John Lennon." The theory I've seen put forth is that he believed HE was John and so since there could only be one he got rid of the "impostor."

"Two of them think they're Jesus...One of them must be wrong..."

Mark Knopfler's written some great lines, but that one's my favorite...

Hinkley and his wife lived in Hawaii, one of the most expensive states in the country, a nice apartment and collected works of art. He traveled cross country at least twice before killing Lennon. He worked as a security guard (traditionally not a high paying job). Early on these items fueled my belief in a conspiracy (Lennon did embarass the US-Nixon govt). But I was young and watched a lot of movies.