Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My squirt is 13 and she's a jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to her musical instrumentation. Violin, piano, guitar and sax! She's getting better all the time but to steer her to the "Beatle-side" and the forces of 60's pop isn't easy. I'm making inroads but today's modern kid-radio music makes it tough. Sadly, she's oblivious to the importance of the Beatles and John Lennon in the overall scheme of modern music. (I think she'll come around in due time!!)

I was 28, just got off second shift, got a beer, and sat down to watch the Tonight Show. When the bulletin came across the screen I thought it was a joke or mistake. A very sad evening for me.

As I do every year I played "In My Life" last night at midnight followed by "Dear John" a song I wrote and recorded in memory of him shortly after he died. Yesterday was a very sad day for me for a couple of reasons.

For the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death, I am really surprised that there was so little made of this day yesterday. Did anyone else find this?

Peter: Actually, I saw Lennon remembrances everywhere I looked yesterday on American network television and the internet. In fact I've been seeing Lennon-related stories popping up for several weeks leading up to yesterday's sad anniversary.

I agree Randy but perhaps there should have been a coordinated moment or two of silence on the major news networks in memory of John. After 25 years that would have been a very nice thing to do as a token of respect.

I too agree with your comment Randy. There were a number of short interviews but I was expecting some more indepth coverage on the 25th anniversary.

Lennon,never got the same positive press that McCartney got because Paul was pretty much the mama's boy and Lennon was thought as being the bad boy,revolutionist,weird,drug using....anything but main stream.

I still think people look at him funny except those with enough intellect to see what he was really about.

I was a nineteen-year-old college sophomore on the night Lennon was killed. I was in my dorm room (with my '64 325 sitting out on the bed) when the phone started ringing. Friends from all over were calling to see if I had heard, because they knew what a fan I was. Before the news really had a chance to sink in, I decided to handle it the way John would have taken bad news. I acted disinterested with reactions ranging from "You don't say?" to "Oh well...". I wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing any real emotion, so I put up a wall. I'm fairly certain that's what a nineteen-year-old Lennon would have done under similar circumstances.

It seems as if every generation has its own "watershed" moment or "Do you remember when..." event. I had an older History professor remark that when he started teaching, the event was the JFK assassination. Then he had to change it to Lennon's murder. As the students got younger he had to move it to the Challenger disaster, then the Berlin Wall, etc.

Randy Z....that is almost EXACTLY the way I handled it....

19 years old.....heard the news on my way to work the next day. I worked the counter at that time and there were a LOT of people that said "did you hear what happened last night?" .....I just said "yeah what a bummer, eh?" .....you know, just kinda blew it off because I figured they just wanted to see my reaction....everytime I went to the bathroom that day(a lot), I cried......

This year, I have begun my second career as a teacher (grade 5). We had a big talk in class yesterday about John Lennon and his contributions to peace, to music, to pop culture. I was amazed and saddened to find out that in a class of 27 kids, only 1 knew definitely who he was. A few others had heard of the Beatles but shockingly, many hadn't. When I continued to talk, a fairly sizeable portion knew the song "Imagine" but that was the only broadly recognizable tune with the class. Even our local paper prefaced their front-page article with "To his generation, John Lennon was..." I'm not sure what my point is but it's food for thought....

I was about that age when I heard of Lennon's death (12) and I very clearly remember it. A very sad day and I remember laying awake in bed at night listening, for the very first time, to the White Album in its entirety as a local radio station featured Lennon/Beatles songs.

I was 23 and remember it well when Monday Night football was on. I also remember where I was the following Sunday during the 10 minutes of silence.
I too was surprised at the lack of media attention and programming for the 25th anniversary. The shows that I have seen I was discussed with most of the show being devoted to poor Mr.Chapman and his mental health.
It's too bad the same thing hasn't happen to him as what happened to Jeffery Dahmer behind prison walls.

Yikes, Bob...I hear ya, though.

I was deep in the midst of my second season on the ice when this brutally stupid thing went down. We always used to refer to things going on 'back in the real world', but John's passing took a bit of the 'real' out of the world for me...

I wasn't around in 1980, being 19 at the moment, but even now thinking about this whole incident almost brings tears to my eyes.

Thursday night I was asked to go host a radio show. I did.

For a few hours before I went through all my discs and picked out some great Lennon moments and songs. I brought with me 52 CD's, all the studio stuff and about 1/4 of my bootleg collection. It was a great time and I was glad I could share these recordings with the people of my town although I bet no one listened. (None of my friends did :\ )

I pretty much reacted as some of you did when George passed away. I almost didn't acknowledge it. It was only a few months ago while walking to class and listening to Brainwashed that it really hit me that I'm idolizing someone who isn't with us anymore.