Wednesday, December 8, 2010

It was thirty years ago today...

When you're an American my age, you have strong opinions about the Beatles. It doesn't have to make any sense. In the late sixties, the Beatles were like atmospheric oxygen - they were everywhere.

I admit I wasn't much of a post-Beatles Lennon (PBL) fan. The whole soap opera between him and McCartney, Yoko Omigod Ono...I kinda wished he'd just shut up and go away. In fact - sit down, please - the only PBL song I cared for at all at the time was, yes,...



...and listening to it just now, after so many years, it's clear my musical elevator never went anywhere near the top. I was a commie for about 45 seconds of my youth, until I actually met some. During those seconds, Lennon released that song. Yeah, it's embarrassing.

But I digress.

By the time he was killed he'd done Double Fantasy, and it was clear that the Lennon I'd loved in the Beatles had gone bye-bye and wasn't coming back. But I didn't want him dead. I mean, that's like hearing that somebody shot Jesus. Even if you're Buddhist, you don't want Jesus dead.

It's also a little hard to deal with the fact that it's really been thirty years.

Sheesh.

3 comments:

mdknighthawk said...

Dec 8th 1984, Robert Mathews was burned to death in his home on Whidbey Island during a shootout with ZOG agents
Richard III

Anonymous said...

Yep, I remember that night as well when I heard on the radio he had been shot and killed. My brother and I shared a room, and often left the radio on as background music when we went to sleep. That night, their was an announcement of the shooting, followed by the pronouncement of his death. Very sudden, very out of the blue. Surreal.

Those 30 years sure have shot by.

The Grey Lady said...

I also remember that day clearly, I worked at a record store and the moment I got to work I ordered 100 copies of his latest album that was still in new release....sold them all within a week. I got a promotion out of that savvy bit of entrepreneurship and marketing.

I know it sounds tad cold, but business is business....looking back perhaps not my best moment as a human being..she cringes at the thought now.