Remembering Lennon
December 9, 1980. My radio alarm clock went off, and as usual, I awoke to the cluck, cluck of Bob and Doug MacKenzie welcoming me to the Great White North. As I wiped the sleep from my eyes, the clattered voices of the DJs turned serious with the morning news.Mark David Chapman, a mentally disturbed fan, waited outside of the Dakota, a Manhattan apartment building, as John Lennon and Yoko Ono walked home from a recording session. As the couple approached, Chapman fired shots and fatally wounded Lennon. He died on the way to the hospital.
I was stunned. John Lennon couldn’t be dead! I must have misunderstood. It’s a horrible joke. I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen to check the morning paper. I burst into tears.
An hour later I sat in class, numb from digesting the news. My mind flowed with every Beatles song, every Lennon song…I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go ‘round and ‘round. I really love to watch them roll.
It would be impossible to count the number of hours I'd spent with the headphones on wearing out my Dad's Beatles/Lennon vinyl collection. I knew every lyric, every note.
The morning bell rang. Mr. Paul, my sixth grade teacher at St. Christopher's, requested our morning dedications. I raised my hand for the first time ever to offer a prayer.
“I’d like to pray for John Lennon’s spirit and for all of his grieving fans. He was an inspiration to us all.”
Mr. Paul stood frozen in his fro and bushy mustache, staring at me for a long, drawn-out minute. Maybe he was stunned to be praying for a hippie, rock icon. Maybe he was stunned that he was hearing an unsolicited current event from an 11-year-old. Maybe he smoked a joint on his way to work and was trying to decipher my meaning since it wasn’t the usual “I’d like to pray for grandma. She’s having hip surgery.”
My class prayed silently for a few minutes. I could feel a warm chill under my burgundy knee highs. Through the many more years of Catholic school, I never again requested to pray for something publicly.
This Thursday marks the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. His legacy stands strong and his music continues to influence generations old and new. To mark the anniversary, the DVD Deluxe Edition of Imagine was released today. The documentary, originally released in 1988, gives a stirring portrait of Lennon from the days of the Cavern Club to the drunken months he was separated from Yoko.
The project was completed independent of Yoko Ono, which allows for a candid portrayal of the man, his dreams, his music, his loves, and his sufferings. It's everything you can should expect from a movie, but it's what Lennon brings to your heart that makes you understand so much more.
posted by tanagrame @ 1:11 PM
1 Comments:
I just remember watching the news, and my parents being very quiet.
That was never good.
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