Hey everyone.. I wasn't alive in 1980, but to the ones of you who were, where were you on December 8th, 1980.. the day John Lennon was shot?
When did you hear about it, how did you feel..
I'll bet it was very surreal.
Duckie
Posted by paulshrimpton (Member # 1022) on :
Rather unusually, I was in a dentist's waiting room - when it was broadcast on the radio it was about 3.30pm in the UK, and I recall actually forgetting that I was scared of dentists. I was never really a Beatles fan, and still wouldn't list any of Lennon's solo tracks amongst my 'High Fidelity Top 5', but it was still a shock, that people could just walk down the street and do that to someone so famous.
Posted by Duckie (Member # 1732) on :
Wow.. being at the dentist's.. that must have been strange.
I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles or John Lennon, either.. I was just curious on how something like that affected people.
Duckie Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Duckie asked:
quote:...I wasn't alive in 1980, but to the ones of you who were, where were you on December 8th, 1980, the day John Lennon was shot?
When did you hear about it, how did you feel.. I'll bet it was very surreal.
Duckie: Yes, it was definitely surreal!
I was watching "Monday Night Football" on TV, when (of all people!) sports announcer Howard Cosell reported the tragic news right in the middle of the game!
Here is the exact words what Cosell said: "One of the great figures of the entire world, one of the great artists, was shot to death horribly at the Dakota Apartments, 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. John Lennon is dead. He was the most important member of the Beatles, and the Beatles, lead by John Lennon, created music that touched the whole of civilization. Not just people in Liverpool, where the group was born, but the people of the world."
I wasn't a big Beatles fan during the 70's or 80's, so I wasn't that upset compared to those from the 60's generation! Years later, I read that Lennon and Cosell were good friends to each other. In fact, Lennon made a suprise appearance on the broadcasters booth during a Monday Night Football game sometime in 1969 being interviewed by Cosell, with Ronald Reagan (then the California Governor) sitting next to him!
Anyway, the chilling effect came to me the morning after. I woke up feeling very sad, emotionless, with an emptiness all around. I felt that there was something really big that was missing. I was attending college in those days, and I went through my classes in a kind of a daze.
About 12 years ago, I was watching a documentary on the novelist Ken Kesey, who wrote the books "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", and a few others. He was lecturing in front of a classroom group, explaining where he was when John died. He also was watching the football game on TV and later commented about how strange it was to hear John Lennon's death being reported by Howard Cosell. Then he said that it was truly surrealistic moment, and was all the more remarkable that he wasn't under the influence of any drugs when he heard about it!
Hope this helps!
Posted by Duckie (Member # 1732) on :
Thank you so much, Steven!
Your memory is chilling.. exactly the way I thought it would have been.. how strange it must have been that day at college, trying to concentrate..
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