December 8, 1980

[Rob Damen]

It's been 25 years, and I still don't get it.

God bless you, John

And we all miss you terribly

[Cem]

Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans

[Root Doctor]

I was headed home from hearing Iggy Pop at the Paradise Theater in Boston when I heard the news.

I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

[stonemonkts]

I heard the news from, of all sources, Howard Cosell. I was watching Monday night football (Raiders putting it to the Seahawks).

I grew up loving John Lennon, as many of of my generation did.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Cem

Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans

[moneyp]

I was in a Mexican bordello receiving....

[Scott Dolan]

Haven't we already heard enough of your homoerotic misadventures?

[Doc Martin]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I was in a Mexican bordello receiving....

I was rolling a joint with Kate Smith..........

RIP John

Working Class Hero

by John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and class less and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I was in a Mexican bordello receiving....

Ha! Thank you!

[Chris D]

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain

All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these mem’ries lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I’ll love you more

[clinthopson]

The day before, in 1941, had a little bigger impact.

[Surfer]

I watched Imagine on HBO last weekend. It was pretty good.

I like John's music a lot. He is easily my favorite Beatle, and Plastic Ono Band is a classic album. The last verse of "God" might be one of the best vocal performances ever.

[Slurpy]

Originally Posted by Doc Martin

I was rolling a joint with Kate Smith..........

RIP John

Working Class Hero

by John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and class less and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

That's one powerful fucking song! Gave me chills first time I heard it.

[John P. Cooper]

I barely remember the incident other than he was killed. Did it happen on a weekend or something? I remember where I was working at the time. I wonder why that day does not stay in my mind at all.

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by John P. Cooper

I barely remember the incident other than he was killed. Did it happen on a weekend or something? I remember where I was working at the time. I wonder why that day does not stay in my mind at all.

It was a Monday night. A lot of America heard about it on Monday Night Football.

[kedoane]

I was listening to the radio when it was announced that Lennon had died. I was 14 years old back then.

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

I heard the news from, of all sources, Howard Cosell. I was watching Monday night football (Raiders putting it to the Seahawks).

I grew up loving John Lennon, as many of of my generation did.

I also heard the tragic news while watching MNF, but I was watching Miami beat New England, 16-13 in OT that night.
The Raiders edged the Seahawks precisely four weeks earlier.

[stonemonkts]

I confused the games, obviously. But I could've sworn it was Oakland vs. Seattle.

[GoodSpeak]

Love me like you did the night before.



Rest in Peace, John.

[clinthopson]

Even I liked a lot of the Beatles' stuff but as Dana Parson's article in today's LA Times points out, the Fab Four doesn't resonate with the younger generation.

Does that make all of you feel old?


One Music Lover's Opinion: Beatles Weren't That Fab

As they did for millions of others, the Beatles changed my life. Do I know what that means? No, but it still feels good to say it. Their time together coincided with my high school and college years, and over the years I've wondered whether "you had to be there" to fully appreciate the lads' music. I've thought not — my baby boomer conceit told me that the Beatles transcend the ages.

The Setup: Find a music-loving college student who knew little or nothing about the Beatles. After 10 or 12 tries, I finally found one who'd never heard a minute of either "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" or "Rubber Soul," two landmark albums from the 1960s that I decided to use for my experiment.

Britney Tyner is a 19-year-old Orange Coast College freshman majoring in criminology. She wants to be a lawyer and likes "all kinds of music except classical" but with a bent toward hip-hop and rap. She cheerfully took on my overnight assignment, knowing of the Beatles but little else about them. We agreed to meet again the next day, and she showed up with multiple notes she'd written while listening to the CDs I gave her.

Britney's Review: Lyrics are important to her but a song also must "spark something" in her. That's a pretty universal thought, so how'd the Beatles — almost exactly 40 years after the release of "Rubber Soul" — stack up?

She started with "Sgt. Pepper's." "It seemed like it had a lot of drug references on it," she said. "Like on 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' and 'With a Little Help From My Friends,' which kind of ties in to now, because a lot of rappers are singing about drugs. 'Lucy in the Sky' had weird instruments on it that sounded like Egyptian music."

"Getting Better": "I could not stand the song. I just got annoyed."

"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite": "I had no idea what the song was about. I couldn't understand it at all."

I was getting a bad vibe, which she confirmed. "I couldn't get into their songs because of the instruments they were using," she said. "They sounded really weird. I don't know if that's the way guitars sounded back then or what."

She moved on to the George Harrison song "Within You Without You." "Was that about clowns?" she asked. "They sounded drunk to me. Were these guys on drugs?"

I asked about the Paul McCartney ditty "When I'm 64." She shook her head. "I couldn't stand that. They needed to work on their English a little more. Were they from London? I can't understand why people would like them, because I couldn't understand what they were saying."

As she's destroying my theory, Britney is completely respectful — if playfully so — of my admiration for the Beatles. When I noted that they changed the world, she replied, "They changed the world? How?"

Moving on, I asked about "A Day in the Life," which many consider the best Beatle song ever. "I couldn't stand the song," she said. "It was so long."

Surely, I thought, she'd like "Rubber Soul." "I really didn't like 'Rubber Soul,' she said. She appreciated that the two CDs sounded totally different and gave the Beatles credit for variety and experimentation, but it became "painful" to get through them a second time, she said. She noted that six of the 14 songs on "Rubber Soul" "are about girls. I don't know how old they were at the time. Maybe they were getting into girls."

"Norwegian Wood": "I couldn't make out if the song was about sex or not. Again, there was that weird guitar sound."

"Michelle": "I didn't understand the song at all. The French thing, I couldn't get into it."

"Girl": "It sounds like he's whining in the song, whoever the singer is."

At that point, she flips the CD over and sees the Lennon/McCartney songwriting credit. "Oh, wait," she says, "John Lennon? So that's who John Lennon is. With the Beatles? I did not know that."

I told her how, back in the day, people her age waited with bated breath for the next Beatles offering. She said she could picture it, but quickly added, "I think you'd have to know what was going on back then, what the politics were, what was so [unique] about them. But I can't see why people got so hyped up about them." Searching for clues, she asked, "Were they the first band that came from England?"

She couldn't make a single meaningful connection with either CD.

So, you had to be there, I suggested.

"In my view, I think you would," she said. "I don't think you can introduce hip-hop or rap to an 80-year-old man and expect him to like it. It all depends on where you come from and what you grew up with."

Sadder but wiser, I said my goodbyes and thanked her for her diligence. Sad that she didn't get the visceral kick from the music that I always have but wiser about the workings of the human ear and human experience.

"It's not that they're horribly bad songs," she said, politely. "But it's totally different to me. It's like when you hear something on the radio and think, 'What the hell is this?' and you skip it. Their songs seemed to be about nothing."

[Chris D]

One ditz makes for a representative sample. Nice!

[Noj]

I'm almost 30, and I love the Beatles. I think having taste doesn't resonate with the younger generation.

[scrotum boy]

One thing about the Beatles' output is that it was so large and varied, many people who weren't around at the time think they know enough of their catalogue to judge the whole thing, when in actuality many of them know shit (or don't know shit, depending on your preferred grammar. I like Kelsey).

I dropped by Strawberry Fields in Central Park yesterday, since I live in the neighborhood. When I got there, the crowd was singing along to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." I was unsuccessful in fighting the impulse to yell, (as if panicked) "IT's A GEORGE SONG, IT'S A GEORGE SONG".

Then, I was gonna start shout-singing a John impression. I was gonna sing the (John parody) song from a Lampoon album that goes "And George said that Yoko Gave Off Evil Vibes, I shoulda kicked the fooking shit out of him, him and his fooking Hare Krisshhhhh naaa aaaa aaaaa."

I was on the phone with my friend Slime at the time, and he reminded me that the song was called "Genius is Pain" and it might not be the time and place for it. Despite that, I still didn't do it.

PS. I may be a vile, scrotum-looking virulent dork, but I do love and respect John Lennon and his music. And my friend PT Dillman once saw him and Yoko eating in a macrobiotic restaurant. I forgot whether John or PT were eating mung beans. I certainly hope so.

[Clay Fink]

I was going to get a bunch of t-shirts printed up at that time that said "Why Couldn't It Have Been Ringo"?

I think that Lampoon "Genius is Pain" had the Lennon quote "I'm a fucking genius and I'm sensitive as shit".

[John P. Cooper]

A kid came into my store back in 1983 and wanted to get some Beatle albums for his parents.

He said they were into "nostalgia".

[clinthopson]

Somebody said, "The wrong two Beatles died."

[Slurpy]

Originally Posted by Chris D

One ditz makes for a representative sample. Nice!

Omigod! It's, like......ya kneeew....grodie to the max! Totally! Fer shuurr...

[Chris D]

I mean, really, was she brought up in a box?

My guys are differently damaged because they have me as a dad, but the Beatles are about at the apex of their loves, next to Fatboy Slim, AC/DC, "Machine Head" and De La Soul.

Actual quote: "Play some Beatles, Daddy. Not the slow stuff. The good ones, from when they were kids!"

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

Somebody said, "The wrong two Beatles died."

Mr. Hopson,
I trust that "somebody" was not you?

[scrotum boy]

Three Beatles have died. Stuart Sutcliffe is just as dead as the other two, I think. And Pete Best often wishes he was.