We younger Boomers remember the assassinations of the 60's, but we were really too young to be touched by them. I remember my parent's agonized reactions to JFK, Bobby, and MLK, but my reaction was more of amazement than sorrow.
The 70's were blissfully free from the types of high-profile assassinations that plagued the 60's, but it wasn't without trying. President Ford survived two attempts, but nobody died.
That all came crashing to a halt the evening of December 8, 1980.
A lot of the nation was watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell broke into the broadcast to announce that John Lennon had been killed. I was watching MASH, so I learned through a news bulletin.
Now I knew how my parents felt in the 60's.
I reached up and turned off the television and put John's Plastic Ono Band on the stereo. John had just released one of his most commercially and critically successful albums, Double Fantasy, and had just appeared on Rolling Stone's cover (naked, of course). It looked like the 80's would prove to be an artistically productive decade for my favorite Beatle.
And just like that, he was dead.
I had time to create pen-and-ink drawings back then, and over the next few days created a collage of images of Lennon. It was pretty good, but I have no clue what ever became of it.
John had long been a thorn in the side of conservative politicians, being an outspoken critic of ANY war, but particularly the one in Vietnam. Richard Nixon, whose paranoia led to his infamous enemy lists, was a foe of Lennon's protests. The US had used a drug conviction to deny him citizenship, most likely in retaliation. But they finally relented in 1976, and John became a model citizen.
Little was heard of Lennon for a while. He took out a full page ad holiday greetings ad in the New York Times about 1978 or so which seemed to hint to fans of a Beatles reunion. But remember, these were the same fans who were convinced that Paul was dead.
In 1980, Lennon and his wife released their joyful celebration of family life, the previously mentioned Double Fantasy. Now we knew what they had been up to during those quiet years, raising kids!
John's death deeply touched many Boomers, including Paul Simon, who penned these poignant words in his song "The Late Great Johnny Ace":
On a cold December evening
I was walking through the Christmas tide
When a stranger came up and asked me
If I'd heard John Lennon died
And the two of us went to this bar
And we stayed to close the place
And every song we played
Was for The Late Great Johnny Ace
Comments (3)
You notice how the Reagan era of greed didn't really take off until Lennon's assassination?
It was almost as if it was a harbinger of it.
It was like the last bastion of peace had to pass on before the
crass materialism of the 80's took over...
just a thought
Posted by scott | July 17, 2007 4:00 PM
Posted on July 17, 2007 16:00
A senseless tragedy for sure! I remember hearing the news reports about it. I too was turned off by some of John's thinking about things, but he certainly was a talent and I did like the music he was putting out before he was killed! That violent act also put a end any posssiblity of a Beatles reunion of all 4 members. I liked him with the Beatles for sure! This tragedy certainly was hard to stomach! RIP John and George!
Posted by Rivers End | June 5, 2009 10:42 PM
Posted on June 5, 2009 22:42
It was indeed, a harbinger Scott. I fully agree. You know, I was talking with my best friend in the Summer of 80, after college had let out for that year. I was lamenting that it seemed like the whole world had changed and everything we knew, liked, or did, was disappearing. Rock stars were getting their hair cut and clothes changed. Fleetwood Mac was the last to cut their hair. The music changed. As I saw it, it was a disaster all around.
By Dec. of 80, I was sort of down about this new decade. I could not believe Reagan had finally won. I had read the The Late Great Planet Earth maybe 2 or 3 years earlier and that might have affected my outlook, too, although ultimately, that book left a lot unanswered for which I would have to search for another 30 years or so.
But by the time of Lennon’s death, it almost seemed anti-climatic. The world I knew was dead and gone. Lennon getting shot almost seemed like something expected. I was more moved by Harrison’s death, only because of timing. Although it was not just me that expressed that, either.
To me, the loss of Lennon was so senseless and yet so much a part of a decade that was already wiping out everything I knew. Lennon was just one of many things. The Beatles had not been dead 10 years and now physically as well. Lennon certainly symbolized a lot. To me, the 80s symbolized a lot, too. I detested Reagan. He was against the hippies. The 80s was a against peace loving hippies, too. And the rhetoric of personal happiness was quickly disappearing as well.
I saw society as kind of fickle and lost. Eventually, music seemed to pick up about mid 83. I really liked the direction starting up then. 84 and 85 were a climax of great new interesting sounds. I found fashions in the mid 80s I could live with and even like. I liked Bugle Boy pants. Don’t know what happened to them. I loved florescent colors in the early 70s and suddenly in mid to later 80s, they were the rage. I was in heaven. I enjoyed some of the silly irreverence of the mid 80s in movies. I came to peace with the 80s, but I hated the early 80s and still do. The mid 80s rocked. But things were changing. Don’t get too fond of something, for it is bound to change fast.
I have never hated or despised anything like the 90s and later.
John will be missed as he was one of those peace loving hippies. I should not be surprised if hippies should cease being a four letter word and maybe even become heros again, but I doubt it. John died and there was a lot that died with him, never to return.
Long live the 60s, says I!!!
Posted by Scott Irv | June 6, 2009 1:21 AM
Posted on June 6, 2009 01:21