December 8, 1980…John Lennon

As I’ve told people before…I rarely do anniversaries. Skylab, Duane Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a few others but this one I will post as long as I blog.

I grew up in the seventies and became a teen in the 1980s. The Beatles were not popular where I lived to say the least. One concerned mother of a friend actually called my mom warning her that I was headed toward destruction because I was listening to the Beatles at around 11 years old. No, I’m not kidding.  My mom, bless her heart, told the lady that “Max knows right from wrong. You worry about your child and I’ll worry about about mine.” Ok back to December of 1980.

Damn this date. Every Dec 8th I can’t help but think of where I was when I heard. This year’s release of Now and Then only heightened the anger, sadness, and confusion over what happened. I post this post every year on this date and will continue. I have updated it each year and I’ve almost rewritten it since I posted it first back in 2018…and if it’s too long now I apologize. I still feel what I felt on that date. Although to be accurate it was on December 9th that I found out…the next morning getting ready for school.

When I watched the news clips at the time I felt like an interloper because all of these fans who were sobbing grew up with Lennon in real time…I was this 13-year-old kid who was late to the party…a decade late.

It’s odd to think the Beatles had only been broken up for 10 years when this happened…to a 13-year-old at the time…that was a lifetime but in reality, it’s nothing. To put it in perspective… it’s now 2023 and 10 years ago was 2013…that doesn’t seem that long ago does it? I was only 3 years old when the Beatles broke up so I had no clue.

Since second grade (1975), I’ve been listening to the Beatles. While a lot of kids I knew listened and talked about modern music …I just couldn’t relate as much. By the time I was ten, I had read every book about The Beatles I could get my hands on. In a small middle TN town…it wasn’t too many. I was after their generation but I knew the importance of what they did…plus just great music. The more I got into them the more I learned about the Who, Stones, and the Kinks. I wanted to get my hands on every book about the music of the 1960s. Just listening to the music wasn’t enough…I wanted to know the history.

I spent that Monday night playing albums in my room. Monday night I didn’t turn the radio on…I’m glad I didn’t…The next morning I got up to go to school and the CBS morning news was on. The sound was turned down but the news was showing Beatle video clips. I was wondering why they were showing them but didn’t think much of it.

Curious, I turned the volume up and found out that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was very angry and shocked. The bus ride to school was quiet… at school, it was quiet as well. Some teachers were affected because John was their generation. Some of my friends were shocked but some didn’t get the significance at the time and some didn’t care.

I went out and bought the White Album, Abbey Road, and Double Fantasy in late December of 1980…I can’t believe I didn’t have those two Beatles albums already…now whenever I hear any song from those albums they remind me of the winter of 80-81. I remember the call-in shows on the radio then…pre-internet… people calling to share their feelings for John or hatred for the killer.

The next few weeks I saw footage of the Beatles on specials that I had never seen before. Famous and non-famous people pouring their hearts out over the grief. Planned tributes from bands and everyone asking the same question…why?

My young mind could not process why a person would want to do this to a musician. A politician yea…I could see that…not that it’s right but this? A musician? Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and JFK were before my time.  By the mid-1970s John had pretty much dropped out of sight…John and Yoko released Double Fantasy on November 17, 1980, and suddenly they were everywhere…Less than a month later John was murdered. The catchwords were Catcher in the Rye, Hawaii, handgun, and insane. The next day we were duly informed who killed John in the First, Middle, and Last name format they assign to murderers. I won’t mention his name.

I didn’t want to know his name, his career, his wife’s name, his childhood…I just wanted to know why… he says now…” attention”

I noticed a change happened after that Monday night. John Lennon was instantly turned into a saint, something he would have said was preposterous. Paul suddenly became the square and the uncool one and George and Ringo turned into just mere sidemen. Death has a way of elevating you in life. After the Anthology came out in the 90s that started to change back a little.

I called my dad a few days after it happened and he said that people were more concerned that The Beatles would never play again than the fact a man, father, and husband was shot and killed. He was right and I was among those people until he said that. Dad was never a fan…he was more Elvis, Little Richard, and country music… but he made his point. When my father passed in 2005 I thought about this conversation and knew he was teaching me again.

It was odd being into the Beatles at such a young age and after their time so to speak. While my peers were talking about all the contemporary artists at the time…all I talked about was John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I would end up comparing all the new music I heard to theirs…and that wasn’t fair at all to new music. I would think to myself…well this song (any new song at the time) wasn’t as good as Strawberry Fields and so on. I, fortunately, grew out of that but it took a while.

Below is a video of James Taylor telling how he met the killer a day before Lennon was murdered. Also, Howard Sterns broadcast the day after.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “December 8, 1980…John Lennon”

  1. I am sure that I told you this last year, but I found out about this from Howard Cosell watching Monday Night Football. I was disappointed when Jerry Garcia died, but it was not shocking to me, because I knew he had overdosed a few times before.

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      2. It’s funny I remember that night…playing records and I didn’t turn the radio on…I’m glad I didn’t…of course it would have been the same.

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  2. I was upset even though at that point I wasn’t that big a Beatles fan and was hit-or-miss on Lennon’s solo works. The loss in terms of the creativity and musical potential matter far more to me now than they did in ’80. But obviously, it was horrible and shocking to all because of how. Had he gone the usual rock star routes and either Od’d or been in an ill-fated Cessna, it would have been very sad but many would have kind of felt ‘cest le vie.’ But for a guy who was such an advocate of peace to be shot down like that, just appalling. One can only wonder. He’d be 83 now , if he hadn’t succumbed to some other ailment. You see Ringo and Paul and even Yoko is I guess still doing her thing so it’s not hard to imagine and old gray John still singing or making political speeches in this day and age.

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    1. Yea at that point…it didn’t matter if you were a fan or not…it just shouldn’t have happened. A natural death or accident would have been easier to take….but this was just a waste.
      He kept saying that “mean of peace get shot” and he was right.

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  4. I remember it vividly too – I’d just bought in the bacon rolls some staff would have before our Bank branch opened. Some of us were reading the morning paper when the radio station broke the news. (The news may have been ‘broken’ earlier, I don’t know, but it was the first I or the other staff had heard it.)
    We were all stunned. It would have been dad enough had he passed away through an illness or even an accident .. but this?

    Yeah – that was certainly my firs ‘Kennedy’ moment.

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    1. I remember when Elvis died…many of the grownups around me were down…I didn’t totally get it…but you are right…it was my first Kennedy moment as well.

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  5. To always hear James Taylor’s reflections and experiences is disturbing. Can you imagine what Lennon would have gone on to do musically although he was flippant about his personal security, yeh? I’m certain Dylan and him would have recorded together maybe with George in TW. I didn’t really grow up on the Beatles (except Lennon solo after his passing) so I can imagine how shocking his death was to you being such a fan. I’m amazed that lady rang your Mum about her concern for you lol

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    1. They were not popular where I was at all… I think it’s funny that a lady thought a band that had broken up years before was going to send me to a life of crime! lol.
      He said that he didnt want a personal body guard right before this happened…because he said he would have felt guilty if the guy got shot or hurt protecting him. I wish he would have re-thought that.

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      1. That’s surprising to read they were not popular where you were. I thought they were popular everywhere.
        Apart from changing men’s fashion and haircuts in the 70’s I imagine he also changed how BIG music stars saw to their personal security. I think if a looney is going to make his mark there’s not much they could do unless they have huge detail. Even Reagan was shot. Very sad event.

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      2. Oh no…in the seventies no….when it started to change is when their CDs were released…at least where I lived. I was the “weird Beatle guy”…that made me like them more lol.

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  6. Me and you are the same age Max and when I heard this my first thought was “who shoots rock stars?”. I liked this post because of your story and connection to the Beatles but not for what went down. (I always find the whole Facebook ‘like’ deal silly lol) This was a great read!

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    1. Yea…you know what I use “like” for? To tell me if I read the post or not. I use those as bookmarks lol.
      I know man… who kills a musician? I made zero sense and I’m still wondering. It was all to get famous…that is a hell of a price to get famous.

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  7. Quick note- what was your friends Mom on? The Beatles weren’t exactly the Sex Pistols were they?
    I was shocked at the news then. And the maniacal ‘logic’ of someone who can take a celebrities life to make himself a celebrity. Contemptible little half-witted shit.

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    1. Yes. My friends mom…who I haven’t talked to in forever.
      Some of me…the evil part…wants them to release him…he wouldn’t last long. But…yea just a stupid/wasteful thing that shouldn’t have happened.

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      2. And…just to know…I don’t want him free…but I’ve read where there were contracts put on him and he has been in solitary confinement more than not…because I could see a prisoner doing it also…for attention or something else….but yes I could see a fan doing that.

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  8. Max, reading your essay is making me resistant to watching the videos. You brought the murder back enough. Hearing the broadcasts very well might make me heartsick. I have seen the James Taylor before.

    As to your love of The Beatles, I can’t help but believe in reincarnation and think you must have lived another life that was very close to them when they formed their group. The Beatles are Immortals, together and separately. Spirits like theirs can never be quenched.

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    1. They were my identity in my teenage years…I used them as a shield and an interest that no one else had….but your explanation could be there!

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  9. It’s hard to believe John Lennon has been gone for 43 years, longer than he lived. It’s also cruel irony that an artist who was a vocal peace activist got murdered. I’m not saying John was a saint. Like every human being, he had his flaws.

    While I well remember the news about his murder, I think it didn’t touch me as much at the time as it does nowadays. I was 14 when it happened and still living in Germany. I was definitely sad. By contrast, my guitar teacher who was a huge Beatles fan, was devastated when arriving at my house on Dec 9, 1980 to give me a guitar lesson. We decided to skip it and instead watched the evening news, which covered Lennon’s death.

    That night, my then-favorite German radio DJ Frank Laufenberg did a show dedicated to John. I taped it on music cassette. A copy of that tape must still be floating around my house. Unfortunately, my music became very disorganized a few years ago when our basement required a major renovation due to water damage.

    As I’ve said on other such bleak occasions, the one consolation is we still have John’s music. That said, you have to wonder what we missed. “Double Fantasy”, one of my favorite Lennon solo album, was a great comeback for John. Some of the music that came out after his death sounded promising as well.

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    1. Oh we are a bout the same age…one year difference.
      I also recorded calls on the radio…it went on all night long. Every kind of fan called in…Beatle fans, rock fans, hard rock fans…everyone was shocked.

      Yea it’s impossible to say what he would have done…I wish we could have found out!

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  10. I love your dad’s quote… When a celebrity dies our reaction, while genuine, is almost selfish. There will never be another album, song, movie, book from them… While someone is mourning the actual person. And I have to say that, especially in the social media age, a lot of ‘grief’ when a famous person does is performative. Everyone has to give their thoughts (and prayers…) Anyway, not really the point of this post – just my twopence worth!

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    1. No I get it! When he brought it up I felt terrible…the first thing I thought as a 13 year old was…the Beatles won’t get back together now… I remember though the shock and sadness…up to that point I’ve heard of famous people dying…but not like this.
      It did teach me something from then on.

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  11. I’m sure John’s lack of popularity in the South was still colored by the whole “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus” debacle. The man who would ultimately marry my mother was a Jesuit priest at the time, and when I asked him about it, he said “the thing is, he’s right.” At that point, more forward-thinking pastors and musicians started to incorporate more rock (albeit gentle rock) into their services for young people. And you see it in shows like “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and “Godspell,” really the birth of the Christian rock/Contemporary Christian Music genre. In a way, John was the catalyst to bring that about.

    I wasn’t much of a fan of John when he left Cynthia and Julian to be with Yoko. His relationship with Julian was a rocky one until Julian got older and he was able to evaluate his father as an adult and they were able to reconcile. He wrote some great music…

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    1. He was right! You are correct. Drugs also was the thing about them…in their spiteful comments “acid rock” came out a lot also. Our preacher I have now…likes the Beatles and his favorite…is KISS!
      No…that was the worse thing John did period…and if he would have just left it would have been one thing…but he handled it terrible.

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