I didn't watch the late night news the night John Lennon died, and was told the next day at work by a friend who came in to the post office to get her mail.
I was a Beatles fan from the first time I heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand," in the late fall/early winter of 1963. The Beatles' music and the hysteria that followed their explosive popularity helped take my mind off the assassination of Kennedy, one of my heroes. All through my remaining teen years and into my early twenties, John, Paul, Ringo and George - their music, I mean - was a part of my life. I didn't know how much of an influence they were until John was murdered. Oh, sure, I thought (for about 10 minutes) the world would end when the Beatles broke up in 1970, but it didn't, of course.
While I didn't think Lennon's murder would bring about an end to "life as we know it," I did grieve his death, which surprised the heck out of me at the time. A few weeks later, in talking with some friends about the murder, I realized I was mourning the loss of an icon of my youth, perhaps my youth itself. Google's logo today was a remembrance of Lennon, and it made me feel nostalgic for his voice...and a time when my life was less complicated, though not easier.
There are so many songs from Lennon's Beatles years and his post-Beatles career that I hold dear ("Woman," for instance), but I chose these two songs because "Stand by Me" is one of my all-time favorite R&B songs from my teens (by Ben E. King, covered by many others, including Lennon), and "Oh, My Love" is a rocking love song, with a gentle rhythm that I really like.
2 comments:
It's one of those events where you remember where you were when you heard it. I was at junior school and my knowledge of the Beatles was vague and hazy... but even then the momentousness of the event struck us all.
I do like what you said about life being less complicated, though not easier, one of those reflections on the process of getting older of which these kind of events provoke...
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