It was 25 Years Ago Today

[md655321]

God is a concept,

By which we can measure,

Our pain,

I'll say it again,

God is a concept,

By which we can measure,

Our pain,

I don't believe in magic,

I don't believe in I-ching,

I don't believe in bible,

I don't believe in tarot,

I don't believe in Hitler,

I don't believe in Jesus,

I don't believe in Kennedy,

I don't believe in Buddha,

I don't believe in mantra,

I don't believe in Gita,

I don't believe in yoga,

I don't believe in kings,

I don't believe in Elvis,

I don't believe in Zimmerman,

I don't believe in Beatles,

I just believe in me,

Yoko and me,

And that's reality.

The dream is over,

What can I say?

The dream is over,

Yesterday,

I was dreamweaver,

But now I'm reborn,

I was the walrus,

But now I'm John,

And so dear friends,

You just have to carry on,

The dream is over.

[sal]

AMEN...

Rest in peace, John. We miss you.

[Eric]

Wow ... hard to believe. I remember it well. Very sad and senseless.

[md655321]

We sure could use him now.

[skeith]

Nice sentiments guys!

I miss him, big time.

[Dave James]

One of a kind. Makes you wonder what he might have done both politically and musically over the course of the last 25 years. There was some real substance there.

Up over and out.

[Chalupa]

Hey it's Jim Morrison's birthday today. Where's the Lizard King thread????

[rostasi]

[Rosco]

I still remember being woken up by my radio alram clock at 6.55 that morning. The station was halfway through playing 'Imagine'. Nothing unusual about that. Then the DJ said something about 'John Lennon, who died last night' and I jolted out of my half slumber. The 7am news led with the story of course.

For a 14 year old who was really getting into music (all kinds) that was really my first experience of a rock 'n' roll death (I had been kind of young for Elvis).

Sadly, Bob Marley wouldn't be too far behind.

[Alexander]

I was nine (going on ten at the end of the month) when John Lennon was assassinated. I was in bed and heard the news on my clock/radio while I was half asleep. At first I was certain that I had dreamed it, but when I went into the kitchen, my mom was crying. It remains one of the saddest days of my life, but until that point and since then. I was a HUGE Beatles fan as a kid, and I always hoped for a reunion (a real one, not a "studio recreation" like "Free as a Bird"). I was crushed when I realized that it could never happen...

We still miss you, John!

RIP

[7/4]

I was 20 and on my way to to p/u a birthday present for my Dad (Dec. 9th).

[Eric]

I remember they broke into Monday Night Football to announce it. I tracked down a friend I had not spoken to in 5 years (a huge Beatles fan) to share thoughts. Senseless ...

[JSngry]

I remember thinking that this surely was an act of conspiracy by the powers behind the incoming regime. I got mad as hell and stayed that way until later in the afternoon when some radio station was playing "I'm A Loser" and I heard the line "What have I done to deserve such a fate". Then I cried.

Never cared about/hoped for a Beatles reunion, and never viewed John as a "moral authority" or some such. Never viewed him as anything other than a guy who asked the same questions as the rest of us, who was never coy in either asking or answering same, and who happened to have a real gift for putting it all into a song that you might well never be able to forget.

Conspiracy or not, for a lot of us, the assassination of John Lennon was to the early 1980s what Kent State was to the early 1970s, a sign that things were going to work differently now, and that we were going to be on our own yet again. A bond, not necessarily of "profundity", but definitely of "family", had been violently and none-too-subtly severed, and there was nothing that could (or would) ever replace it.

Would the 80s and beyond have proceeded on a different course had John Lennon remained alive? Who knows, and what difference does it make, really. What's done is done, and what is, is. I just wish we could've had the opportunity to find out. Even if everything would've ended up the same, it probably would've been a helluva lot more interesting along the way.

I'm just a jealous guy.