December 8, 1980

Today is a good day to be a little sappy and sentimental. Last month I blogged about the final Beatle song coming out, "Now and Then." I wasn't going to blog about it again until I realized that December 8th was just around the corner. It was forty-three years ago today that John Lennon was killed.

The first time I heard the song, I liked it.  It was haunting. John's voice was so clear it sounded as if he was in my house singing.  I think it's an appropriate and beautiful ending and a tribute to The Beatles. You can interpret "Now and Then" in many ways.  You can think about Beatlemania and how it exploded across the country and the world in 1964 and you can think about how important their music still is today. 

To hear John singing, "I miss you," is how we feel about him.  Was he talking about his fellow bandmates or his wife and son who he was re-starting his life with?  It's a simple love song and simplicity and love are common themes throughout their music. As far as I can tell, the song has hit number one in England, Austria, Japan and Germany and reached number two in The United States.  Not too shabby for a group that broke up fifty-three years ago.

On the night of December, 8, 1980, John returned home with his wife Yoko to the Dakota Apartments in New York City where they owned several units.  He signed an autograph for a fan and walked away.  The troubled fan shot John in the back four times at close range.

Thirty-four miles away, I sat in my college room in Madison, New Jersey. My roommate and I were watching the news.  They said, "A man reported to be John Lennon has been shot outside the Dakota apartments." Thirty minutes later, the news was over and John was gone. I remember they ended the news with a large picture of John and I'm pretty sure they played the song, "Yesterday."  Although it was clearly a "Paul" song, the words, "I believe in yesterday," seemed to fit the moment.

John, 

We missed you then, 

We miss you now,

And the world will always miss you.

And yet, your voice will be with us forever.