Twenty-seven years ago tonight

[traininvain]

I'm surpised that no one else has mentioned this, but it was 27 years ago that John Lennon was murdered. obviously music has always been very important to me and the impact that The Beatles and John Lennon had is enormous. There were a few songs that came out about his death, but these two always seemed the best...


Old Records Never Die
(Ian Hunter)

Sometimes you realize
that there is an end to life.
Yesterday I heard them say
a hero's blown away.
And it's so hard to lose
someone who's close to you.
Oh me, I did not see
the danger every day.
But music's something in the air,
so he can play it anywhere.
Old records never die.

Get you're healing from a song,
just when everything goes wrong.
Play it right
through the night
till morning brings you light.
And if some folk laugh at you
Let 'em all laugh they never knew.
Oh all those scenes, to me it seems
some folk never dream.
...I feel a force
rebel with some other cause.
Old records never die.

Old records never die.
You can watch the waves roll by.
You can see it in their eyes.
Old records never die.
Old records never die.
You can watch the waves roll by.

Old records never die.
I can hear you
and I know why
old records never die.

*********************

The Late Great Johnny Ace
(Paul Simon)

I was reading a magazine
And thinking of a rock and roll song
The year was nineteen fiftyfour
And I hadn't been playing that long
When a man came on the radio
And this is what he said
He said I hate to break it to his fans
But Johnny Ace is dead, yeah, yeah, yeah

Well, I really wasn't
Such a Johnny Ace fan
But I felt bad all the same
So I sent away for his photograph
And I waited till it came
It came all the way from Texas
With a sad and simple face
And they signed it on the bottom
From the Late Great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah

It was the year of The Beatles
It was the year of The Stones
It was nineteen sixtyfour
I was living in London
With the girl from the summer be-fore

It was the year of The Beatles
It was the year of The Stones
A year after J.F.K.
We were staying up all night
And giving the days away
And the music was flowing amazing
And blowing my way

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 had 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, yeah, yeah, yeah

[minimetoo26]

I always think it was in January. I'm vague that way....

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

I had a friend in high school that didn't talk on the day that Lennon died.
Most people spent the day trying to make her talk.

[rayxtwo]

I was watching the Monday Night Football game when Howard Cosell. broke the news. I had to call up my best friend, who was/is a huge Beatles fan and tell him. He was at work, and thought I was joking till his brother called and told him the same thing.

Ray

[TheConfessor]

A few weeks ago I was in Liverpool and saw John's childhood home, as well as many other sites that were important in the formative years of the Beatles. I highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to do that.

The day before I had my successful run in the hot seat, I made a point of walking to the Dakota to see where it happened, and the memorial nearby in Central Park.

I've always liked this Elton John effort:

Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)

Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin

What happened here
As the New York sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden among the flagstones there
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks strange
It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain

And what's it for
This little empty garden by the brownstone door
And in the cracks along the sidewalk nothing grows no more
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And we are so amazed we're crippled and we're dazed
A gardener like that one no one can replace

And I've been knocking but no one answers
And I've been knocking most all the day
Oh and I've been calling oh hey hey Johnny
Can't you come out to play

And through their tears
Some say he farmed his best in younger years
But he'd have said that roots grow stronger if only he could hear
Who lived there
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
Now we pray for rain, and with every drop that falls
We hear, we hear your name

Johnny can't you come out to play in your empty garden

[peacock2121]

I am missing a gene or something.

None of the deaths of music legends stick in my historical memory.