When John Lennon was killed 30 years ago today, I was a teenager living in NY. Two things flooded my mind besides locking myself in the bathroom for 3 days and causing duress in my family. One was the rhetorical question, “Why would anyone want to kill John Lennon?”
Most of us learned about John’s murder while watching Monday Night Football of all things:
The second thing going through my mind were the lyrics for a song he wrote with Paul for Sgt. Pepper’s called A Day In The Life. This is probably one of the best collaborative efforts whereby both men actually contributed lyrics to a song. Beatle fans know that more times than not, Lennon and McCartney shared “Written By” credits although a song was written by one or the other.
Below, you’ll notice John’s handwriting of the lyrics for A Day in the Life. Paul’s middle section was added later in the studio.
Central Park Vigil on December 14, 1980
To this day, I still cannot intellectually understand the actions of MDC, but each time it comes up, I make a point to sign the petition to keep him in jail and deny his parole.
Here is a two-hour documentary called LENNONYC for American Masters on PBS.
Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.