As many know John Lennon was returning to his home from a recording studio, the Record Plant, on the night his life was taken. On December 8, 2010 that night was 30 years behind us to the day and for many fans of the Beatles and John Lennon time has not heeled the wounds and likely never will.
There was an outpouring of grief upon his death and the facts of his life, and of that terrible death at the hands of a gunman who targeted him, became the focus of media for months. In some countries there were therapy groups to help grieving people process their feelings after the loss of such an influential human who meant so much to fans of music, and of peace, around the world.
Celebrating John Lennon's Birthday and His Message of Peace
On October 9 of 2010 there were celebrations to mark what should have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. In his adopted home of New York City they included events at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1994, and a Central Park showing of a documentary about his life in that city (it has since been shown on PBS).
For his 70th there was also an unveiling of an 18 foot high Peace and Harmony statue in his hometown of Liverpool, with son Julian and ex-wife Cynthia Lennon taking part. And Yoko Ono and his other son Sean Lennon lit the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland on that day. There were also concerts in his honor in many cities including New York, L.A., London and Liverpool.
From Please Please Me to Let it Be
He was arguably destined for fame the very moment he met Paul McCartney in 1957; the two will always be linked after having written so many seminal rock songs together. By 1960 they had met George Harrison and along with Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe were playing in Hamburg, Germany and in Liverpool. Sutcliffe left to go to arts school and died in '62 of a brain aneurysm. Best was replaced by Ringo Starr as the band was set to record their first single.
In 1963 they released their first LP, Please Please Me and it became a chart topper in the U.K. and, later, the U.S., where they lead something soon known as The British Invasion. They toured for only three years from that point but continued making records that were innovative and which captured what became the most culturally tumultuous decade the West had known.
They became cultural icons and from A Hard Day's Night, to Help, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, Abbey Road and Let it Be, their albums were each anticipated by a worldwide audience that embraced every musical stage the band went through.
John Lennon: The Beatles, Plastic Ono Band and More
After The Beatles split in 1970 John Lennon grew in wonderful ways. His first non-Beatles single, Give Peace a Chance, was recorded during his famous 'bed-in' in Montreal, Canada and showed where his concerns would be for the rest of his life. The name of the band credited on the single was The Plastic Ono Band, a name that he and Ono used as the title for their first album together.
Instant Karma and Imagine, along with Give Peace a Chance, were among the most listened to songs that he released post-Beatles, but there were many others. As with other musicians of the era who died young, like Jimi Hendrix, who would have turned 68 shortly after Lennon's 70th, we will never know the the music Lennon would have made had his life not been taken. But we do know that it would have compelled us to listen, to think and feel.
Outpourings of Love for Lennon
By happenstance famed photographer Annie Leibovitz had done a photo shoot of Lennon and Ono earlier in the day of his death in their Dakota apartment for the cover of Rolling Stone. Leibovitz has said that she tried to get Lennon to pose alone but he insisted his wife be on the cover with him.
Photos from that shoot were used in the January 22, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone, including the famous cover photo of John Lennon, naked on his side and curled up against a clothed Yoko Ono, the last photo taken of that famed couple ever taken. That cover, in 2005, was ranked as the top magazine cover photo of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine editors.
John Lennon on John Lennon
Liverpool has been celebrating John Lennon with regular events and concerts, starting back on his 70th and they continued on until marking the thirty years since his death. Doubtless some marked the day simply by listening to Lennon's music and perhaps lighting a candle for peace. There were surely tears for the man who, while not a perfect human being, believed that the world could find peace and harmony and had a talent for convincing us that it could be done.
John Lennon said this about himself: " My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all." Thirty years on and John Lennon continues to reflect us all.
Join the Conversation