Dennis Leary had a pretty good story of where he was when he learned about the murder this morning on Mike & Mike. At an Iggy Pop concert in Boston. The crowd didn't know what happened. Iggy played a sped up version of "Imagine" as his encore. Leary leaves thinking that it was pretty weird song choice but cool. Walks to the 7-11, the guy behind the counter tells him that Lennon has been killed. Leary listens to a radio interview of Iggy the next day. Iggy explains that he found out after he finished his set prior to the encore. He was told to tell the crowd the news, but he responds, "I can't. They won't believe me." So he played Imagine as a tribute instead.

Local sports radio here was talking about it this morning as well. They had a soundboard clip of the Monday Night Football crew before they went live deciding what to do about the news. Cosell is freaking out deciding what to do and if it's appropriate and Gifford says "this is news that is going to shake up the world. You have to do it". He then decides to do it after an ensuing kickoff or something.

They also talked about how much has changed in how we get information. News like that reaches people in minutes now. Then, those watching found out about it but everyone in the stadium had no clue and probably didn't find out until they turned on their car radio in the parking lot, saw the news on tv when they got home, or possibly didn't find out until morning.


Still, for those of age, certainly a "where were you when" moment.

Did Nick do the "John, you're a man of the people you don't need a bodyguar....BANG BANG BANG BANG" bit?

A where were you thread? I was at the Hamburger Hamlet on the Sunset Strip, sitting at a table with a famous actress and her husband with whom I was co-habitating. The news came on the TV in the bar. I felt a wave of shock and like something profoundly trusted was no longer true (the dream is over , blah blah blah). I looked across the table and they had no reaction, just one more bit of news. They laughed and went on with their converation. I had known we had very different values and belief systems, but this was startling. That moment started the ultimate destruction of a nine year relationship. If you didn't understand how deep the loss was I really couldn't love you anymore. Ah youth...

Great story, Harry. Reminds of a VH1-special on Elvis's death. One punk musician (can't remember who anymore) said about learning of the news of Elvis's death, "it divided us (punks) in half-those that understood what it meant and those who didn't give a shit."

That's exactly how I heard about it. Except instead of a guy it was two teen girls and I didn't believe them.

I remember that Fish. I think it was Joe Strummer.

I remember I was watching CBS, and Walter Cronkite broke the news. I was almost 13 and in 8th grade, and I didn't care about Lennon, then... but I knew it was big news. The next morning school opened late because of cold weather, and I remember being at my locker and everyone was talking about it.

The last interview almost makes me want to pick up a Rolling Stone mag for the first time ever. Almost.

Oddly, I have zero recollection of exactly when, where, or how I heard about it. I do recall attending a party within a few days of the event where it was a dominant topic of conversation, and I remember my comment- "They killed the wrong one."

I was only 6 so I don't remember Lennon's murder. The first big dramatic events that I remember are the assassination attempt on Reagan and the space shuttle explosion.

I was only 14 months old, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was just a couple of weeks before my 20th birthday. It was a rainy Monday evening and it was "Psychotic Pineapple' night at the Keystone Berkeley. I can't remember who made the announcement, either John or Dave Seabury, but the rest of the night was an endless bummer. Strangely enough, I also remember meeting a young lady from out of town who later in the evening entertained me in her camper RV out front of the KeyBerk. That type of thing never happened to me. For what it's worth, in '95 I paid a visit to the Dakota and "tipped" the guard on duty to let me walk through and stand for a few minutes in 20-30 ft tunnel area where it all happened. It was a sobering moment.

born the next year...I was sperm at this point.

I was 8. Don't recall...

((°J°))

As long as we've still got Ringo, I'm happy.

I was 6 years old but I remember the events well. It was probably the first news story I actually followed and I had a genuine sense, despite my young age, of the sense of shock and disbelief.

Since then I've always connected strongly to John Lennon not in the sense that he was a musical genius or an icon of cool or a music rebel or any of those cliched ways. I connected with him because he was a failed product of the British class system.

His mixed upbringing, working class roots and a middle class home environment was the mirror of my situation but the result was the same. You fall between the cracks in the system on which a whole society is run. Lennon didn't belong, he was a pariah, or at least felt like it, and a wounded one at that. He simultaneously had contempt for everything around him and yet all he ever wanted was to accepted and loved as a human being by the very people he despised. It was a forlorn hope ; even more so after he became a star.

Behind the press conference quips and the rock n' roll swagger was a life of anguish that often manifested itself in self destruction, violence, self loathing and a complete lack of a sense of self identity. Consequently he flirted from one thing to the next ; homosexuality, heterosexuality, LSD, alcohol, spiritualism, atheism, hedonism, reclusiveness, political activism, cynicism. None of it ever fitted. He may have been a great talent but he was destined by forces more powerful than any individuals free will to suffer a sort of chronic disconnection from everything.

Ultimately, that's why I identify with John Lennon more than any other artist, perhaps even any human being. He carried the curse of the Nowhere Man and nothing could change that, no more than you can alter your ethnicity or skin colour - he was utterly vulnerable, dependent on others for any hope of happiness. It's interesting that when Lennon finally found the love he was looking for it was with a foreigner, someone untainted, unaffected by British class distinctions.

The Beatles used to cover 'Crying, Waiting, Hoping'. I suspect it was John Lennon's choice.

I was 11. Dad came home from work. I saw it on the news or some special report, not sure. It was sad. He was quiet. My Dad fairly conservative all his life, but always open minded explained to me tonight during a tribute on the news how beautiful he thought "Give Peace a Chance" always was and how he admired Lennon given what little he knew about him. I never knew he thought like that when I was 11. And now, at 83, one of a handful of times I have ever heard him have an opinion over an essential outspoken popular musical artist.

Sadly, I don't remember this happening or what I was doing in December, 1980.

In every documentary I've seen on John Lennon's life they show how happy he was being a father and for he most part, being out of the music business.

Your post was nicely argued... I think you pinpoint who Lennon was. Everyone hated Yoko but I always liked what her presence in England was and how in the middle of the "Beatle forcefield" she seemed to uplug things. I think she really did mean the world to Lennon... a world of freedom from his demons and the class warfare in his heart and head. Fucking peasants indeed...

I was 10. I remember hearing the news, but I don't remember where I was.
What I do remember is coming in to my 5th grade sometime later in the year, and our young, cute female teacher had created a "poetry" unit where we read, studied and listened to "Imagine", "Woman", and "Crippled Inside".