John Lennon - 30 years

[Jim Price]

Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death; it was on the evening of December 8, 1980, when he was gunned down outside of his home in New York City.

It was one of those moments when I remember exactly what I was doing when the news broke. I was doing some cleaning work in the basement of my house, and had a small black and white television airing the Monday Night Football game. I remember hearing the late Howard Cosell breaking the story that John Lennon had been shot, and he then offered some reflections on Lennon, who actually had visited the broadcast booth and met Cosell during a previous Monday Night Football telecast.

I showed this article from the BBC's website to my newswriting classes on Wednesday. It is by a BBC reporter who was just starting his journalistic career as a New York correspondent. He was the first British reporter on the scene after Lennon's shooting, and he tells the story of the scene and how he had to wing it to get reports back overseas to Britain about the news.

The story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11926898

Of course, this happened 30 years ago...None of the students in my classes had even been born yet when Lennon was shot. How time flies...

[joltinjeff]

I remember seeing it on the news the day after and seeing all the people outside the Dakota singing "Give Peace A Chance" and the flowers...laying on the sidewalk where Chapman gunned him down...we may never know what John would have done afterwards if he had lived and what more he could have offered musically. We can only Imagine what he would have given us...

[brian's girl]

rest in peace to my idol john lennon! give peace a chance!

[Banned]

I remember that Monday Night Football show where Howard Cosell announced the tragedy, probably most of us heard it first from watching that game. So surreal.

[RFBuck]

While the Beatles were disbanding just about the time I was being hatched, I later got into their music and like Jeff have often wondered what Lennon would have went on to do had he lived.
I can't remember which it was...VH1 or MTV (I believe it was VH1) made a movie about if John had never died and one day he and Paul got together to hang out for a day. Was a bit far fetched, but who can say? Was still a good movie.
And if anyone has a copy of that, please PM me. I'd love a copy myself to watch again.

[workinmanblue]

http://video.pbs.org/video/1657689250

[workinmanblue]

http://video.pbs.org/video/1657689250

[bassist_25]

I can't remember which it was...VH1 or MTV (I believe it was VH1) made a movie about if John had never died and one day he and Paul got together to hang out for a day. Was a bit far fetched, but who can say? Was still a good movie.
And if anyone has a copy of that, please PM me. I'd love a copy myself to watch again.

I remember that movie, perhaps because I remember the one part where they go out on the town and end up smoking a giant joint wrapped in pink paper that would make Cheech and Chong say, "Damn, that's a huge joint!"

From what I understand, the movie was based on a rumor that John and Paul actually did get together for a day after The Beatles broke up.