I was asleep.
My brother, who was already up getting ready for school, woke me saying, "Get up, John Lennon was shot. He's dead."
My response was, of course, "Shut the fuck up." He told me to turn on the radio. It was true. And so, another of my heroes shot dead in cold blood. Fucking great. There was only one other kid in my elementary school class who was as into music, and specifically the Beatles, as I was. We wanted to stay home, but the death of a rock hero was not considered a sufficient excuse for staying home from school, but apparently the Phillies winning their first World Series title was.
But John wasn't just a rock hero to me. He was a revolutionary. He was a revolution. He made us rethink how we looked at the world; how we looked at civil rights, how we looked at women. I believe that if he could have, he would have set all of humanity free.
In some ways you did John. You set us free by helping us remember how to think, and feel. You set us free by toying with language. You set us free with music. And most of all, you showed us that human beings have the capacity to defeat their demons and change who they are, why they are, where they are, and how they are. He wanted us to reimagine the world.
Today seems like the perfect day to do that.
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1 comment:
i'm revealing too much, but i was in my parent's car when the news of john lennon's shooting was announced over the radio. i was on my way to long island to pick out the flowers for my wedding, oh joy. (marriage has since been dissolved.) as i sat in the back seat, prisoner of the driver, i sobbed and screamed, "take me home. i don't wanna get the damned flowers." you know how well that went over. we continued with the day and i was left to my own devices, trying to reconcile the murder of someone i revered, while picking out stinking bouquets for a wedding i didn't revere at all.
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