Tonight is the 26th Anniversary of one of our greatest geniuses being slain.
**( This post is being reposted from last December 2005. Please see the Song that is posted tonight as well. I am sitting doing exactly what I was doing a year ago, watching CSPAN as the House has late night Vote, and I am blogging, praying for a better Future.I am eating cookie dough and drinking eggnog, and of course seeking inspiration over on YouTube, and of course I found some Lennon there....Good night Bloggers.)**
For me there are certain times of the year when I am filled with Loss, this is one of them. ( The Deathes of MLK, RFK and JFK are the other hallowed dark days). I can not help but remember these Brave Souls and ponder what might have been. I remember the night that Lennon was shot like it was yesterday. I came home from working late as a waitress, my outfit stained with lobster and butter. ( I held a number of jobs through nursing school- but lifeguarding and waitressing would pay most bills).
It was bitter cold, and I was rushing up the stairs to my walkup on the third floor. I was singing White Christmas too loud and off key. I was carrying a bag of Christmas supplies for a little Midnight get together I had planned to have with neighbors, Creme De Menthe, Baileys' Irish Creme, And Egg Nog, and cookie dough. I came up the stairs and I could hear muffled crying. I turned the landing to my apartment and found my neighbor Micheal sitting on the stairs crying, his head down buried in his fisherman knit sweater.
I stopped dead, I stopped too fast and dropped my bag. Only the Baileys broke. I had known Micheal for many years, and I had never seen him cry, even when his stepdad died.
What? I asked. He just said 'Lennon". WTF???? I thought I heard wrong. He explained it had just happened.
We both sat for quite a bit staring at the puddle helplessly seeping out of the bag.
We went inside and watched TV, and it didn't change a thing.
It didn't take away the reality and it didn't provide any comfort.
We stayed up the rest of the night, and sat on my fire escape with as many would fit. People showed up who I didn't know neighbors and strangers, it didn't matter. The Grief bound us in the moonlit night.
We lit candles and sang Beatles songs until 4am. And played Double Fantasy relentlessly on my record player. The Cops that came to tell us to be quiet ended up sitting on the Fire Escape and doing shots of Creme De Menthe. ( They weren't bad singers). There was no Kleenex , only a role of Charmin passed around.
For the rest of my days on a Cold night when I smell candles burning and Creme de Menthe I think of Lennon and hear IMAGINE being sung off key.
Maybe tonight we need to remember Lennon for a little while and oh, I can't help but think of the Music he would have written about This Mess of A War and this Administration and religousity wrapped crap, from the Patriot Act to Gitmo. He would have kept us humming and singing , Thinking too much and Protesting more. And it's 25 years and we are back we started. Tonight again there will be candles lit at the Enigma Cafe.
Imagine All The People......
*************************
Since I can't sing....some Quotes from Lennon.
[1] The More I see , the Less I Know.
[2] Reality leaves alot to the Imagination.
[3] Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law, it's nine-tenths of the Problem.
[4] My role in society , or any artists or poets 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 reflection of us all.
[5] Our Society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're all being run by maniacs for manical ends and I think I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's whats insane about it.
[6]Love is a Promise, Love is a souvenir once given, never forgtten. Never let it dissappear.
* Date Corrected: since I originally ran post on Dec 6th, Some other lovely tributes: The Defeatists, Snarky the Badtux Penguin, and This Ol' Brit's ....
Please also see the YouTube song above ....I keep thinking that John would have loved Youtube- don't you think ? Please see the great YouTube below.
Original Quotes are still on this post...as poignant as ever. Peace.
16 comments:
Another lovely story, enigma.
I think all those of 'a certain age' have special memories of Lennon - and the times we lived through, together.
I know I certainly do.
A nice memorial remembrance on Lennon. Thanks.
I found myself singing "Mother Superior jump the gun" in my head all day this day 25 years later.
And I'm still haunted by his murderer's remark that "the Beatles changed the world -- and I changed them."
All of us are changed.
It's amazing the detail that you remember from that one day, 25 years ago. I was only 9 when Lennon was murdered, but I know that feeling. It's that same sort of hollowness that engulfed me when I found out that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana had committed suicide. Not to say that Cobain was anywhere near as important or viable than J.L., but still, in the early to mid ninties, he was my generations anti-hero.
I often wonder though what J.L. would be doing now, and what he would say about this war.
RIP
I was 17, and a crazy retro Beatles fan for about a half dozen years by '80. I heard a flash about it on the radio, and had a odd calm. By eleven that night, my parents phone kept ringing from my friends, to see if I was okay. Between being numb, I also had this feeling...of course, they always kill you if you tell the truth.
We found out later it was a mentally ill guy who actually pulled the trigger. And they can quit documenting the mentally ill guy. No one cares what he said, what he says, or whatever. Senseless it remains.
I'm sorry John didn't have a chance to continue living, I'm glad he did have a bit of peace after fighting the US for visa (our fucking government! should have been proud to have him here...Howard Cosell was). Be nice to have his spin on the silliness these days...we know how he would feel. I'd love to hear what he'd SAY!
I respect him by not thinking of him as a icon, but a man. That's what he thought of himself. I love and miss him, and honor him by doing the work that's right. He did what he could -- and we'll do likewise. Power indeed to the People.
*m
Thanks to my little posse of visitors, and your memories and kind thoughts....We all have different touchstone moments of our lives...the important thing is what we do with those moments...what happens next...
and yeah maybe all of us are trying to get close to the Imagine Circle...just for a moment.
You forgot, "We're bigger than Jesus Christ!"
Hmm, so anon is amazed that no word on Bush- and no whining.....Beg to correct the only one I have seen whining is Bush- four very whiney petulent speeches in 10 days- why? because he LIED and got caught...and wait til Rovey gets cuffed and perpwalked myohymy the whining we will hear out of him.....Merry Christmas Anon.
Thanks for all the kind thoughtful comments..and yes, it is amazing the amount of detail I still remember , but sharing schnapps with cops on a fire escape and singing Imagine doesn't leave one's brain easily....Still miss Lennon...and what he would have had to say about the Spying Revelations now....Dec 2005
Dec 8th 2006....and wow..what a year and I still miss Lennon and wonder What Lennon would have to say about ALL of this....the War .....and the Idiot King.
You know the really sad thing, Enigma? I think if he'd survived then, he'd have been saying, writing and singing all the same things - regarding the Iraq invasion & occupation (I won't call it a war) -- but sadly, I think he'd have still met the same fate. Someone else would have 'shut him up'.
E4E.... Thanks for this post. Lennon forever lives in Spadoman's house. We still listen to the Beatles.
My favorite quote is:
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Just yesterday, at the coffee shop with the morning crowd. Olitics is always an issue. Most are liberal up here in Northen wisconsin, at least at the Black Cat. I was sitting there and someone was talking about the actual people of other countries and how they must think all Americans are ruthless arrogant assholes.
I started singing "Imagine" I spoke the words. Everyone at the table started quoting the things John mentioned. Religion, Countries, Heavan, Hell etc.. It was a great moment. His spirit paid me a visit me thinks.
All we are saying, is give Peace a chance.
That's an awesome post. John was a special person and an ispiration to us all. And the good news is that the younger generations just keep discovering him so his message lives on.
Mary: I wrote you offline- blogger was not letting me post comments to my own page- now it let me post. Yes John will live on forever...my son has been iPoding- and he listens to John and the Beatles alot..Marley too...the Messege will not die...ever.
SPADO: I think I need to come to such a place and have coffee , thanks for sharing that....wow.
RICHARD: I know that he would have been saying the same things- I know that....and how sad that we have to admit that...."They" can shoot the Messenger- but the Messege lives on,,,,,
I would have let the day go by even though I've never forgotten how I felt.
The girls don't really know who he was although they've heard of the Beatles but they know several of his songs.
He did leave a legacy and a void.
Ann
Post a Comment