31st Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

On December 8, 1980 in New York City in front of the Dakota Building, John Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman. He was only 40 years old. He was just getting his life back together; he rescued his friendship with Paul, renewed his relationship with his first son Julian, returned to the recording studio, stopped drugs, and was a loving father to his second son, Sean. But that was cut short, much too short.
        John was born John Winston Lennon on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, England. An only child (until he found out about a half-sibling that he didn't know about until he was 17), he grew up in the wealthiest family of the Beatles, but a dysfunctional one at that. John was born to Julia and Alfred Lennon, but his dad left to live overseas when he was five. At that point, John was given the choice to live with Julia or Alfred and he ultimately chose Julia. John wasn't to see his father until a chance meeting in the mid- 1960s. However, Julia proved to be an immature woman who was not prepared to take on the job of raising a child, so John's Aunt Mimi took him in. She was a strict and conservative woman, who disapproved of Julia, Elvis, and especially guitar. She once said to him "guitar's alright for a hobby, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." However, John, from the get-go had always abhorred authority. He rebelled against Mimi, his school, his headmasters, and his church and this was only enhanced when he discovered, like three other young boys around his age in the same area, rock n' roll and the guitar.
        In 1957, John met Paul. He and Paul had a mutual friend who invited Paul to one of the Quarrymen's (John's high school band) gigs. Paul tried out and was invited to join the band as another guitar player. George was then brought to a concert by his friend, Paul, and was asked to join after he played the song "Raunchy" superbly. Everything was going great, until tragedy struck the Lennon household. In 1957, Julia was hit by a speeding car and killed instantly. John was devastated. He had regarded her as a friend. Paul, whose mother had died of breast cancer when he was 12, was able to identify with John's feelings and comforted him. It is this, that greatly strengthened their friendship and songwriting compatibility.
        After returning from Hamburg, Germany, John and his band were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1962. The Beatles immediately rose into international superstardom. From 1963 to 1966, they toured incessantly, playing to an audience seemingly deaf to their music. Like the other four, superficiality no longer interested John. He was looking for something more. After the Beatles stopped touring, they traveled to India in 1968. Searching for spiritual fulfillment affected John deeply, and with the help of LSD, he, for the time being, found God. People who know the story of John, will know that John professed many different religions and ideas throughout his lifetime, one of these being atheism. Despite this, he always remained true to the idea of peace on earth and advocated that from 1967's "All You Need Is Love" to his famous "Grow your hair for peace" and his very famous song "Give Peace a Chance."
         In 1967, John met Yoko, marrying her in 1969. Yoko changed his life and ultimately drew him away from the Beatles. She was a Japanese artist who taught him to look inward at what he had done in his life. John and Yoko soon became inseparable and he called it quits with the Beatles in 1970. His post-Beatles life consisted of ups and downs. Hard drugs soon entered his life, such as cocaine and heroine and Yoko even sent him away to clean up his act. By 1980, he did. His first son, Julian (for whom "Hey Jude" is for), was born in 1963, at the height of Beatlemania. John was not a very good father for him and it created a considerable amount of strain on their relationship throughout the Beatles and the ten years that John had after them. But with the birth of his second son, Sean, with Yoko in 1975, John became the responsible father that he should have been for Julian and consequently repaired his relationship with him. He started talking to Paul and the others again, and began writing songs to jumpstart his career.
         But madness was brewing. Mark David Chapman was an obsessive fan of the Beatles. Everything they did, he did, venturing into moptops and LSD. A mentally ill fan, he began to hear voices in his head  that told him to kill John Lennon in the name of Jesus Christ. Chapman converted to Christianity and made it his sole goal to destroy this "advocate for the devil." In 1980, he traveled to New York City, where John and Yoko lived, to kill who was once his idol. Around 11:00 pm on December 8, as John and Yoko walked out from the Dakota Building, Chapman yelled "Mr. Lennon!" and shot John in the back. He was captured by police who arrived immediately, but the ambulances were too late. John died soon after.
         The legacy of the Beatles and John Lennon, who is arguably the most famous and revered of the four, is massive. He wrote some of the most amazing songs that not only changed the face of rock n' roll, but also greatly impacted the world socially. It's crazy to think that it's been 31 years since he died, and I wasn't even alive to see it! It's an incredibly sad story and one that Paul captures perfectly in his "conversation he never had" with John, "Here Today." Chapman ended the life of a true artist much too soon. All we can do now is listen to his music and think of what he did for music and people everywhere.
                                                      JOHN LENNON 1940-1980