John Lennon
Year: 1980; Age: 40
After five years of seclusion
in the late 1970s, where he
focused nearly all his energy
on wife Yoko Ono and their
newborn son Sean, the former
Beatle was finally ready to
return to public life in late
1980. He was clean and sober
and eager to share his new
album Double Fantasy with the
world. “Wasn’t the Seventies
a drag?” he said. “Well, here
we are, let’s make the Eighties
great because it’s up to us to
make what we can of it.”
Double Fantasy – a
collaborative double record
with Ono – hit shelves on
November 17th and earned
the best reviews of his career
since Imagine nine years
earlier. Opening track “(Just
Like) Starting Over” reflected
his optimism about the future,
and on December 8th he
spent the day talking to local
radio stations, posing nude
for Rolling Stones’ cover at
his New York apartment and
heading over to the Record
Plant to work on a remix of
Ono’s song “Walking On Thin
Ice.” He arrived home and
encountered a fan, Mark David
Chapman, who shot him
five times at close range. He
was pronounced dead at the
hospital.
The news was announced
on Monday Night Football
by Howard Cosell, sending
mourners to the building
site to share their grief, sing
songs of peace and try to
make sense of the horrific
tragedy. “John Lennon meant
everything,” Tom Petty told
Rolling Stone in 2000. “When
I was young and seeing the
Beatles performing on TV, they
were the first ones who weren’t
just saying showbiz banter.
They’d actually say something.
He was great role model for
my whole generation.” AG
iconz magazine