Sad day in music history: December 8th, 1980

Name: Sad day in music history: December 8th, 1980
Uploaded: 2023-12-07T21:58:35+02:00
Channel: Radio Flora TM
Description: John Lennon On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot five times by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman outside The Dakota, the apartment building in New York City

December 7, 2023 158

On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot five times by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman outside The Dakota, the apartment building in New York City where John and Yoko Ono lived. Chapman had been stalking Lennon for days outside the building and asked for an autograph as Lennon walked through the courtyard.

Returning from the Record Plant studios where they had been working, John and Yoko had been dropped by their white limousine on the pavement outside the building rather than driving through the gates and into the building’s secure courtyard.

John Lennon - #9 Dream

The killer is Mark David Chapman, a stocky 25-year-old from Atlanta who was living in Hawaii. On October 23, he quit his job as a security guard, signing the logbook “John Lennon” on his way out. Four days later he buys a .38 revolver, legally, as he has no arrest record.

On December 5, he arrives in New York and checks into a YMCA near the Dakota building where Lennon lives with Yoko Ono, and begins hanging around outside the building like many other autograph seekers (Roberta Flack, Leonard Bernstein and Lauren Bacall also live there).

He checks out of the Y the night of December 7, and the next afternoon, he spots Lennon and gets an autograph. Lennon heads to the recording studio, and when he returns hours later, Chapman is waiting in the entryway with a paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye and the gun. Assuming a combat stance, Chapman fires five shots at Lennon, who staggers and falls dead. The killer sits on the sidewalk and waits for police to arrive.

The shocking news spreads quickly – many hear about it for the first time when Howard Cosell makes the announcement on Monday Night Football. Ringo Starr flies to New York to visit Yoko, while George Harrison and Paul McCartney, stunned by the news and fearful, remain secluded. There is no funeral: Lennon’s body is cremated on December 10, and Yoko asks fans to participate in a “10-minute silent vigil” from wherever they are on December 14.

John Lennon

John Lennon displayed an outspokenness that helped redefine the rules of acceptable behavior for rock stars. He criticized America’s involvement in Vietnam, and, as the ’60s progressed, he became an increasingly important symbol of the burgeoning counterculture. But more than that, John Lennon was a brilliant artist. He wrote some of the most loved and moving songs of the last century. From Norwegian Wood to Imagine to I Am The Walrus to Revolution, and many many more.