Today marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon‘s murder. The former Beatles singer-songwriter was shot five times by a fan, Mark Chapman, in front of his New York home on the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West. Bewildered paramedics rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. In September this year, the now 55-year-old Chapman was denied parole for the sixth time.
In contrast to the jubilation that greeted the 70th anniversary of Lennon’s birth (which also took place this year), much of this week’s coverage has been characterised by a more respectful and reflective tone. Over at the BBC, the journalist John Shone recalls the reaction of Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, and their son, Julian, upon hearing the news of John’s death: “Julian . . . was a pupil at Ruthin School. He was asleep in the house, not knowing his father was dead . . . Cynthia turned up in a big limo with dark glasses on. She had a couple of minders with her and was hurried into the house without saying anything. She was in total shock, like everyone was.”
This weeks’ NME, meanwhile, features an interview with Yoko Ono, who still occupies the apartment where she was living with Lennon when he died: “It is the home John and I created together. Every wall witnessed John.”
And on Sunday, I interviewed Keith Elliot Greenberg, author of December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died (Backbeat Books), on Resonance 104.4FM’s Hello Goodbye Show. I asked him whether writing a book about Lennon’s death risked monumentalising Chapman’s act, thereby affirming his perverse quest for fame. We also talked about Lennon’s significance to New Yorkers, who view him as part of the local heritage.
In Liverpool, his childhood home, fans will be gathering at a candlelit vigil around Chavasse Park’s European peace monument (which was dedicated to Lennon on 9 October); others will be paying homage at the original Strawberry Field. Tomorrow evening, members of John’s first band, the Quarrymen, will be appearing at the Echo Arena, bringing to a close the city’s two-month-long Lennon season. The banjo player Rod Davis said: “We’re playing not to mark his death, but to celebrate his life.”
On a related note, here are extracts of an interview that Maurice Hindle conducted with Lennon in 1968, which appeared in last year’s Christmas issue of the New Statesman.
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