After John Lennon was murdered, it was about 10 years before I got over

[raccoon]

being pissed off about it.

Anyone else?

[Symarip]

1. I'm still not over Joe Strummer passing

I'm a little too young to feel the same way about John Lennon. But he was indeed a great man.

[tigereye]

4. I'm the same way about Strummer...

My son was so upset when he found out Lennon had been murdered, though...

[deutsey]

2. I woke up particularly early that day, which was odd for me.

I was in 11th grade and I was definitely one of those teenagers who practically had to be dragged out of bed in the morning.

But I woke up at around 5 a.m. or so that morning and, because I couldn't go back to sleep, I turned on my radio and found A Day in the Life playing...one of my favorite Beatles songs. I lay there listening to it in the dark and, as the final crashing chord faded, the DJ somberly announced that Lennon had been murdered.

I was in a daze for the rest of the day and, like you, it took a long time for me to fully get over that shock. I don't idolize Lennon...he was a flawed man, certainly; but he and his music had a profoundly positive impact on my life that continues to reverberate even today. In that sense, he lives on, I guess. Still, it would've been nice to have him around a bit longer.

[Ishoutandscream2]

3. Racoon, I'm still not over it

I was a college freshman when John was shot. Ironically, I didn't hear about it until the next day. I had an early class on Tuesday's (John was shot on a Monday night) and I actually went to bed early - very unusual for a 19 year old college student. When I saw the headline the next morning, my first reaction was "this can't be right." It's still like a nightmare.

I'm not over it, and I never will be. It was a senseless act. I try to address the reasoning behind it, but I can't. It made absolutely no sense.

If there's a hell, I hope Mark David Chapman goes there.

[applegrove]

5. I had a friend in highschool who was a huge Beatles fan. She was crying

in class the day the news broke. I wasn't affected that much. Of course it was sad news.

[Left Is Write]

19. My best friend was a HUGE Beatles fan. We were in 9th grade -

she stayed home from school the next day.

I was shocked, but not like her. She really grieved.

[applegrove]

25. I was in tenth grade. That seems to be an age where one is finally really aware of

the world around them and can be a big fan of someone like John Lennon. I know Pam was.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. the new biography of John Lennon is very GOOD.

John Lennon:The Life by Philip Norman

He interviewed Yoko, Sean, George Martin, and Paul, among many other people. So there are new insights.

[Lindsey]

7. I am also still not over it. I feel a connection with John Lennon

that I've never felt with any other celebrity or famous person. I guess his music resonates with me like nothing else ever has (and I'm really into music). Also, I believe he was one of the first celebrity political activists. He said what he thought and fought for what he believed in.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. I'm still pissed about it.

Not every day, but if I actually stop and think about it I am. I wasn't born yet when JFK was killed, and just barely out of diapers when they murdered MLK and Bobby. So Lennon's death was the first assassination I actually have any conscious memory of. And yes, it was an assassination, probably by the same people who did the others.

Strummer's death hit me hard as well. It was looking like the Clash might actually do a tour after their Hall of Fame induction, and I was really hoping to see it. Sadly, I never got the chance to see them live. And dying a couple days before Xmas really bummed out the holiday too.

[coyotespaw]

9. I'd beat every current Rock and Country musician

in the head with a crowbar just to get Johnny Cash back for an album or two...

[JVS]

11. I would do that for its own sake.

[KittyWampus]

17. I'd buy a bar full of people a beer to get Jerry Garcia back on stage.

[Left Is Write]

20. I'm still pretty sad about the passing of Joey Ramone.

[Breeze54]

10. I'm still not over it.

[astral]

12. I couldn't get over it

my co-worker laughed at the office when she told me. She said "Did you hear John Lennon got shot?" I said, is he dead? She goes, "Of COURSE he's dead!" with this stupid chuckle. She didn't even care. I was shell-shocked.

The Beatles were more well-known to some people than the name Jesus Christ himself. And here John had become a home-body house husband singing about having to quit the rat-race. What kind a role model is that?

A great one. He grew up to be an individual who thunk for himself. And although it's stupid and not healthy, I have not wanted to listen to his music ever since because it makes me feel so sad.

[Whoa_Nelly]

13. Still miss John

was just thinking about his tragic ending yesterday, and how if he had not been murdered, he probably would have lived a very long life.

Still miss George, too

[Critters2]

14. I must laugh about how I found out. I was just getting back to my dorm room

after my Soviet History final. Hadn't spoken to single soul since the test. Phone rings, it's my mom.

What I heard: "Did you hear Lenin's been shot?"

What she probably said:"Did you hear John Lennon's been shot?"

[MorningGlow]

15. I was a wreck for years

I was a HUGE Beatles fan, although I had just discovered them. (I was 15 when he was killed.) The thought that he's not with us still makes me very sad.

George was always my favorite, so when he died, only months after Douglas Adams, another favorite guy of mine, died, I just kind of went into a funk--just..."fuck it", you know?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. I suspect

John's rather pissed about it, too.

[NNadir]

18. I have been unable to eat since then. I have pulled out all of my hair.

I stopped working. I lost vision in one eye. All of my relationships fell apart. My cat got rabies from a squirrel.

I have rent my clothes and each day I go to the temple and wail at what has become of me.

I stopped teaching my children, feeling that all knowledge is useless.

I have given away all of my money and been evicted from my home, my car, my carboard box near the Dakota.

I have lost my teeth, parts of my liver, my spleen.

I have been unable to think about Dafur, Bosnia, Sri Lanka or any other topic, since only John Lennon could give them meaning.

Four hundred and ninety four people were murdered in New York in 2007. I have been unable to feel angry about a single one of them, since John Lennon was shot in 1980.

[blitzen]

21. I'm still trying to cope with the death of Jerry Reed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_h3E_wkYNo&feature=rela...


In all seriousness, I love both John Lennon and Jerry Reed

[sohndrsmith]

22. I'm still mad... in fact the older I got the more I appreciated

Lennon and the angrier I got. I'll never forget that day... my brother was far more upset than I was, and seeing him crying - the snow coming down... is etched on my mind forever.

The man was a poet, an artist, a witty philosopher, and so much more. It's tragic that someone chose to extinguish Lennon's life far too early. We all lost a lot, in my view.

[LoZoccolo]

23. I was completely over it once I

heard Oasis.

[graywarrior]

24. I thought about John on election night

I was with Obama staff and volunteers in a bar and suddenly I remembered that John wasn't around to see this and it pissed me off. I probably think more about his passing than I do my own parents.

[Mad_Dem_X]

26. I'm still pissed.

I hope his murderer never gets out of jail, because he won't survive 24 hours on the streets before someone takes him out.

[oustemnow]

27. I still choke up this time of year when I think about it.

I was 13 when he was murdered, and had just started to get into the Beatles big-time.

To me, his assassination was sort of the perfect symbolic opening for the 80s; the forces of good slaughtered by some craven shmuck who tried to gain through force what he could not acquire through grace or compassion.

[kedrys]

28. I don't think I'll ever get over John's death

He was stolen from us.

I appreciate his work and his life more and more as time passes, and it pisses me off more and more that he's not here anymore.

I learned the news from my college squeeze, who phoned with these words: "John Lennon was just shot in front of his apartment block. He is no more."

I just stood in my dorm room, unable to even hang up.

Fuck.

[Ivan Sputnik]

29. I'm still pissed about it.

And sad, when I think about it. The only consolation, as I see it, is we that we still have the music. I think the last eight years would have been a little easier to bear if he had been around to comment in his inimitable fashion.