The Dream Is Over

Yoko Ono : Walking On Thin Ice

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The word spread like wildfire through the dormitory among those of us still awake and still studying that Monday night on December 8, 1980. John Lennon has been shot and killed by a crazed fan outside the Dakota on 72nd Street in New York City, a few blocks from where a classmate lived. How did we find out? Someone was watching the Monday Night Football game between Miami and New England, when Howard Cosell made the announcement:

There's a striking line in the tribute written by NME's Neil Spencer :

He died without reason at the hands of a madman in a city and country where psychosis, violence and assassination are virtually a way of life. Another celebrity in his position would have had a bodyguard, but that was not John Lennon's way. His trust, his willingness to stand naked before the world--sometimes literally-probably cost him his life.

Naked. That morning Lennon had completely disrobed for a series of photographs with Yoko Ono, taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Yoko was uncomfortable with the idea of removing her clothes so Leibovitz said she shouldn't. The image of Lennon wrapping himself around his wife would appear on the cover of Rolling Stone with no caption. Everyone knew who they were and what had happened. 

The night of the murder John and Yoko had returned to the studio to complete "Walking On Thin Ice", a song about the unpredictability of life that Lennon had called a smash, better than anything on Double Fantasy. 

They headed home for something to eat and that's when Mark David Chapman walked out of the shadows, dropped into a combat stance, and shot Lennon in the back. I'm not going to write anything else about him. Fuck that guy. 

  John Lennon, one of the most courageous artists of our time, has just found his second wind. If his honest look at his complicated marriage with Yoko wasn't your cup of tea, maybe something that came out later in the 80's or 90's might have you blown you away. We'll never know.

By the end of the year Lennon had three songs in the UK Top 10: (Just Like) Starting Over, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) and Imagine. Double Fantasy would sell three million copies. 

What are your memories of that day?