Memories of Lennon

I stole this thread idea from my radio station. Yeah I sure get props for originality don't I?

Since this year would have been his 65th birthday, and is the 25th aniversary of his death, it's time to celebrate the life of John Lennon.

So as the title of this post says, post your memories of John Lennon. Memories of the first time you heard the beatles, a funny quote he may have said, the first time you heard your favourite lennon song, where you were when you found out he died, a time when you may have been so lucky as to have met him, or any other random memory/thought.

25 years gone.... without John!

Okay, at the time I posted this I didn't have a memory, but now I do. It was last winter, I was walking home one cold february afternoon, the snow was calf deep on the sidewalk, and it was still falling. I was listening to three tracks from imagine, (how, imagine, and oh my love) durring my walk home, and the tempo's and melody's and instrumentals of those songs just matched the mood completley, the peacefulness of the afternoon.

I hope you don't mind if it isn't a good memory.

I haven't told many people here my thoughts or opinions of John. Perhaps it is time to do so. My recent 'obsession' and education of The Beatles has certainly given me a more rounded opinion of the man.

My first memory of John Lennon was when my mother brought the book Grapefruit home. She spent the next decade idolizing John and Yoko. This was a time of great change in my household. Before my mother 'discovered' John & Yoko I remember her as a typical 50's housewife and mother. From the moment of her liberation our household lives changed drastically. I became an instant latchkey child, while she was off to Europe, New York and who knows where else searching for herself.

I was quite young...9 or so....and of course put alot of blame on J & Y....and it has only been recently that I have been able to 'forgive' them.....my mom too. She has been gone 16 years this month....I think it is about time.

My memory is of a good singer and a good songwriter.

My first real memory of John (as distinct from The Beatles as a whole) was when I saw that "Salute to Sir Lew Grade" special on TV, the one where John does the song with the people with the half man/half woman masks? I thought that was the WEIRDEST THING EVER, nothing in my little small-town teenaged life had prepared me for conceptual art, that's for sure. I also remember being glad I was watching it on the little black and white TV in the basement instead of the big color one in the den with my mom because my mom would have been all up in my face about how WEIRD it was and how it must be because he took DRUGS and blah blah blah...

When I was 15 years old, my boyfriend at the time just idolized John Lennon. So, being the good girlfriend I was, I went down to the bookstore and bought him Robert Freeman's book as a Christmas gift. Of course, being the giant Beatles fan he was, he already had a copy (plus we broke up a few months later...darn. ) so I ended up keeping it. One day, I flipped right to the middle, where Freeman shares his memories of John, to see what all the fuss was about.

The first thing that struck me about John was how absolutely gorgeous he was! The second was how (ultimately) sad his life had been. Here was a man looking for love that always seemed to be just out of reach. A brilliant songwriter, arrogrant and nonchalant on the surface, a man who could slice right through you with a cruel joke...and yet he had such a great capacity for love beneath the rough exterior. Something about that instantly endeared me to him, and from that point on, I've been a die-hard Johnny girl. And Robert Freeman's book will always be my favorite.

Of course, the second book I read was Goldman's, but that's a different story altogether...

1980-1981 was my senior year in high school (in the same district in Georgia that MDC went to school in, BTW). After graduation in June, my friend Ed and I planned to go to NYC and hang around outside the Dakota to meet John and Yoko. I finally made it to the Dakota in 1984 and just sobbed.

Oh, and my FIRST memory of him was seeing Yellow Submarine at the Theatre when I was 4 in 1968. I thought it was all a dream for a long time.

It's now nearly 30 years since we lost John. The pain is still as strong as ever. RIP.

my first good memory of john was when i was 10 sitting in the living room with my stepdad and looking around at all his beatle memorabilia then looking at tv just as the Twist and Shout sequence of the Anthology came on. I could not believe how gorgeous the man was. ever since then ive been in love with him lol

Originally Posted by Johnnys Girl<3

my first good memory of john was when i was 10 sitting in the living room with my stepdad and looking around at all his beatle memorabilia then looking at tv just as the Twist and Shout sequence of the Anthology came on. I could not believe how gorgeous the man was. ever since then ive been in love with him lol

My first "encounter" with John Lennon was pretty much the same. The Beatles Anthologies were shown on the TV and my parents were watching. I was about twelve or so and was walking through the living room to go to the kitchen and as I took a quick glimpse at the telly, I saw John (and the rest of the lads) performing Love Me Do in ´63. I remember just standing still, listening to the music and gawking at him - such a beautiful man! I guess that was one of my first experiences with romantic and maybe even sexual feelings towards someone of the opposite sex.