What happened on Saturday December 8th?

Ever since I began blogging I have done a December 8th post. Not because of Pearl Habour (though this is a event that changed the course of western democracy, allowing the creation of the super power to the south of Canada, but because of the death of a single man. Stupid right, how could one person (who is not a member of your family) be important enough to write about every year.

The morning of Dec 9th 1980 was a normal school day for me, I woke to the radio (Q107) and the announcer saying the John Lennon was dead, shot as he entered the building he lived in. Sounds odd, but the world stopped, and I walked around in a daze for the rest of the day. Here I was 17, and I was upset by the death of some guy I had never met. A great uncle had died that summer, I wasn't as upset about his death as I was by Lennon's. Why? I liked his music, I had grown up with it. Though we never had Beatles albums in my parents house (or at least until I had brougth home my copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a few summers before), when a Beatles song came on the radio (which is always on) the volume would go up. Mom was only 26 when she had me, I always thought that she really wanted to be a Beatles fan, but would never admit it.

John Lennon was a really good musician, a great lyricst, a member of a band that changed . But why did it upset me. I think it was the realization that everything was not hunky dory, that you could go out your door and not return. That just because something beautiful existed didn't mean that it couldn't be destroied. That the dreams you have might not come true and you do have to except reality.

Anyway here are a couple of John Lennon songs for you to remember him by. As I said about Norvel, celebrate his life. Buy his albums, share his ideas and dreams. They just might make the world a better place.


*The Beatles - Help! - Help!.mp3
*John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band-Working Class Hero.mp3
*John Lennon - Live in New York City -Instant Karma.mp3