Practically 2 months prior to this date, John Lennon celebrated his 40th cycle around the sun. He had hit what some considered a career renaissance, with his album “Double Fantasy” becoming a runaway hit. On the morning of December 8th, he was doing a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone ( back when rock and roll magazines were the shit ), a photo that became iconic as soon as it was published:
Life was good for John, until later that evening...
Mark David Chapman. Who’s name is forever linked infamously with John Lennon, due to him pulling the trigger on a gun aimed at John five times.
There was NO internet, NO social media, NO cable news networks spin doctoring the propaganda flavor of the day, just the 3 main broadcast stations, ABC, CBS, and NBC. News traveled slowly those days, so slow it was an advantage for the media as a whole, but not that night.
That night during a Monday Night Football - ABC broadcast between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, Howard Cosell, delivered the sobering news to the country, as it was coming in from New York, to the broadcast booth.
Today, 40 years later, the world is as different now as 1940 was as different to 1980 then. John was such a cultural force for obvious reasons, the Beatles changed the way the world thought of pop music, and their message of love, hope, and fun spoke across generations.
Individually they all had success, but John, as flawed as a human being like the rest of us, always felt the need to craft a song that simply channels the energy of the time it was written in, a moment in the space / time continuum that captures the vibe of its day.
2020 has been hard for everyone, and collectively we are all ready to put this year behind us and move on. In honor of John Lennon and how his life as an artist has had a tremendous impact on me, I crafted a mashup of Coldplay’s “Sparks” and John’s masterpiece...
Well, please... just have a listen. I made this for all of us, for we all need to stop sometimes, breath, and reflect on life in general, for that is okay. Much love to all and Happy Holidays.
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