December 9th 1980 WPLJ

For topics that don't quite fit anywhere else...
Fun 4 None
Posts: 370
Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2021 3:29 am
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 16 times

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by Fun 4 None »

MarkRJones1970 wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:55 pm Sometimes I watch news reports about John's death and hope they report he survived and I suddenly realise the last 42 years have been a bad dream of which I've just woken up from.
How long have you been a Beatles fan? I can only imagine how horrible it must've been to learn about John's passing at age 10.
User avatar
Ziggy C
Posts: 551
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:10 am
Location: Woodland Hills, CA
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 125 times

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by Ziggy C »

I was in my sophomore year at high school. I had just bought Double Fantasy and the Starting Over single the previous week. I was excited that John Lennon was thinking about returning to the stage. Hopeful about what all that might portend. And then....

I'm sorry. A very large piece of my youth died that night. I stopped caring about a lot of things in that moment. It was an emotional painful time brought on by that f&khead Chapman. It's still hard to put myself back in that exact moment when my mom broke the news to me.
User avatar
MarkRJones1970
Posts: 490
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:52 am
Location: Manchester, UK
Has thanked: 174 times
Been thanked: 75 times
Contact:

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by MarkRJones1970 »

Fun 4 None wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 11:48 pm
MarkRJones1970 wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:55 pm Sometimes I watch news reports about John's death and hope they report he survived and I suddenly realise the last 42 years have been a bad dream of which I've just woken up from.
How long have you been a Beatles fan? I can only imagine how horrible it must've been to learn about John's passing at age 10.
I liked some of their songs before 9 Dec 1980, I was aware of things like Yellow Submarine and Mr Moonlight & a couple of others, but only really realised who they were when I watched Help! on UK TV with my Dad the night of John's death. Dad picked me up from school for my lunch break. I could see something was up. So I said "What's up with you?" and he told me.

After watching Help! that night I became besotted with them. I was 10 years old at the time.

This was the VERY FIRST major event that really affected me. For weeks I had to hide my face from my family whenever there was something on the news about it as I could quite easily have cried and cried. I did sometimes in my room when I was on my own. I was so embarrassed to be THAT upset about someone I'd never met.
Last edited by MarkRJones1970 on Thu Aug 18, 2022 3:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mark R. Cobley-Jones
Manchester, UK
Fun 4 None
Posts: 370
Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2021 3:29 am
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 16 times

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by Fun 4 None »

MarkRJones1970 wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 3:56 am
Fun 4 None wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 11:48 pm
MarkRJones1970 wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:55 pm Sometimes I watch news reports about John's death and hope they report he survived and I suddenly realise the last 42 years have been a bad dream of which I've just woken up from.
How long have you been a Beatles fan? I can only imagine how horrible it must've been to learn about John's passing at age 10.
I liked some of their songs before 9 Dec 1980, I was aware of things like Yellow Submarine and Mr Moonlight & a couple of others, but only really realised who they were when I watched Help! on UK TV with my Dad the night of John's death. Dad picked me up from school for my lunch break. I could see something was up. So I said "What's up with you?" and he told me.

After watching Help! that night I became besotted with them. I was 10 years old at the time.
Thanks for sharing your stories.
User avatar
Lord Reith
Posts: 4608
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:22 am
Location: BBC House
Has thanked: 140 times
Been thanked: 3973 times

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by Lord Reith »

I remember it hit me hard because only a few years before my parents had started buying me the albums one at a time for birthdays and Christmas. I think I had all their stuff by then except the German songs and I had tentaively started buying singles of their solo stuff (wasn't going to risk my pocket money on an entire album).

I bought My Sweet Lord, Waterfalls, I've Had Enough and a few others. Then one night in the second half of 1980 I was listening to the Top 40 as was my habit on a Sunday night. Halfway through the deejay started talking about how John Lennon was recording a new album after 5 years, and "Sources say there is enough material for a double album - just imagine that!" and with that he spun the song Imagine and I totally flipped. I had never heard that song before. I went right out the next day and bought the single. I was so full of anticipation for this new John album. Closer to the time of release you started to hear soundbites of John plugging his new album on the radio. It was really exciting and I can remember first hearing that slow intro to Starting Over and shivers went down my spine. Remember, this was before John had been deified and people had largely written him off as a hasbeen, so to see him suddenly back on the scene with all guns blazing was really terrific. He was after all the guy who created The Beatles. It was a big deal for anyone who was a Beatles fan.

After that it's all a blur except for that afternoon where I heard the news. I just remember hearing that intro to Starting Over being played again and again every time there was a news item, except now tinged with a horrible irony that was never intended.

I kept all the newspapers from those few days too, now moldy and yellowed with age. It was just a horrible, horrible thing.
Nimbus
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2021 11:42 pm
Has thanked: 125 times
Been thanked: 126 times

Re: December 9th 1980 WPLJ

Post by Nimbus »

Where does one start on this subject. I was about 18 in 1980 and had been a Beatles fan since about 1974. I remember my mother waking me up about 6am in the morning saying that John had been shot. I sleepily put on my radio alarm and they were playing 'Rain'. I still associate that song with John's death. I went to work as normal but as others on here, I was in a state of shock. I was working with older guys who had grown up with The Beatles and couldn't understand that they weren't as devastated as I was. 'He was only a pop star' - being the usual reply. On the Sunday, me and my girlfriend caught the train from Manchester to Liverpool and joined the thousands of others paying our respects. That too passed in a haze. The only consolation was that he was at the top of his game, and a happy man, when he died. Years later I remember listening to the Double Fantasy out-takes and was so relieved to hear that he was in such good spirits and had so much drive. He wasn't the sad Howard Hughes figure that was often fostered by the press and gutter authors.

Anyway, here's the BBC Radio doc 'I Was John Lennons Trauma Surgeon' from 2017. This features the genuine surgeon (Dr David Halleran) not the phoney Dr Lynn. I would say 'happy listening' but that's not really the case here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tfsqb

or

hxxps://we.tl/t-bW9wWVGXMA
Post Reply