It's easy if you try...

30 years ago today around 9:30 pm I was most likely at grandma and grandpa's house, most likely in bed, asleep.  On Monday Night Football the Miami Dolphins were playing the New England Patriots.  Toward the end of the game, Howard Cosell made the announcement that John Lennon had been shot and killed. 

At the age of 7, this news really didn't phase me much.  Like I've said before, Ma really was more classically trained, and I'm pretty sure G'ma and G'pa weren't exactly members of the John Lennon Fan Club.  Because of this I just wasn't exposed to the Beatles, or really much of any pop music at all at that age.  It wasn't until I was 9 or 10 that I started listening to the radio a lot, and recognizing what was popular, even recording songs off of the radio.  I didn't have a fancy radio that had a built-in tape deck with which to record things, so I would take one of those old cassette recorders and put it upside down on my little clock radio and hope that no one made any noise so I could record "Electric Avenue" and "Mickey". 

Several years later I would start hearing the occasional early Beatles song: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There", and of course, thanks to Ferris Bueller, "Twist And Shout" (yes, I had heard it before that, but this obviously made more of an impact on me!).   On the "classic rock station" down there, US97, I started hearing some of the later stuff - "Day Tripper", "Helter Skelter" (as much as I hate to admit it, I first heard Motley Crue's version of this).  These songs appealed to me more due to the fact that I was getting more into hard rock and heavy metal. 

Throughout all of this, though, I never really heard a lot of John Lennon's solo stuff.  Every once in a while I'd catch "Woman", "Watching The Wheels", or "Instant Karma" on the radio.   My senior year of high school, some dude came in (I'm guessing a salesman) with a mobile karaoke machine/recorder (way before karaoke was popular) and all of us in Miss J's 4th hour band class got to pick one song to record.  We selected "Imagine".  My friend Shannon still has a copy of that recording - I'd really love to hear that again!

Anyway, long story short, it took me a long time to really get into his work, and everything he stood for and worked for.  The day after his death, Yoko Ono issued a statement saying, "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him."  Although I didn't really know any better at the time, today I am definitely mourning the loss of John Lennon on this, the 30th anniversary of his death.  Tonight's stroke is inspired by this photo.  RIP, John. Your work has touched countless lives, mine included.