I was listening to WDVE, in my freshman-year dorm at CMU, when I heard John Lennon had been shot & then that he was dead. Amid the grief and dismay of that day, I remember thinking: Well, he had already done so much, he had a full life, he *was* 40! (I was not yet 18.) - ThreadSky

michaelchabon.bsky.social • 93 days ago

I was listening to WDVE, in my freshman-year dorm at CMU, when I heard John Lennon had been shot & then that he was dead. Amid the grief and dismay of that day, I remember thinking: Well, he had already done so much, he had a full life, he *was* 40! (I was not yet 18.)

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michael5mackay.bsky.social•93 days ago

I too was a freshman. Weird night for sure.

kimstandsup.bsky.social•93 days ago

DVE Rocks! CMU Arch’87 here. I heard the report on the car radio. NYC seemed so far away.

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•92 days ago

I was waiting in line to pick up sandwiches at Zorba's Pizza in Syracuse, NY. I was a junior, and it was, I think, the first such assassination I'd been aware of -- I was 7 when MLK and RFK were killed.

And then I was in London for the whole of the next semester, and I don't think "Imagine"...

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•92 days ago

...left the top ten the whole time I was there. That, and "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" were in heavy rotation for months.

bertonaverre.bsky.social•93 days ago

This may sound awful, but for some of my heroes who died young, I sensed they had already done their best work. Hendrix was my idol. As a young kid I already felt he'd lost much of his magic dust, before he died. For Lennon, I felt some of that as well. Maybe they just set too high a bar.

michaelchabon.bsky.social•93 days ago

Well, to be clear, everyone who dies, at any age, has already done their best work. But I think I know what you mean. It would be (has been) tough for anyone to top “founded the Beatles,” though.

masonradkoff.bsky.social•91 days ago

I was on the corner of Forbes and Murray, waiting for the 61c bus to take me to my first job in construction. I recalled being four years old and overhearing that someone named Martin Luther King had been shot, and that the city seemed strange and the East Liberty Diary Queen was destroyed.

ellisb77.bsky.social•93 days ago

He always struck me as something of a contrarian and, tragic though his murder was, at least his fans have been spared any latter year renunciations of his earlier era comments or embracing regressive positions. The one thing about being dead is that at least you can’t disappoint people.

mimiandelman.bsky.social•93 days ago

Also mind-blowing, he would be 84 if he were alive today.

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