Blogcritics on John Lennon

25 years ago, on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon, 40, returned home to his apartment building from the midtown Manhattan recording studio Hit Factory at 10:50 p.m. with wife Yoko Ono. Mark David Chapman’s voice called out, “Mr. Lennon!” He pointed a handgun at a generation’s avatar of peace and shot him four times. Lennon’s last words were, “I’m shot.”

Though a powerful and incisive personality, an extraordinary singer/songwriter, and the soul of the greatest band in rock ‘n’ roll history, John Lennon, especially in martyred death, is also something of a palimpsest upon which we write our own tales of cultural meaning, longing, and regret, and bandy about his legacy for purposes of enlightenment, edification and naked profit.

We have been trying to come to terms with Lennon’s work, image and life since our inception:

“Imagine” the Dumbest Protest Song Ever
I once described “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye as the dumbest protest song ever. But perhaps I spoke too soon, for there’s certainly a lot of competition for such a title. Perhaps “Imagine” by John…
Posted to Music by Al Barger on December 9, 2005 12:10 PM

Lennon: It Was 25 Years Ago
He lived only ten blocks away from me. I was sure I’d run into him sometime, perhaps in Central Park.
Posted to Music by Adam Ash on December 9, 2005 06:11 AM

Remembering John Lennon’s Death
At this point, I swear I hate that “Imagine” song worse than Huck Finn hated church on Sunday morning, and for similar reasons. Makes me want to shoot somebody myself.
Posted to Culture by Al Barger on December 8, 2005 08:04 PM

Remembering Lennon and Dancing on Dec. 8
We remember John Lennon in our individual ways. I do it through dance.
Posted to Music by Natalie Davis on December 8, 2005 10:12 AM

Music Playlist: John Lennon Covers
Play It with Rhapsody 25 Years ago today Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon outside the Dakota apartment building in New York City where he…
Posted to Music by Robert Burke on December 8, 2005 08:41 AM

John and Yoko Write Back
In 1972 when I was 12 years old, I wrote a letter to Yoko Ono, spoofing her music with a drawing of sheet “music to wilt cement by” and, a few weeks later, to my utter amazement, I received this…
Posted to Music by Barry Stoller on December 8, 2005 08:19 AM

John Lennon Remembered
“They shake their heads and look at me as if I’ve lost my mind, I tell them there’s no hurry…”
Posted to Music by GoHah on December 6, 2005 06:11 AM

John Lennon Meets Jerry Garcia
The night Lennon and Garcia met in New York City
Posted to Music by Justin Kreutzmann on December 1, 2005 08:53 AM

Twenty-Five Years Later: Thinking About John Lennon
He was the right man in the right time, and his death marked the end of that time.
Posted to Music by gypsyman on November 30, 2005 05:42 AM

DVD Review: The Dick Cavett Show – John & Yoko Collection
A three-episode collection that provides insight into John Lennon and Yoko Ono and their role and life in the early 1970s.
Posted to Video by Tim Gebhart on November 21, 2005 10:07 AM

Lennon Solo Catalogue to be Released Online and The Daily Music and Tech News
John Lennon catalogue to be sold online. Lennon’s greatest hits compilation Working Class Hero was made available on the web this week with the rest of his collection following on December 6th. The music will be available through…
Posted to Music by Katharine Donelson on November 9, 2005 05:24 PM

Greatest Magazine Covers Announced
The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) announced its 40 greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years yesterday, with Rolling Stone’s January 22, 1981 cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono given top honors. In the Annie Liebovitz…
Posted to Books by Eric Olsen on October 18, 2005 07:46 AM

John Lennon at 65
October 9, 1940 is John Lennon’s birthday which means he would be turning 65 this year and it’s 25 years since his death.
Posted to Music by Bryce Zabel on October 3, 2005 12:41 PM

Lennon Will End It’s Broadway Run After Only Six Weeks: A Look At Why
Unfortunately, Lennon failed on so many levels that I have to say honestly that the critics got it right this time.
Posted to Music by Victor Lana on September 17, 2005 07:43 PM

Major Lennon Memorabilia Sale Nets $1.75 Million
Cooper Owen, specialists in “Rock Legends” memorabilia auctions, yesterday sold $1.75 million worth of John Lennon items during a sale at London’s Hippodrome nightclub. The Big Tuna of the sale — called by Cooper Owen…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on July 29, 2005 04:45 PM

When I SEE A Working Class Hero, I’ll Give Him Your Regards
John Lennon. Idol yes, hero no.
Posted to Books by Michael J. West on July 29, 2005 02:10 PM

NYC’s Hit Factory to Close
Sadly, this solicitation no longer holds: “The worlds largest and most successful commercial recording facility.” “The completion of the Hit Factory in ’93, set a new bench mark against which many recording facilities will be judged well into the…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on February 4, 2005 04:55 PM

John Lennon – Acoustic
Working class hero I picked up John Lennon’s ‘Acoustic’ disc today. It is quite an interesting bunch of songs. The bulk of which can be…
Posted to Music by Lono on November 6, 2004 03:16 AM

Chapman Parole Transcript Released
Speaking of bad weeks – how about a bad life? Does anyone think the world wouldn’t be a better place if Mark David Chapman had never been born? The transcript of Mark Chapman’s recent parole hearing was released…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on October 15, 2004 06:28 PM

Lennon Drawings
We mentioned yesterday that John Lennon murderer Mark Chapman was denied parole. In more, and far more positive Lennon news, next month will see the release of a remastered and expanded version of Lennon’s 1975 Rock ‘n’…
Posted to Culture by Eric Olsen on October 7, 2004 11:47 AM

John Lennon Finally Freed By the FBI
Historian Jonathan Wiener, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, has finally freed the last 10 pages of the FBI’s secret files on John Lennon, 21 years after his effort began: U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi rejected government…
Posted to Politics by Eric Olsen on September 30, 2004 08:22 PM

John Lennon’s Jukebox
Most PBS stations air John Lennon’s Jukebox Wednesday as part of Great Performances. It originally was shown in March in England as part of the South Bank Show (and it was produced by Initial, part…
Posted to Video by Steve Rhodes on September 8, 2004 07:20 AM

Yoko Ono: Weapon of Mass Destruction
On September 16, 2003, Yoko Ono, unrepentant about her previous crimes against humanity in the form of her warped rendition of art, perpetrated her latest abomination in a small Paris theater to a crowd of 200. Yoko, famed for her ability…
Posted to Culture by Tom Norris on March 20, 2004 10:53 PM

“The Late Great Johnny Ace” Paul Simon
Generally speaking, the wistful laments of singer/songwriters don’t much impress me.
Posted to Music by Al Barger on January 23, 2004 03:39 PM

Criminy, but Yoko’s a bitch
Yoko Ono came closer to making John Lennon happy than any other woman, so I want to grant her a lot of credit for being therapeutically effective for a great man. That was a valuable contribution to society. Still, Jesus…
Posted to Video by Al Barger on December 21, 2003 02:36 AM

Ferris Bueller, the Beatles, and the Death of John Lennon
The anniversary of John Lennon’s murder is December 8 – I look at the nexus of John Hughes’ classic ’80s teen movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Beatles and the death of John. Ferris The premise of the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day…
Posted to Video by Eric Olsen on December 4, 2003 04:16 PM

FOR SALE – Album Lennon Signed for his Killer
The record album that John Lennon signed for the man who killed him hours later is for sale online. The album is being sold by an unidentified man who found it in the front gate flower planter…
Posted to Music by Blog Bloke on November 30, 2003 05:18 AM

John Lennon’s handwritten manuscript of “Nowhere Man” sold for $455,000 at auction Wednesday
Christie’s sold it; its pre-auction estimate was $80,000 – $100,000. Written on a piece of notebook paper in 1965, its price fell just short of George Harrison’s first guitar, which went for $473,000. The song was the fourth of…
Posted to Music by bookofjoe on November 22, 2003 04:54 PM

Paulie Rocks Liverpool, Accepts “Lennon and McCartney”
“It was 40 years ago today…” Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool Sunday for a hometown concert to cap a 14-month world tour. Some 30,000 fans were expected to attend the open-air show on the city’s docks, the final date…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on June 1, 2003 06:39 PM

Lennon-McCartney, I Mean McCartney-Lennon
My impression is that Paul McCartney, who has been very much in the public eye of late, is getting something of a bad deal with the mostly negative reaction to his crusade to flip-flop Lennon/McCartney to McCartney/Lennon on the…
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on December 19, 2002 12:14 PM

What Mark David Chapman took from me
Lennon’s death didn’t change my life the way it did the lives of Beatles fans. It didn’t impact me in quite the same way as someone who was mourning Lennon the man, or the music he created. I mourned something else.
Posted to Music by Michele Catalano on October 10, 2002 07:08 AM

Chapman Denied Parole
And some thoughts on John Lennon’s birthday.
Posted to Music by Eric Olsen on October 9, 2002 01:46 PM