Cover of John LennonAs one generation remembers where they were when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor on a day in early December, another generation did the same thing the night John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City apartment.The details of what happened prior to the shooting have been well-documented. What happened after that was nothing short of unbelievable: Howard Cosell breaking news of the shooting during a "Monday Night Football" game. Radio stations temporarily scrapping their formats to play nothing but Lennon's music. The vigils in Central Park and in front of the Dakota apartments, where wife Yoko Ono asked for a few minutes of silent prayer. The number of former Beatles reduced to three.
What we learned about Mark David Chapman, the man who shot Lennon, was depressingly familiar when it came to the American way of assassination: Lone wolf trying to make a name for himself by killing (or at least wounding) a famous person, for reasons few could fathom.
Thirty years have passed. We are down to two Beatles since the death of George Harrison in 2001--Paul McCartney (Lennon's onetime songwriting partner) and Ringo Starr. Lennon's sons, Sean and Julian, had briefly successful music careers. And Yoko Ono is still keeper of the flame when she's not forging her own career as a singer and artist.
The Beatles? Forty years after their breakup (some still blame Ono), they keep making headlines. Just recently, the surviving members and the estates of Lennon and Harrison ended a long holdout by granting Apple permission to sell their music through iTunes. People wondered if there was a market for the songs, because everyone who has ever owned a Beatles CD or album have probably downloaded them into their mp3 players by now. The answer came when the Beatles' music topped the digital charts, just like in the old days.
All of which proves that you can kill the messenger, but you can't kill the message--or the music.
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