I've recounted this story this many times before on other Lennon Anniversaries but as today is what would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday, I feel I should tell this story one more time and archive it My Tales From The Orange Room Blog.
Mind Games was the first John Lennon album I remember buying in real time...that is, right when it came out. September 1973 and my bedroom had just been made over to its glorious BURNT ORANGE COLOR!!! LEMON YELLOW SHAG CARPET AND BLACK FURNITURE WITH YELLOW AND ORANGE DRAWERS.....A BLACK VINYL HIDE A BED as a final touch!!! The ORANGE ROOM was my home base, my headquarters and certainly my record listening room.
I had all his records by then and all the Beatles LPS. When Walls And Bridges came out the following October, I remember it feeling like a personal letter had been sent to me from an old friend. He was telling my what had been going on in his life and I would listen to every word. I just loved the sound of his voice.
There was the ROCK AND ROLL album that came out under the radar in February of the next year but after that.....silence. Stories were that John had got back with Yoko Ono and they had a baby. John was now retired. For how long, no one knew. In those five years between 75-80, I had graduated high school, experienced my first serious pains of lost love, began collage, quit college, moved into a house with the drummer of our band, played in rock n roll bands and eventually moved back home. I had signed up for Winter semester classes at ICC earlier the day of John Lennons death. I had come full circle.
It was sometime after 10:00 that Monday night. I had taken my girlfriend at the time to a movie and we had been listening to John Lennon Mind Games on an 8 Track cartridge in my car on the way home. I pulled out the tape just as we began heading down Pearson Hill. When we got to the bottom of Pearson and about to turn onto Farmington Rd, The DJ broken in with a special report. John Lennon had been shot in his New York City Apartment. What did we just hear? What? Surely this was a joke? Things were sketchy but by the time I got to my girlfriends house it was confirmed. John Lennon was pronounced dead.
My mother met me at the door when I arrived home. This was before cell phones. She asked if I had heard the news and by my reaction she could tell I had. She was crying as well. As I said, this was before cell phones so my parents phone rang off the hook for hours...friends asking if I'd heard and how I was doing. Everyone knew I was a big fan. My family had just had cable TV installed that year so I watched the news until 4:00 in the morning. I just kept hoping there had been a mistake.
I remember my band, the Untouchables were set to play a gig in Macomb the following Wednesday and things just didn't feel right that night. We did our Beatles tunes but our hearts were not into it. The following weeks were consumed with Lennon Documentaries on TV and his music all over the radio, especially songs from his recently released record, Double Fantasy. Lennon was due to begin recording another album after the first of the year and a tour to follow. Things were going to be big....a new beginning.
The Monday night marked the end of my childhood and the following month I went back to school and began the next chapter of my life. Innocence had been stripped for good. The terror of 9-11 and the death of my own son in March of 2020 only proved to remind me that my best days were behind me. Happy 80th John! I'm sure you would have a lot to say about our world today.
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