October 3, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

WORKING CLASS HERO REMEMBERED

LONDON, October 3, Graphic News: JOHN LENNON, who would have celebrated his 60th birthday on October 9, once confessed: ÒI really cannot wait to be old.Ó

He never got the chance. The music legend was shot dead on December 8, 1980 by a deranged fan who said ÒI understood his words, but I didnÕt understand his meaning.Ó

The uncompromising working class hero had influenced an entire generation in the 60s and 70s. But since the birth of John and Yoko OnoÕs son Sean in 1975 he had become something of a recluse.

John and Japanese artist Yoko had returned to the recording studio just five months earlier to record ÒDouble Fantasy,Ó their first album in five years, and were putting the finishing touches to a second. Lennon was, as he titled his most popular new song. ÒStarting Over.Ó

ÒIÕm only 40É God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go.Ó

But as he and Yoko returned to ManhattanÕs prestigious Dakota apartment block from a late-night recording session, an unemployed security guard -- who had stalked Lennon for days and even got the former Beatle to autograph a ÒDouble FantasyÓ album earlier in the day -- was crouching in the shadows.

As Lennon and Yoko walked through the DakotaÕs ornate 72nd street archway, 25-year-old Mark David Chapman opened fire, pumping four bullets into his back and shoulder. Lennon was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital.

The slaying stunned the world as nothing had since the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King in the 1960s. As word circulated, thousands of fans held candlelit vigils outside the Dakota and in LondonÕs Carnaby Street. Radio stations trashed their play lists and began broadcasting nothing but Lennon music. Even Radio Moscow devoted 90 minutes to his songs.

LennonÕs solo career was well under way before the irrevocable break up of the Beatles in 1971. In songs such as ÒMother,Ó in which he explored his motherÕs death and abandonment by his father; to ÒWorking Class HeroÓ and ÒHow do you Sleep?Ó -- an attack on Paul McCartney and his Òmuzak to my earsÓ -- Lennon struggled with his demons.

Behind the wire-rimmed spectacles lurked a man whose rage and despair were being replaced by optimism. In 1971, when he recorded ÒImagine,Ó he had already turned what had been his refrain in dozens of interviews -- Òall we are saying is give peace a chanceÓ -- into an anthem.

Following ÒImagineÓ Lennon moved to New York City where he befriended political activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, adopting their causes and exacerbating his problems with the American government. 

During the early 1970s the Nixon administration and the FBI, under then-head J. Edgar Hoover, had Lennon under surveillance because of fears he would incite anti-Vietnam war violence. BritainÕs MI5 passed material from its own files to the FBI, whose agents shadowed John and Yoko to Irish bars in New York that were fundraising for the IRA. The FBI even transcribed the lyrics of songs that Lennon performed at demonstrations.

But though Lennon is dead his music remains. Perhaps his most poignant lyrics are "Grow Old with Me", which tells how LennonÕs stormy marriage to Yoko Ono survived and flourished.

The sad irony of the songÕs central message is captured in the line: ÒMan and Wife together, World without EndÓ and he sings the chorus ÒGod Bless our LoveÓ with the air of a Victorian hymn.

On the night of his murder, Lennon helped to complete the Yoko Ono single ÒWalking On Thin IceÓ and it was she who offered the most moving tribute to the man who brought the world ÒImagine.Ó

ÒHe was my husband, he was my lover, he was my friend, my partner. He was an old soldier that fought with me.Ó
/ENDS