Pointyskull

Call me an old softie, but I just heard John Lennon's Happy Christmas - a song I've heard a million times - and something about it being on the anniversary of his death really made the lyrics just sucker punch me.

And damn if I didn't get a little misty-eyed.

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So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

reverie

Old softie!

Come to think of it, why aren't there any young softies? Do you get squishier with age..?

But I digress.. I didn't know who John Lennon was when I was 4, or however old I was when he died, so I guess it doesn't have to same impact, but it is a good song (aside from being able to pick Yoko out of the chorus very easily). One of the few good, non-traditional Christmas songs. But for impact from Lennon, I'd have to go with the obvious, "Imagine".

I'm sorry.. I feel like I'm just rambling..

harpo787

I was only 8 years old when he died...I don't remember it too well, if at all. Nonetheless, I was a Beatles fan from very young, the first album I think I had was Sgt. Pepper's.

Amazing that it was 25 years ago today...

zombiezilla

I was nearly 18 when he was killed, and it has greatly affected my outlook on things ever since (kind of like my Mom being deeply affected by JFK's assassination).

"Happy Christmas" always makes me feel petty and self-absorbed. Being the 25th anniversary of his death, I hope I don't hear it on the way to work today [insert nervous chuckle here].

Filmmaker

There are plenty of young softies (well, not as many as in the '60s but now I digress), but most people harden with age--that's why an old softie is a unique case.

atlantamoi

I was 15 and woke up with my alarm clock radio announcing the news while I was in bed. I felt suckerpunched and confused. Reading yesterday that McCartney left open a '79 contract for a possible reformation made me really feel sad again.

headrippa

Get the Lennon Legend DVD, Yoko has redited the music vid which will have you reaching for the nearest tissue in the street

Randy Miller III

I get a tear in my eye too, but it's from Yoko's singing.

Turd Ferguson

I truly miss what could have been if he had lived. "Double Fantasy" was an incredible album.

Cheers John, and F-you Mark David Chapman.

BassDude

Sirius is broadcasting a live tribute from Abbey Road Studios and NYC with artists performing his songs. Been listening all day. (errr..working if this is being monitored.) Dave Mathews, Doctor John, Duran Duran, Daryl Hall and a LOT of British artists I haven't heard of (Stacie ___ , Stereo MCs, Rig, many more)

I was 15. When I heard he had been shot i thought "he'll be alright." I think someone else had been shot not too many months before him and survived. (Reagan?) Later they cut into MNF with the news that he had died.

I love that song as well. Haven't heard it yet today.

Andalusia

"Watching the Wheels" is the song that always got to me. Maybe because it was recorded so closely to his death.

Turd Ferguson

"Beautiful Boy" gets to me-

"I can hardly wait to see you come of age, but I guess we'll both just have to be patient."

paulringodaman

Just think what could have been if he didn't die.....that's what REALLY gets me....

Eddie W

I too was 17 when he was killed. I vividly remember waking to Strawberry Fields Forever on the clock radio the morning of 12/09. And lying there thinking how cool it was to wake up to that song (I was a huge Beatles fan). Then it ended & I began to get out of bed and get ready for school when the DJ said they were doing a tribute to the late John Lennon. Wait? 'tribute' 'late'??? What the everloving hell?!???? As they recounted details I screamed NOOOOO and just started punching everything in reach and buried my head in my pillow and cried. I've never had such a visceral reaction to a celebrity death before or since. It took me a good half hour before I could compose myself enough to come out of my room and face my parents. My dad had the paper open to the headline LENNON SHOT DEAD IN NEW YORK. And I had to go back to my room.

To this day, I can't quite verbalize why the death of someone I never met devastated me so. But 25 years later & I still want to retreat to my room and cry on 12/08.

Tracer Bullet

Kinda sucks being born on December 8, 1980.

R.I.P. John.

Eplicon

I was 12 when it happened. I remember waking up for school on Dec 9th, when my dad came into my room and asked, "Do you know who the Beatles are?" I said yeah. He then replied, "Well, one of them died last night."

The news was definitely shocking and hard to comprehend at the moment. I really didn't follow pop music all that much and hadn't been aware that Lennon had been on a long sabbatical and was just recently making a comeback. The first thing that crossed my mind was, okay, he's a rock star. And I only could think of people like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix -- people that died before their time because of their lifestyle. Assassination was the last thing I had expected. But when I came downstairs to watch the news, it really hit hard. I was quite distracted the rest of the school day, and it was hard not to think about anything else for the rest of the year.

For me, I had a very hard time listening to "A Day in the Life" for quite some time after his death, largely because the way he sang it was too haunting.

Decker

Very close to my experience. I was 13. In Hawaii, so it was still Monday night. Many heard the news during MNF, but I wasn't into football then, so I was in my room listening to my monstrosity of a stereo clock radio. I thought it was cool that a Beatles song was on as that station didn't play many. It caught my attention when they played a second in a row. Then the dreaded news came on as to why there was a sudden Beatle fest. I went and told my parents and we talked about it a while. In Hawaii back then not only was there no cable news, but the local networks broadcasted shows a day or a week late on tapes flown in from the Mainland, so we couldn't even get information on the TV. I was just devastated and I was pretty much in the dark until the next day's news. It's weird how much information gathering has changed in just 25 years.

Now I have a four year old daughter who loves the Beatles. She knows I just saw Paul a couple of weeks ago, but she still doesn't know about what happened to John or George. I've got to tell her soon and I'm really not looking forward to it. It'll be like going through the whole ordeal again.

Spiderbite

I will gladly "take care" of Chapman if he is ever released. Fucking bastard.

I, like many of you, wonder what could have been had he lived. Beatles reunion? More excellent solo albums? Political commentary?

After the Twin Towers went down, I always wondered how John would have reacted to that given his love for New York.

Turd Ferguson

I was seven years old and, being a huge Beatles fan, I was very saddened by the news. My mom was crying when I woke up to get ready for school told me what had happened. I think my mom went through about three or four copies of "Double Fantasy" during the next year. To this day, no album evokes more emotion from me. I believe that somehow God let him make that album as a goodbye letter to us all to remind us of how great he was.

indianajdp

This is one of my all-time favorite holiday songs...just something about it has always appealed to me.

I was almost nine when Lennon died. Too young to know much about him but old enough to absolutely LOVE his latest single, Just Like Starting Over. I remember we drove out to Colorado over Holiday break for a ski vacation later that month and I believe JLSO went number one that week. A few years later, the Imagine soundtrack became one of my most cherished musical albums in high school.

Tyler_Durden

Many sad memories here... I was born in 1984 but have since come to love The Beatles to such an extent that Lennon's tragic death is very hard to bear. I'll have to ask my parents if they remember the day he died.

wm lopez

How is that Chapman stalks one man and admits to killing him and is still in prison 25 years later and when a punk today shoots and kills an innocent kid during a driveby is out on the streets in less than 10 years?

Applejack

The jury system?

Likely also evidentiary issues (confession + eyewitnesses = stronger case)

The way your question is worded though, with no actual link to this "hypothetical murderer out in 10 years" scenario and the way you seem to be advocating Chapman's release, I would imagine that you do not like John Lennon (possibly for political reasons), and you probably weren't really seeking an answer.

Sorry if that isn't the case.