Introduction
December 8th, 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in the music world: The day that John Lennon was shot and killed.
Script
TV News Reporter: Today marks one of the darkest days in music. It was 40 years ago today when John Lennon was shot and killed on the Upper West Side.
TV News Reporter: In a tweet, his widow, Yoko Ono, noted that more than one million and four hundred thousand people in this country have been killed by guns since her husband died in 1980. Above a picture of the glasses that Lennon wore on the night that he was killed. CBS 2’s Michael George has more now on Lennon’s legacy.
Michael George, CBS News Reporter: Fans of john Lennon came together at the memorial in Central Park known as Strawberry Fields.
Lennon Fan: One of the greatest artists, philosophers, humanitarians…
George: Some of these fans were also right here on that tragic night 40 years ago when the Beatles legend was gunned down outside his apartment at the age of 40.
Lennon Fan: Came here at night with a big crowd of people and sang songs and cried. Very sad day I’ll never forget.
Charles Rosenay: I was, you know, driving along the road and a song came on and I just, pow! It just hit me and, and the tears started flowing.
George: Charles Rosenay is a Beatles expert who published a magazine about the band. He says Lennon was one of the most influential musicians of all time, but his death transcended music.
Rosenay: What we lost that night was not the killing of one rock star, what we lost is somebody who, till today, would have probably given us great
insight.
George: Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, marked the day tweeting that his death was a hollowing experience and that she and his sons still miss him. And former Beatle, Paul McCartney, tweeted: A sad, sad day, but remembering my friend John with the great joy he brought to the world. And even 40 years later, John Lennon’s legacy lives on. Fans like Mike Egan say his music and his message of peace are timeless.
Mike Egan: Just a legend taken too soon and it’s just really amazing that we have this place to keep remembering him by.
George: Still inspiring millions a generation after he left us. In New York, Michael George, CBS news.
TV News Reporter: And the only other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, wrote in a tweet: Tuesday 8th of December 1980, we all had to say goodbye to John. Peace and Love John. I’m asking every music radio station in the world sometime today play Strawberry Fields Forever. Peace and Love.
TV News Reporter: Wow! I mean everyone remembers where they were. At that point I was a sophomore in high school on Long Island and we talked about it and learned about it and what a loss, right, that was just felt so far and wide.
TV News Reporter: And you see the documentaries, you know, that are available now in the footage and it just brings you right back, right back.
TV News Reporter: I know. Right here in our own backyard too.
TV News Reporter: Definitely just a few avenues away…streets away.
Quiz
1. Today ________ one of the darkest days in music. Discussion
- Was the music of the John Lennon and the Beatles important to you growing up?
- Why do you think John Lennon is so singularly remembered and glorified?
- Can you think of some other musical artists who died at a very young age and the legacy they left behind?