12.8.80

25 years ago tonite, john lennon was shot (in the back) & killed outside his apartment at the dakota.

somehow this little detail had escaped me in preparations for my rehearsal tonite for tomorrow's tribute/benefit. all of a sudden the songs i'll be playing and the words that i'll be singing tonite are much, much heavier.

"please don't wake me,
no don't shake me,
leave me where i am.
i'm only sleeping"

-i'm only sleeping

"...i know what it's like to be dead,

i know what it is to be sad..."

-she said, she said

i don't know how any of you think of or remember john lennon. frankly, i don't remember him at all; he was killed when i was still a kid. i feel like i'm actually just getting to understand and appreciate him as a musician, father, husband and activist. that's how i think of him really. a man who loved his son so much that he wrote a song just for him. a person who felt so strongly about what he believed in that he wrote it into his music and public persona. an artist who wanted so badly to stay relevant and on the leading edge that he regularly had friends make him tapes of current top 40 music. that's how i think of him. for the most part, those are the things that i strive for.

so tonite, think of the family that john lennon left behind. say a prayer for mark chapman and his family. raise a glass to the working class hero, john lennon.