Nobody Told Us That There
Would Be Days Like These
Four years from now, some of us will complete the four decades that separate us from John Lennon’s last birthday, on Oct. 9, 1980. His life had been so intense up to that day, that the same length of time following it seem now warped and much emptier in comparison.
In his last two months, the man was full of hope, ready for a comeback that’d be only partially realized. Whether his best work was really behind him there’s no way of knowing, but since then, we’ve been badly missing whatever was that only he could’ve delivered.
And he has indeed given us plenty, enough to keep us busy going over it even now, so many years later. Just like a post we’ve published four years ago, about a particular moment in 1967, that wouldn’t have had such an imprint on all of us hadn’t been for him.
Like another way of marking a date that still holds us under its spell. Even without knowing that the next two months were his final countdown, John lived his life with the intensity that only those who know they’ve got just this one chance to do it, really do it.
He’d have been 76, this time around. Instead, he’ll never age a day older than 40. Amazing to learn that many born since then consider him a friend, and his songs, a guide to living intensely and grow wiser. Happy Birthday, John. Thanks for everything.
colltales.com 
That was the time’the Beatles’had created a history and a new wing to music. I did hear a lot of them. John was the real stalwart.
Shiva
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Indeed. With John as capitain, they’ve managed to make, for a brief moment, the transient meaningful, in ways pop music has ceased to be ever since. Thanks for your input, Shiva. Cheers
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I was no exception either, and i felt the same the day i heard the news about his Death.Really moving article. Thanks.
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Lennon still affects me more than any other figure in rock music, or popular culture. Or any sphere, if I think about it. And it I still do think about it.
I think about the time my best friend and I were reduced to helpless giggles, taking turns to read excerpts from A Spaniard in the Works out loud, the morning after we’d been to a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert at the Albert Hall in 1969. It was the first time either of us had read it, and we weren’t on drugs.
Then I think about the night another friend and I downed a bottle of scotch after the shock of hearing he’d died. We sat in his flat listening to Double Fantasy over and over with tears in our eyes. Though neither of us ever met or knew him, it was like a very special friend had suddenly passed away
The day Lennon died, we, who had grown-up listening to him, all died a little.
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I agree. To me, you, and hundreds of millions around the world, his was the death that made us all grow up very fast. I too think about him often, and how he’d have been a positive influence on this world. I was with my bandmates at a friend’s home, when his Mom told us that ‘Lemon’ had died. I said, oh, Jack Lemon, the actor? And she said, no, one of the Beatles, sending chills down my spine. It was the sad morning after; on Wednesday, we opened our gig with Yer Blues. As you implied, his was the biggest ‘personal’ death of our generation. Thanks Bryan.
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