Dec 8, 1980. The Night The Music Died

December 8, 1980, is one of those nights that many people of our generation will always remember. 25 years ago I was a 21 year old college senior at American University in Washington DC. Lifewas good. I was living in a house with 3 other friends in BethesdaMaryland, had a decent car that took me to and from school, hadlots of friends and a good part-time job working at a restaurant inthe district.

On the night of December 8 I remember I worked until closing andgot home a little after midnight. The house of quiet as my housemateswere either out or sleeping ( I can't recall). As per my usualroutine after my shift I took a quick shower and then settled in myroom to listen to some usic and relax a bit before going to bed. Backin 1980, FM radio in DC was excellent, with stations ranging from thepopular DC101 to the eclectic WHFS. I remember putting on DC101 andsitting back to relax, and smiled when I heard a Beatles song beingplayed.

Back in 1980 my musical tastes were varied but still a bit limited. Iwas totally anti-disco, loved the Beatles, liked our homestate boyBruce alot, and was still very much into the Progressive music of the70's (Yes, ELP, Genesis, etc), and 'southern' rock artists such as theAllmans, the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynyrd. In fact, itwas the tragic deaths of Ronnie Van Zandt and Steve Gaines in thatplane crash a few years earlier that was my first taste of losing anartist that I loved. I still remember that day, and how it had such aprofound effect on the music that I listened to. However, it wasnothing compared to what was about to happen.

I really wasn't paying that much attention to the music playing on theradio, until I noticed that they had just played 3 Beatles songs in arow. I thought it was kind of cool and by the fifth song or so I wasgetting into their unannounced 'Beatles Block'. If you can remember,back in the 70's and 80's, many radio stations would play 'blocks' ofsongs of an artist, or have special times for artists or styles.Breakfast with The Beatles", "Bruce Juice", "Things From England",'Beatles A to Z", all are constants in the radio memory of thosedays, along with the inevitabable year-end (or sometimes labor dayweekend) top 100 songs of all time countdowns. I figured DC101 wasdoing something like this.

About 20 or so minutes into this Beatles/Lennon block a song ends andthe DJ begins to talk about the music, slowly and I felt with a bit ofsadness. He is talking about Lennon and The Beatles, and how muchtheir music means (or meant) to him nd I was beginning to sense thatsomething was going on. The Beatles getting back together was myfirst initial thought. However, that was soon crushed when the DJthen repeated the news that others had already known, that John Lennonhad been shot and killed earlier that evening in New York City.
At that very moment, the phone in the house rang. This was 1980, thewere no cell phones, no portable phones. We had one phone, in thekitchen down the hall. I ran to get it and I remember it was a friendof mine who went to school with me and she was crying hystericallyover the phone to me. The news hadn't even sunk in with me and thereI was trying to calm her down over the phone. It wasn't working andso I asked her if she wanted me to come over. She lived in a housewith a couple of other girls a few miles away in Chevy Chase, so itwas really a no brainer, and I had a feeling that I needed to be withpeople as well.

I arrived at her house about 15 minutes later and she and herhousemates were all sitting in one of their rooms listening to theradio, which of course was still playing Lennon/Beatles music. Therest of the night is really a blur, as it WAS 25 years ago, butfrom what I remember we sat around until after dawn listening tomusic, talking, singing, and just being together. None of us wantedto be alone and we all needed to talk, and that is what we did. Iremember falling asleep for a few hours in a corner and waking up tofind the listening/togetherness party still going on.
The next couple of days were a blur also. Nobody could reallyconcentrate on classes and studying for our upcoming mid-terms. Iremember going to a memorial service on campus, and another one in DCsomewhere. A few of us thought about going up to NYC, butfunds were low, and it just didn't work out. So, we did what collegestudents all accross America did....we studied, we sang, we partied abit, and we grew up some more and lost a little bit more of ourchildhood.

Time passes though, and wounds do heal. However, this is one thatnever seems to. If it wasn't for Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles wouldbe the number one band in my life. When I was 12 and first started tocollect music, Beatles albums were the first ones I ever bought, andI quickly knew the words to dozens of their songs. As my musicaltastes have grown, changed, and varied over the years, The Beatles areone of the few constant artists in my life thatNEVER stray off of my musical radar screen. As a piano player, I cansit down with the twoBeatles Compleat books and play the songs from the first one in thebook to the last. If I werein a band, I could play Beatles songs all day, I never get tired ofthem, just as I never tire ofBruce Springsteen songs. Their songs, along with Bruce's, have becomethe soundtrack ofmy life, my constant musical companion for the last 30 or more years.
It saddens me to think about this loss. I know it sounds selfish.John's family and friends didnot know me, and they are the ones most affected by his death.However, as an artist John wasa friend of all of us, and the fact that he was finally getting hismusical/artistic life back in track andthe possibilities of what could have come next is so upsetting knowingthat those plans werecrushed that day. I read an article last month in which he had saidthat in early 1981 he wasgoing to get a band together and go back out on the road, and then goback into the studio andrecord some more music, and then go back on the road and tour again.This blows me away,thinking about what a Lennon tour could have brought us, the songs hecould have played, andthe songs that were never written because Mark David Chapman (who Ihope by the way nevergets out of prison) decided that he wanted his own 15 minutes of fame.Shame on your Mr Chapman, shame on you. Shame on you for cutting down an artist in hisprime, and artistwho was just getting his legs again, who still had alot to say, andwhose death had a profound effect on millions of people around the world.

I think John would have found the last 25 years very interesting. Ican't imagine what his music would have been like, but it couldn't have been bad. We mighthave even seen somecollaboration with him and the other Beatles. Paul has even said hewould have liked to havewritten with him again. I think John would have embraced the personalcomputer age, he wouldhave been excited with the IPOD, and he would have probably been angryat our governmentfor all kinds of things, right or wrong, and that is ok because thatis what being an artist andan citizen is about. Question things that you don't feel are right.Express yourself in ways toget your message across, and do it in a civilized and rational manner.

We miss you John. The world has moved on and you will never beforgotten, at least not bythis writer and millions of others. While you would not have made adifference in how thingshave gone over the last 25 years (good and bad), I think you wouldhave had an interestingtime and we would have liked to have gone on the ride with you. Thepotential that you hadthat was taken from us will never be realized, and that is the biggestcrime your death hasbrought. What if.......?