Monday, December 07, 2009

Nowhere Boy: John Lennon


"A man who has been the indisputable favorite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror."

-Sigmund Freud
John Lennon was something of a conqueror. He was fierce, jubilant, a bully for sure, but courageous enough to cry and be achingly vulnerable. It was twenty-nine years ago that he was gunned down by "a local screwball" who thought he was the "catcher in the rye" and that John was the pied piper leading everyone over the edge.



John was forty - two years younger than I am now. Unbelievable. I feel I've still got so much ahead of me. I was thirteen the night of his death. There was snow in White Rock and I'd just finished a hockey practice at the rink in Centenial Park. When I got home a news bulletin flashed across the TV screen - "John Lennon shot and killed. News at 11." Here's a clip from that night with Ted Koppel and Geraldo Rivera:



There's a new film on the way - Nowhere Boy - about his early years with the main focus reportedly on his mother Julia and Aunt Mimi who raised him after Julia was killed by a drunk driver.



I hadn't seen this before - it's Paul listening to an old recording of he & John singing "Searchin'" followed by John's "Beautiful Boy" while struggling to hold back the tears:

No comments:

Post a Comment