I wrote in a recent column that John Lennon’s murder was a definitive “I know exactly where I was when…” moment in my life. Hard to believe that it was 40 years ago this week (Dec. 8).
It’s also hard to imagine that Lennon would have turned 80 years old in October this year.
For the record, I was watching Monday Night Football when the former Beatle was killed, the news delivered first by a word scroll across the TV screen and soon confirmed by commentator Howard Cosell.
Some years later I bought a button on Carnaby Street in London that said simply, “John Lennon/ 1940-80/ Shot by a fan.”
On Tuesday, tributes were naturally offered by many, not least from Yoko Ono and his remaining bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the latter urging that radio stations around the world play “Strawberry Fields Forever” at least once that day.
The 1967 song is cryptic to most fans, but it references an orphanage in Liverpool near where Lennon grew up and, as I learned on a Beatles tour in the city, where he often visited by hopping over an imposing fence from his aunt’s yard. She worried he would get stuck, to which a young John would reply, “(Aunty), it’s nothing to get hung about.”
As an aside, Strawberry Fields, with its famous red gates, has recently re-opened as a training hub for young people, but also with an Beatles-influenced exhibition and café for visitors.
Here is a Beatles’ video for the song – in memory, and at Ringo’s request:
Lyrics
Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me
Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
No one I think is in my tree
I mean it must be high or low
That is you can’t, you know, tune in
But it’s all right
That is I think it’s not too bad
Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Always, no sometimes, think it’s me
But you know I know when it’s a dream
I think I know I mean a yes
But it’s all wrong
That is I think I disagree
Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever