- 1943: Jim Morrison is born
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James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 — July 3, 1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of American band The Doors. He also wrote poetry. Morrison was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and is widely regarded as one of the most iconic frontmen in rock music history.
Early years
James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California. He was of Irish and Scottish descent. Morrison reportedly had an I.Q. of 149.
In 1947, Morrison, then four years old, allegedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of American Indians were injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album An American Prayer, again in the songs "Peace Frog", "Ghost Song".
Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event in his life, and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews. His family does not recall this incident happening in the way he told it. According to the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, Morrison's family did drive past a car accident on an Indian reservation when he was a child, and he was very upset by it. The book The Doors, written by the remaining members of The Doors, explains how different Morrison's account of the incident was from the account of his father. This book quotes his father as saying, "We went by several Indians. It did make an impression on him [the young James]. He always thought about that crying Indian." This is contrasted sharply with Morrison's tale of "Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death". In the same book, his sister is quoted as saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian by the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true."
With his father in the United States Navy, Morrison's family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego, California. In 1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California. He graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1961. His father was also stationed at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Morrison went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida, where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, where he appeared in a school recruitment film. While attending FSU, Morrison was arrested for a prank, following a home football game.
In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles, California, to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He attended Jack Hirschman's class on Antonin Artaud in the Comparative Literature program within the UCLA English Department. Artaud's brand of surrealist theatre had a profound impact on Morrison's dark poetic sensibility of cinematic theatricality. Hirschman was then an Assistant Professor of English at UCLA, an author, published poet and collegial contemporary of Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, among others. Morrison was later to meet Michael McClure and together to envisage the Poetic Dream.
In 1965 the Artaud Anthology, which Hirschman edited and assigned to Morrison's class at UCLA, was published by City Lights Books in San Francisco. Hirschman's work on the volume includes selecting material and organizing translations from the original French, including some of his own translations. He was assisted by others, including David Rattray. Hirchman's students at UCLA included Gary Gach, Steven Kessler, Max Schwartz and Morrison himself, among others.
Morrison completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA's film school and the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. He made two films while attending UCLA. First Love, the first of these films, made with Morrison's classmate and roommate Max Schwartz, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film Obscura. During these years, while living in Venice Beach, he became friends with writers at the Los Angeles Free Press. Morrison was an advocate of the underground newspaper until his death in 1971.
The Doors
In 1965, after graduating from UCLA, Morrison led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the first two members of The Doors. Shortly thereafter, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger joined. Krieger auditioned at Densmore's recommendation and was then added to the lineup.
The Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception (a reference to the "unlocking" of "doors of perception" through psychedelic drug use), Huxley's own title was a quotation from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake wrote that "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
Although Morrison is known as the lyricist for the group, Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including "Light My Fire", "Love Me Two Times", "Love Her Madly" and "Touch Me".
In June 1966, Morrison and The Doors were the opening act at the Whisky a Go Go on the last week of the residency of Van Morrison's band Them. Van's influence on Jim's developing stage performance was later noted by John Densmore in his book Riders On The Storm: "Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near-namesake's stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching down by the bass drum during instrumental breaks." On the final night, the two Morrisons and the two bands jammed together on "Gloria".
The Doors achieved national recognition after signing with Elektra Records in 1967. The single "Light My Fire" eventually reached number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Later, The Doors appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular Sunday night variety series that had introduced The Beatles and Elvis Presley to the nation. Ed Sullivan requested two songs from The Doors for the show, "People Are Strange", and "Light My Fire". The censors insisted that they change the lyrics of "Light My Fire" from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl we couldn't get much better"; this was reportedly due to what could be perceived as a reference to drugs in the original lyric. Giving assurances of compliance to Sullivan, Morrison then proceeded to sing the song with the original lyrics anyway. He later said that he had simply forgotten to make the change. This so infuriated Sullivan that he refused to shake their hands after their performance and told Morrison they would never play The Ed Sullivan Show again. Morrison retorted, "Who cares, we already did".
In 1967, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", which was their first single release. The video featured the four members of the group playing the song on a darkened set with alternating views and close-ups of the performers while Morrison lip-synched the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make music videos, including "The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight Drive", and "People Are Strange".
By the release of their second album, Strange Days, The Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues and rock tinged with psychedelia included a number of original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as their rendition of "Alabama Song", from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's operetta, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The band also performed a number of extended concept works, including the songs "The End", "When the Music's Over", and "Celebration of the Lizard".
In 1967, photographer Joel Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos of Morrison, in a photo shoot known as "The Young Lion" photo session. These photographs are considered among the most iconic images of Jim Morrison and are frequently used as covers for compilation albums, books, and other memorabilia of the Doors and Morrison. In 1968, The Doors released their third studio album, Waiting for the Sun. Their fourth album, The Soft Parade, was released in 1969. It was the first album where the individual band members were given credit on the inner sleeve for the songs they had written.
After this, Morrison started to show up for recording sessions inebriated. He was also frequently late for live performances. As a result, the band would play instrumental music or force Manzarek to take on the singing duties.
By 1969, the formerly svelte singer gained weight, grew a beard, and began dressing more casually — abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for slacks, jeans and T-shirts.
During a 1969 concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience. He failed, but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department three days later for indecent exposure. Consequently, many of The Doors' scheduled concerts were canceled. In the years following the incident, Morrison was exonerated. In 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested the possibility of a posthumous pardon for Morrison.
Following The Soft Parade, The Doors released the Morrison Hotel album. After a lengthy break the group reconvened in October 1970 to record their last album with Morrison, L.A. Woman. Shortly after the recording sessions for the album began, producer Paul A. Rothchild — who had overseen all their previous recordings — left the project. Engineer Bruce Botnick took over as producer.
Solo: poetry and film
Morrison began writing in adolescence. In college, he studied the related fields of theater, film, and cinematography.
He self-published two volumes of his poetry in 1969, The Lords / Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled The Lords and The New Creatures. These were the only writings published during Morrison's lifetime.
Morrison befriended Beat Poet Michael McClure, who wrote the afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects, including a film version of McClure's infamous play The Beard, in which Morrison would have played Billy the Kid.
After his death, two volumes of Morrison's poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry. The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume 1 is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant New York Times best seller. Volume 2, The American Night, released in 1990, was also a success.
Morrison recorded his own poetry in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions. The first was in March 1969 in Los Angeles and the second was on December 8, 1970. The latter recording session was attended by Morrison's personal friends and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the 1969 session were issued on the bootleg album The Lost Paris Tapes and were later used as part of the Doors' An American Prayer album, released in 1978. The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.
Morrison's best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is HWY: An American Pastoral, a project he started in 1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project. Morrison played the main character, a hitch hiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the soundtrack for the film.
(https://en.wikipedia.org)
- 1961: The Route 66 episode "The Thin White Line" aires
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Route 66 (1960–1964)
The Thin White Line
51min | Adventure | Episode aired 8 December 1961
Tod and Buz,in Philadelphia working as "high floor" construction workers,are at a party and Tod mistakenly drinks a beer meant for a troublemaker. The beer was laced with "an experimental chemotherapy compound" by the party givers who are college students. Tod runs out of the party as the effects of the drug begin to wreak havoc on him. He experiences heightened senses,hallucinations and paranoia. Buz and the police turn Philly upside down to find Tod before he hurts himself or others.
(https://www.imdb.com)
- 1967: The Rolling Stones release the album Their Satanic Majesties Request
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Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records. Its title is a play on the "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires..." text that appears inside a British passport.
Richie Unterberger of Allmusic wrote:
Without a doubt, no Rolling Stones album — and, indeed, very few rock albums from any era — split critical opinion as much as the Rolling Stones' psychedelic outing. Many dismiss the record as sub-Sgt. Pepper posturing; others confess, if only in private, to a fascination with the album's inventive arrangements, which incorporated some African rhythms, Mellotrons, and full orchestration. Never before or since did the Stones take so many chances in the studio. In 1968, the Stones would go back to the basics, and never wander down these paths again, making this all the more of a fascinating anomaly in the group's discography.
History
Begun just after Between the Buttons had been released, the recording of Their Satanic Majesties Request was long and sporadic, broken up by court appearances and jail terms. For the same reasons, the entire band was seldom present in the studio at one time. Further slowing productivity was the presence of the multiple guests that the band members had brought along. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman described the situations in the studio.
Every day at the studio it was a lottery as to who would turn up and what - if any - positive contribution they would make when they did. Keith would arrive with anything up to ten people, Brian with another half-a-dozen and it was the same for Mick. They were assorted girlfriends and friends. I hated it! Then again, so did Andrew (Oldham) and just gave up on it. There were times when I wish I could have done, too.
At this point, the album was the first (and only) album produced by the Stones themselves.
The working title of the album was Cosmic Christmas. In the hidden coda titled "Cosmic Christmas" (following "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)", Wyman tells "it's slowed-down: 'We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!'" Some of the album's songs were also recorded under various working titles, some appearing rather non sequitur and radically different from the final titles. These working titles include: "Acid In The Grass" ("In Another Land"), "I Want People To Know" ("2000 Man"), "Flowers In Your Bonnet" ("She's A Rainbow"), "Fly My Kite" ("The Lantern"), "Tough Apple" (2000 Light Years From Home), and "Surprise Me" ("On With The Show").
In 1998, a bootleg box set of eight CDs with outtakes of the Satanic sessions was released on the market. The box set shows the band developing the songs over multiple takes, and striking is the cooperation between Brian Jones, Keith Richards and session pianist Nicky Hopkins. Richards is leading the sessions and most songs seem to be written by him, and both Hopkins and Jones indulge in creating elaborate soundscapes.
Release and reception
Released in December 1967, Their Satanic Majesties Request reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US (easily going gold), but its commercial performance declined rapidly. It was soon viewed as a pretentious, poorly conceived attempt to outdo The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (released June 1967), often explained by drug trials and excesses in contemporary musical fashion, although McCartney and Lennon did provide backing vocals on "Sing This All Together." The production, in particular, came in for harsh criticism from Jon Landau in the fifth edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, and the Stones turned to Jimmy Miller to produce their subsequent albums, on which the Stones would return to the hard driving blues that earned them fame early in their career. Starting with this release, non-compilation albums from the band would be released in uniform editions across international markets.
The album was released in South Africa as The Stones are Rolling because of the word "Satanic" in the title.
The Bill Wyman-composed "In Another Land" was released as a single, with the artist credit listed as Bill Wyman, rather than the Rolling Stones. (The B-Side, "The Lantern" was credited to The Rolling Stones.)
There are only two songs from the album which The Rolling Stones performed live, "2000 Light Years from Home" (1989 U.S. Tour and 1990 Tour of Europe), and "She's a Rainbow" (1997-98 Bridges to Babylon Tour).
In August 2002, Their Satanic Majesties Request was reissued in a new remastered CD, LP and DSD by ABKCO Records.
Packaging and design
Initial releases of the album featured a three-dimensional picture of the band on the cover by photographer Michael Cooper. When viewed in a certain way, the lenticular image shows the band members' faces turning towards each other with the exception of Jagger, whose hands appear crossed in front of him. Looking closely on its cover, one can see the faces of each of the four Beatles. Later editions replaced the glued-on 3-dimensional image with a standard photo, due to high production costs. A limited edition LP version in the 1980s re-printed the original 3D cover design. Immediately following the re-issue, the master materials for re-printing the 3D cover were intentionally destroyed.
It was the first of four Stones albums to feature a novelty cover (the others were the zipper on Sticky Fingers, the cut-out faces on Some Girls, and the stickers on Undercover). The maze on the inside cover of the UK and US releases cannot be completed. It has a wall at about a half radius in from the lower left corner. One can never arrive at the "It's Here" in the centre of the maze.
Legacy
The song "2,000 Man" was featured prominently in Wes Anderson's 1996 debut Bottle Rocket and has been reworked and covered by Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley for the band's 1979 album, Dynasty.
American neo-psychedelic band The Brian Jonestown Massacre paid tribute to the album with their fourth album Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request.
'77 Punk/Goth pioneers The Damned covered Citadel on their 1981 Friday The 13th E.P. California's Redd Kross also covered Citadel on their 1984 Teen Babes From Monsanto E.P.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted.
Side one
No. Title Length 1. "Sing This All Together" 3:46 2. "Citadel" 2:50 3. "In Another Land" (Bill Wyman) 3:15 4. "2000 Man" 3:07 5. "Sing This All Together (See What Happens) *" 8:33
* Most album configurations contain the hidden track "Cosmic Christmas" (running time 0:35) following "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)" (running time 7:58).
Side two
No. Title Length 6. "She's a Rainbow" 4:35 7. "The Lantern" 4:24 8. "Gomper" 5:08 9. "2000 Light Years from Home" 4:45 10. "On with the Show" 3:40
Personnel
The Rolling Stones
* Mick Jagger- lead vocals, backing vocals, moog synthesizer, percussion * Brian Jones - brass, mellotron, percussion, organ, flute, recorder, electric dulcimer, saxophone, concert harp, guitar, backing vocals * Keith Richards - guitars, backing vocals * Charlie Watts - drums, percussion, tablas * Bill Wyman — bass, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "In Another Land"
Additional personnel
* Nicky Hopkins - piano, harpsichord, organ, mellotron * John Paul Jones — string arrangement on "She's a Rainbow" * Eddie Kramer — percussion * Ronnie Lane — backing vocals on "In Another Land" * Steve Marriott — backing vocals and acoustic guitar on "In Another Land" * John Lennon — vocals on "Sing This All Together" * Paul McCartney — vocals on "Sing This All Together" * Anita Pallenberg — vocals * Ian Stewart — organ * Uncredited musicians — strings and brass
Released 8 December 1967 Recorded 9 February – October 23, 1967, Olympic Studios, London Genre Psychedelic rock Length 44:06 Language English Label Decca Producer The Rolling Stones
(https://en.wikipedia.org)
- 1967: The Peter Loris, Robert Fred and Sharon Mack LSD lab is busted
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HIT LSD 'PLANT' ON GOLD COAST
Output of 'Factory' Put at $500,000
BY MICHAEL KILIAN
An LSD "factory" with chemicals on hand that could produce more than $500,000 worth of the drug was confiscated by Chicago avenue vice detectives last night [December 8, 1967] in a raid on an expensive Gold Coast apartment at 1301 Ritchie Ct. Three persons were arrested, including Peter Loris, 22, manager of the building. Detective John Catalano, who led the raid, said the laboratory, in the basement of the building, was a major source of drugs for the Old Town market and the first uncovered by police in the Chicago area.
Use Considered Dangerous
Previously, most of the LSD ! and other "trip" drugs sold in the city were imported, he I said. LSD and other hallucinatory drugs have become a major problem in many areas. Some have resulted in deaths and suicides and LSD has been declared injurious to unborn children. Catalano said his men also confiscated a formula for what appeared to be a new drug far stronger than LSD or the recently developed STP. The raid was made with a search warrant issued by Magistrate Earl Neal of Chicago avenue court.
(Chicago Tribune Chicago Illinois 9 Dec 1967 Sat Page 1)
- 1980: John Lennon is killed
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John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City, on Monday, 8 December 1980; Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.
Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota. He was cremated on 10 December 1980, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him.
Murder
On the morning of 8 December 1980, photographer Annie Leibovitz went to Ono and Lennon's apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone. She had promised Lennon a photo with Ono would make the cover, but initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone. Leibovitz recalled that "nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover". Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after taking the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment. After the photo shoot, Lennon gave what would be his last interview to San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin for a music show on the RKO Radio Network. At 5:00 pm, Lennon and Ono left their apartment to mix the track "Walking on Thin Ice", an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar, at Record Plant Studio.
As Lennon and Ono walked to their limousine, they were approached by several people seeking autographs, among them, Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and get his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, had first come to New York to murder Lennon in October (before the release of Double Fantasy) but changed his mind and returned home. Lennon signing Chapman's Double Fantasy album a few hours before the shooting.
Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon politely asked him, "Is this all you want?" Chapman smiled and nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh snapped a photo of the encounter.
The Lennons spent several hours at Record Plant before returning to the Dakota at approximately 10:50 pm. Lennon decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to five-year-old son Sean before he went to sleep. In addition, Lennon liked to oblige any fans who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him with autographs or pictures. The Lennons exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota, where they would have avoided Chapman.
Jose Perdomo, the Dakota's doorman, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. Ono walked ahead of Lennon and into the reception area. As Lennon passed by, he looked at Chapman briefly and continued on his way. Within seconds, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon's back and fired five hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver. Numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a "combat stance", but this is not stated in court hearings or witness interviews. Chapman has said he did not remember calling out Lennon's name before he shot him. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. However, two of the bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two penetrated his left shoulder. Three of the four bullets passed completely through and exited the front of Lennon's body, resulting in a total of seven gunshot wounds. While all four shots inflicted severe gunshot wounds, the two fatal wounds were to his left lung and the left subclavian artery, near where it branches off of the aorta. Lennon, bleeding profusely from his external wounds and also from the mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area and fell to the floor, scattering the arm-full of cassettes he had been carrying. Concierge Jay Hastings first started to attempt to make a tourniquet, but upon realizing the severity of his injuries, simply covered Lennon with his uniforms jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses; and summoned the police. The entrance to the Dakota building where Lennon was shot
Outside, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the police arrival to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons and sat down on the sidewalk. Doorman Perdomo shouted at Chapman, "Do you know what you've done?", to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot John Lennon." The first policemen to arrive were Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers found Chapman sitting "very calmly" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground, and was holding a paperback book, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman had scribbled a message on the book's inside front cover: "To Holden Caulfield. From Holden Caulfield. This is my statement." He would later claim that his life mirrored that of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the book.
The second team, Officers Bill Gamble and James Moran, arrived a few minutes later. They immediately carried Lennon into their squad car and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they placed Lennon on the back seat. Moran asked, "Do you know who you are?" There are conflicting accounts on what happened next. In one account, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.
Dr. Stephan Lynn received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr Lynn and two other doctors worked for 20 minutes, opening Lennon's chest and attempting manual heart massage to restore circulation, but the damage to the blood vessels around the heart was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr Lynn, but the time of 11:07 pm has also been reported. The cause of death was reported as hypovolemic shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume. Dr Elliott M. Gross, the Chief Medical Examiner, said that no one could have lived more than a few minutes with such multiple bullet injuries. As Lennon was shot four times with hollow-point bullets, which expand upon entering the target and severely disrupt more tissue as they travel through the target, Lennon's affected organs were virtually destroyed upon impact. Ono, sobbing "Oh no, no, no, no... tell me it's not true," was taken to Roosevelt Hospital and led away in shock after she learned that her husband was dead.
Ono begged the hospital not to report that Lennon was dead until she had informed their son, Sean, who was at home at the time. Not knowing of this request, it so happened that a reporter from ABC's New York affiliate, Alan Weiss, was in Roosevelt Hospital following a motorcycle accident, and confirmed that Lennon was dead. He called ABC News, who relayed the news to Roone Arledge, the executive producer of ABC's nationally-televised Monday Night Football. The confirmation was overheard by Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford, who were calling a game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. In a brief conversation amongst themselves during a timeout, Cosell expressed apprehension over reporting Lennon's death on-air, but Gifford convinced him it was the right thing to do. Coming out of the commercial, after a brief set-up by Gifford, Cosell made the announcement: “ Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which in duty bound, we have to take. ”
The following day, Ono issued a statement: "There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean."
Aftermath
Lennon's assassination triggered an outpouring of grief around the world on an unprecedented scale. Sales of his music—both with the Beatles and as a solo artist—soared in the months following the tragedy. Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester. No funeral was held. Yoko Ono sent word to the chanting crowd outside the Dakota that their singing had kept her awake; she asked that they re-convene in Central Park the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. On 14 December 1980, millions of people around the world responded to Ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon. Thirty thousand gathered in Liverpool, and the largest group—over 225,000—converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. At least two Beatle fans committed suicide after the murder, leading Yoko Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair. Ono released a solo album, Season of Glass, in 1981. The cover of the album is a photograph of Lennon's blood-spattered glasses. A 1997 re-release of the album included "Walking on Thin Ice", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered.
Chapman pleaded guilty to Lennon's murder in June 1981, against the advice of his lawyers, who wanted to file an insanity plea. He received a life sentence but under the terms of his guilty plea became eligible for parole in 2000, after serving 20 years. Chapman has been denied parole at hearings every two years since 2000 and remains an inmate at Attica State Prison. Annie Leibovitz's photo of a naked John embracing Yoko, taken the day of the murder, was the cover of Rolling Stone's 22 January 1981 issue, most of which was dedicated to articles, letters and photographs commemorating John's life and death. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors ranked it as the top magazine cover of the last 40 years.
Memorials and tributes
Lennon continues to be mourned throughout the world and has been the subject of numerous memorials and tributes, principally New York City's Strawberry Fields, a memorial garden area in Central Park across the street from the Dakota building. Ono later donated $1 million for its maintenance. It has become a gathering place for tributes on Lennon's birthday and on the anniversary of his death, as well as at other times of mourning, such as after the 11 September attacks and following George Harrison's death on 29 November 2001.
Elton John, who had recorded the number-one hit "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" with Lennon, teamed up with his lyricist, Bernie Taupin and recorded a tribute to Lennon, entitled "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)." It appeared on Elton's 1982 album Jump Up! and peaked at #13 on the US Singles Chart that year. When Elton performed the song at a sold-out concert in Madison Square Garden in August 1982, he was joined on stage by Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had their album Hard Promises (which was recorded shortly after Lennon's death; Lennon was scheduled to be in the same studio on a common day with the Heartbreakers) etched with "WE LOVE YOU JL" on the master copy of the album and pressed on every vinyl copy of the album as a tribute to a meeting that never would occur.
Lennon was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. In 1994, the Republic of Abkhazia issued two postage stamps featuring Lennon and Groucho Marx, spoofing Abkhazia's Communist past. These stamps would have normally borne the portraits of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. On 8 December 2000, Cuba's President Fidel Castro unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon in a park in Havana. In 2000, the John Lennon Museum was opened at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Saitama, Japan and Liverpool renamed its airport to Liverpool John Lennon Airport and adopted the motto "Above us only sky" in 2002. The 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death was on 8 December 2005. Celebrations of Lennon's life and music took place in London, New York City, Cleveland, and Seattle. The minor planet 4147 Lennon, discovered 12 January 1983 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named in memory of Lennon.
On 9 December 2006, in the city of Puebla, Mexico, a plaque was revealed, honouring Lennon's contribution to music, culture and peace.
On 9 October 2007, Ono dedicated a new memorial called the Imagine Peace Tower, located on the island of Viðey, off the coast of Iceland. Each year, between 9 October and 8 December, it projects a vertical beam of light high into the sky. Every 8 December there is a memorial ceremony in front of the Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood, California. Many people light candles in front of Lennon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star outside the Capitol Building. From 28 to 30 September 2007, Durness held the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival which was attended by Julia Baird (Lennon's half-sister) who read from Lennon's writings and her own books, and Stanley Parkes, Lennon's Scottish cousin. Parkes said, "Me and Julia [Baird] are going to be going to the old family croft to tell stories". Musicians, painters and poets from across the UK performed at the festival.
In 2009, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's New York City annexe hosted a special John Lennon exhibit. The exhibit included many mementoes and personal effects from Lennon's life, but it also included the clothes he was wearing when he was murdered, still in the brown paper bag from Roosevelt Hospital. Ono still places a lit candle in the window of Lennon's room in the Dakota on 8 December.
In film
Two films depicting the murder of Lennon were released in close proximity of each other more than 25 years after the event. The first of the two, The Killing of John Lennon, was released on 7 December 2007. Directed by Andrew Piddington, the movie starred Jonas Ball as Mark David Chapman. The second film was Chapter 27, released on 28 March 2008. Directed by J. P. Schaefer, the film starred Jared Leto as Mark David Chapman. Lennon was portrayed by actor Mark Lindsay Chapman.
Of the two films, the low budget The Killing of John Lennon was considerably better received, while Chapter 27, with its higher budget, was roundly hammered by critics.
(https://en.wikipedia.org)
Edited by Learyfan (12/06/20 10:38 AM)
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