John Lennon: 33 Years On

Yes, he was assasinated on this night in 1980.  I was among those who first heard about via TV bulletin in NYC about 11 p.m. Went uptown to the Dakota the next day and then to the memorial in Central Park a couple days later.

 When I was at Crawdaddy for most of the 1970s, we were, at times, close to John, who was not very accessible for most of the decade (when he was mainly being bad or being a dad).  We did publish his self-review of "Imagine,"  interviewed Yoko at length, and obtained an exclusive interview with John during his season in hell in L.A.  When I asked him to contribute to a special issue revolving around Springsteen's "Growin' Up," he sent me a nice note, which I still have, and then out of the blue this photo--presumably that's him that at the urinal, with his caption--signed on the back in classic Lennonese: "Just pissing about."