Remembering John Lennon....
In just a few hours, at Midnight December 8, 2005, twenty five years will have passed since John Lennon was gunned down by a crazed fan in New York City.
Ironically, it will also mark the last time that myself, along with every smoker in Washington State, will be able to enjoy a drink and a cigarette at a bar as the new anti-smoking law (Initiative 901) that was passed overwhelmingly by the voters last month here in Washington takes effect.
I actually smoked my last ceremonial public cigarette a few hours ago at the bowling alley bar just across the street from my house. Not surprisingly, a lot of the people at the bar enjoying their last smokes weren't talking about the new law at all...though it was certainly on their minds on this last night of enjoying a freedom taken for granted not that long ago... Now gone.
....And Lighting Up For The Last Time
A lot of them...a lot of "us" I should say, we're actually rather talking about, and remembering, John Lennon. I suspect Lennon, a smoker himself, would have liked that.
Lennon spent much of his adult life, both as an artist, and as an activist, fighting for various causes in the political arena, and he often paid dearly for it.
I'm not exactly sure what Lennon's position would be on a smoking ban if he we'r
e alive today.
In the sixties and seventies, the freedom to smoke a cigarette in a bar was simply a given not worth a second thought. Actually the real issues of the day...hotly debated back then by people smoking cigarettes in bars I'm sure...included the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and the growing unrest in America's streets and on it's college campuses.
For speaking out on these and other subjects, John Lennon earned himself a prominent position on an "enemies list" kept by the Nixon White House.
Lennon's place on the "list" earned him, among other things, FBI surveillance, and being effectively kept out of the country for years. It was only when Watergate finally brought down the Nixon presidency, that the long rumored "secret" enemies list became public knowledge.
I'm not a fan of every single conribution John Lennon made to 
the world. In fact, as a twelve year old boy, I can think of practically no woman I less wanted to see naked than Yoko Ono. Yet John Lennon brought us that sight, along with all of his own uncurcuimsized glory on an album cover. Yuk!
But Lennon's legacy and impact on music and culture are undeniable.
I can still remember exactly where I was the night John Lennon died. I'll never forget it.
The Seattle music industry was celebrating it's annual Christmas party at the Butcher restaurant in Georgetown. In 1980, years before the Seattle Grunge boom of the nineties, the hot local band was Heart, led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson.About thirty minutes before Heart we're going to make their grand appearance at the party (and trust me, this was meant to be a big deal), the rumors that Lennon had been shot began circulating through the room.
Somebody actually sent me out to call the local newspaper, the P-I, to confirm the rumors and I
ended up being quoted on the front page in the following morning's edition. When Heart finally did arrive later that night, the party was clearly over. To this day, I remember the puzzled looks on Ann and Nancy's faces (apparently they hadn't heard the news yet) as the room emptied at pretty much the same moment they arrived. I also remember the weird sensation I felt...of feeling sorry for the Wilson sisters even as the shock of Lennon's death was still sinking in.The next morning I had to make an emergency run, just as every record store manager in America did that morning, to stock up on Lennon and Beatles records for what was sure to be a big sales day in the wake of the previous evening's tragic news.
As I drove back to Tacoma from our one-stop in Seattle, my trunk piled with Beatles and Lennon music for the record store to sell, the radio was of course playing the same music nonstop. When "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out", a somewhat obscure Lennon track (from "Walls and Bridges" I think) came on, I actually had to pull off the road.
That's when the real impact finally hit me. I sat there and cried for about five minutes.
So earlier tonight, when I went across the street to the bowling alley to smoke the last cigarette I apparently will ever smoke in a Washington state drinking establishment, it was nice to spend that time in the company of some folks who wanted to remember John Lennon.
We smoked and drank and talked about our memories of the man (including the story I told above) whose music was basically the soundtrack of our lives.
So many memories. And more than a few of them I'm sure, probably included us smoking cigarettes.
So many memories. So many cigarettes.
We miss ya John.
posted by Glen Boyd @ 10:40 PM,
