At 10 p.m., in a theater, Abraham Lincoln began his last conscious hour on earth. He was shot at
point-blank range while sitting in Box 7 of Ford's Theatre.
Lincoln's assassin stepped out of the darkness of a front box seat's entryway. He approached from the rear, emptying his easily concealed derringer in a wafting puff of grayish-blue smoke.
Lincoln was gunned down by a southern-born 26-year-old, and was later pronounced dead on Tenth
Street.
The assassin's first reaction to his deed was to mutter a Latin phrase that he had memorized from a book.
Lincoln's wife was with him when he was shot, but she was not hurt.
Lincoln, a president, was hunted by Booth, a performer. He gave his Number One speech (the "Gettysburg Address") in 1863.
His most famous
statement starts off by placing itself in the context of time ("four score and seven years ago").
After his moving speech, part of a field (in Gettysburg) was turned into a park.
He liked to work poetic elements into his politics, often emphasizing that
all men were created equal.
He struggled to help end the worst war America had ever known.
Lincoln was a lawyer, by trade, who intuitively understood the music of politics.
His wife was often mocked and blamed for causing organizational problems in her husband's business.
At the time of his death, he had two sons, one nine years older than the other.
In Walt Whitman's Lincoln eulogy ("O Captain! My Captain!"), the writer starts off by directly addressing Lincoln. Midway through the poem, Whitman refers to the assassination as a "dream." The last line of the eulogy repeats a line from the beginning of the poem.
He was killed on April 14, 1865,
Good Friday, the day in the
Christian world marking when Christ was put to death. Lincoln was in the fifth year of his presidency when
he was slain.
In tragicially prompt response to his death, a man from New York and a man from Kansas committed suicide.
At the close of Lincoln's life, he had ended the Civil War and had begun to end slavery--two achievements which, at the time he took office, were only two fantasies.
The world lost him, before his time, to a handgun.
|
At 10 p.m., in a studio, John Lennon began his last conscious hour on earth. He was shot at point-blank range while heading for Floor 7 of the Dakota Apartments.
Lennon's assassin stepped out of the darkness of a front alcove's entryway. He approached from the rear, emptying his easily concealed .38-cal revolver in a wafting puff of grayish-blue smoke.
Lennon was gunned down by a southern-born 25-year-old, and was later pronounced dead on Ninth Avenue.
The assassin's first reaction to his deed was to open a book and stand mesmerized.
Lennon's wife was with him when he was shot, but she was not hurt.
Lennon, a performer, was hounded by Nixon, a president. He had his first Number One record ("Please, Please Me") in 1963.
His group's most famous statement (the Sgt. Pepper CD) starts off by placing itself in the context of time ("20 years ago today"). After his moving music, part of a park (in New York) was turned into a field.
He liked to work political elements into his poetry, often emphasizing that all men AND women were created equal.
He struggled to help end the worst war America had ever known.
Lennon was a composer, by trade, who intuitively understood the politics of music.
His wife was often mocked and blamed for causing organizational problems in her husband's business.
At the time of his death, he had two sons, one twelve years older than the other.
In George Harrison's Lennon eulogy ("All Those Years Ago"), the writer starts off by directly addressing Lennon. Midway through the song Harrison refers to the assassination as a "dream." The last line of the eulogy repeats a line from the beginning of the song.
He was killed on Dec. 8, 1980, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day marking Christ's mother's conception without original sin. Lennon was in the fifth year of his privacy when he was slain.
In tragically prompt response to his death, a girl from Flordia and a man from Utah committed suicide.
At the close of Lennon's life, he had just released a recording that celebrated the value of peace and the enduring achievement of freedom, called Double Fantasy.
The world lost him, before his time, to a handgun.
|
THE DAY JOHN MET PAUL
By Jim O'Donnell
Penguin, 1996
Here's how "Lincoln and Lennon" came to be written:
By Jim O'Donnell
The year 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of John Lennon being gunned down in New York City.
In 1982 I had started work on a book about that day. It was to be called Lennon's Last Day. But as work on the book progressed, I couldn't take it emotionally.
So in 1986 I stopped, did a 180-degree turn, and started a book about a birth instead of an assassination.
I had noticed in my research that there were very few details in books and articles about the meeting of Lennon and McCartney on July 6, 1957. And the few details that were in print were often in conflict with one another. That July day became kind of a mystery to me. So I decided to write about it.
I finished the book in 1994. It was called The Day John Met Paul and was published by Penguin. It felt good to write about a summer breeze of a memory in the history of rock 'n' roll, instead of an icy December wind.
In 1999 I went back to work on Lennon's Last Day and now, thankfully, I'm in the home stretch.
During the course of my research, I early on came to realize how much of Lennon's life measured up to the life of another well-known individual, who also fell victim to that particularly American disease, Death by Handgun.
_____________________
EMAIL:
odonnell@rockandrolljournal.com
______________________
Reviews of THE DAY JOHN MET PAUL:
"Minutely detailed . . ."
--Los Angeles Times
"Meticulously researched . . ."
--Washington Post
"THE DAY JOHN MET PAUL is brilliant. I can't fault it."
--Colin Hanton, a Member of John Lennon's Band, the Quarry Men
"Once I started reading this book, I couldn't stop. This is a realistic portrayal of Lennon as a teenager. O'Donnell gets it right."
--Pete Shotton, John Lennon's Best Friend
"A superb re-creation of a moment in music history based on detailed research and imaginative insight. Jim O'Donnell has a reporter's curiosity, a rock 'n' roller's heart, and he writes like a lyrical Irish poet."
--Michael Lydon, A Founding Editor of Rolling Stone
"It was absolutely incredible to have the day brought back so perfectly. I couldn't have told the story more accurately myself."
--Bob Molyneux, Who Taped John Lennon Playing on the Day He met Paul McCartney
"A good read with a musical twist."
--VH-1
|
