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John Lennon’s new Yohji Yamamoto jacket looked stunning. So much so that he wanted to be photographed in his luxurious attire – with golden Asian figures running down his left arm, roughly translating to “The truth of the universe is in your heart and in your mind.” He called his friend, rock ‘n’ roll photographer Bob Gruen, and invited him to the Record Plant studio in Midtown Manhattan. Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, were working there on a new song, called “Walking on Thin Ice”.
Gruen had taken the iconic photo of Lennon wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “New York City”, and they had established a friendship where the singer regularly asked Gruen to photograph him.
It was Friday afternoon, December 5, 1980, when Gruen arrived at the record factory for what would be their last session together. Three days later, on December 8, the former Beatle and hero of millions would be gunned down by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota, where Lennon lived with his family.
Gruen recalled that Lennon, 40, was in an optimistic frame of mind. He couldn’t wait to see the images the photographer developed in his darkroom two days later. He hoped to get them finished in time to move to the Record Plant studio and meet Lennon and Ono there.
“But,” Gruen said, “I was late. A friend from California called with news of John. I fell to the ground. Emerging details prompted a disturbing thought: “If I had made it to the studio, maybe I would have made a difference. I would have encouraged them to go out to eat. I felt that maybe my presence there had made a difference. I felt guilty for a long time.
Lennon was in a good position at the time of his death – a world away from his so-called “lost weekend”, in fact a period from 1973 to 1975, during which he partied in Los Angeles and s. is engaged in an affair with his former assistant May Pang. According to BBC’s Andy Peebles, subject of “Lennon’s Last Weekend” who interviewed the singer on Saturday, December 6, 1980, singer Harry Nilsson once dared Lennon to jump out of a speeding car on a highway in Los Angeles. Lennon obliged, later telling Peebles, “I was so high on drugs that I didn’t think twice.
But since 1975 he had been in New York with his family. He kept a photo of his son Sean, 5, in the studio. “John embraced the joy of being in a family,” Gruen said. “He was going to send this message on a world tour.”
Lennon and Ono’s album, “Double Fantasy” was released in October 1980 and climbed the charts. Lennon loved to see his wife’s music kissed. He didn’t mind that his new tracks were written off as “middle of the road”. Recalls Gruen: “John said, ‘It’s okay. We go in the middle of the road towards the bank.
December 8 started early for Lennon and Ono. They had breakfast at their usual table in their favorite neighborhood restaurant, Café La Fortuna. It was a modest place, known for Italian pastries and opera. After John’s death, the table was placed in the window as a memento mori.
With the morning meal over, Lennon escaped for a haircut. Taking advantage of the city, he walked around without a bodyguard. Some argue that the freedom he loved may have done it.
James Patterson, co-author of “The Last Days of John Lennon” (Little, Brown and Company), released Monday, told the Post that photographer Harry Benson – who smashed The Beatles on the band’s first U.S. tour and remained friends with Lennon – had concerns. “He said if John hadn’t been killed something tragic would have happened to him [anyway]Patterson said. “He thought John would take one too many chances and expose himself somehow.
But Lennon was having too much fun for sinister thoughts. “John was very funny,” Gruen said, remembering walking past a schoolyard with him. “The kids were playing basketball and one of them yelled, ‘Hey, John, when are you going to get the Beatles back together?’ John replied, “When are you going to go back to high school?” “
On the day the singer was assassinated, he returned home with his locks capped like a Teddy boy, returning to his 1950s youth in Liverpool. Rolling Stone Chief Photographer Annie Leibovitz arrived for a cover photo shoot.
Editor Jann Wenner wanted Lennon alone. But in an interview with writer Jonathan Cott, according to the book “Sticky Fingers,” Lennon said, “If they don’t want both of us, we’re not interested.
Leibovitz insisted on his boss’s wishes, but Lennon remained relentless. Then she showed him a nude drawing for inspiration. Lennon undressed immediately. Ono hesitated. He wrapped himself around his wife, kissing her tenderly on the cheek. Leibovitz showed him a Polaroid. He loved her. The former Beatle reportedly proclaimed, “This is it. It’s our relationship. “
Days later, the Rolling Stone cover turned into an obituary. “It was so deep,” Mary Shanahan, Artistic Director of Rolling Stone at the time, told The Post of the now famous photo. “Maybe a person shouldn’t show that level of vulnerability.”
In the gutter between the front and back cover of the magazine, Wenner left John a secret message: “I love you. You are with God. I will do what I said. “Yoko, hold on” – I’ll make sure, I promise. (What Wenner actually promised remains a mystery)
After Leibovitz left, Lennon and Ono met up with radio host Dave Sholin and producer Laurie Kaye for a fluid interview in the Dakota apartment. They talked about the rigors of parenthood. With Ono nominated as the head of discipline for the family, Lennon snapped, “You’re the best father he’s ever had.
About 90 minutes later, they all came down. A small crowd was waiting outside, hoping to get autographs. A heavy young man in an overcoat stood among them, waving a copy of “Double Fantasy”. Accommodatingly, the singer wrote, “John Lennon, 1980.”
“Is that all?” Lennon asked. “Do you want something else?”
The man shook his head. In the midst of this, a photo was taken by Paul Goresh – an amateur lenser who had his own history with Lennon: he improbably happened to sneak into the rock star’s apartment pretending to be a VCR repairman, to become friendly enough to join him. walks around the neighborhood. The image captured Lennon inches from his future assassin Chapman, the fan he had just met.
After that moment, Lennon and Yoko drove to the record factory for one last listen to their new song.
“They were so pumped and stable,” recalls Steve Marcantonio, assistant engineer for the session. “John was so clean. At a time when cocaine was as common as Coca-Cola, “he didn’t even have a beer or a glass of wine. John occasionally called Yoko “Mother”.
Lennon and Ono signed the recording. Sam Ginsberg, who had been an engineer at the record factory, told The Post in 2005: “John was happy it was Yoko’s single instead of his single. We just finished mixing this song and they left. The only thing that stuck in my mind was that John said, “I’m hungry. Should we stop by Wolf’s for a burger? ”
Never the adoring father, John chose to come home so they could see Sean. Their limo pulled up at the Dakota front door around 10:50 p.m.
“The car could have gone deeper into the driveway, and they could have gotten out where the door is,” said Keith Elliot Greenberg, author of “December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died,” said told the Post. “But [Lennon] chose to go to the sidewalk, as he usually did. He liked the fans.
Chapman was waiting. This time he took up a fighting stance, aimed his special .38 revolver, and fired four hollow point bullets into the singer’s chest. Lennon collapsed.
Police rushed to the scene and Chapman was handcuffed. Two officers carried the dying Lennon in the back of their patrol car. Mermaid moaning, they rushed to the old Roosevelt Hospital on Ninth Avenue and 59th Street. Ono dragged into a second police vehicle.
Engineer Marcantonio heard the news via a television broadcast in the Record Plant studio.
“I quickly got a call from Lila Wassenaar, who was running the record factory,” he said. “She said to me, ‘Get all the [‘Thin Ice’] bands in the safe. John had his own vault there. We didn’t want people to come in, grab the tapes, or listen to them.
According to Rolling Stone’s Shanahan, Leibovitz did the same: “She went to the lab and immediately got the movie.”
Kaye, still fit after interviewing Lennon and Ono, heard a radio report about the shooting. “I ran to the hospital,” she says. “I looked out the… window and saw Yoko inside. She cried. I knew at that time that John was dead.
If he had lived, Gruen speculates, the world would be a better place. “I guess he would be dynamic and make great music. John had grown up in 1980 and he learned that living a sober life is really fun. I could see him bring this into the world. Plus, John was so good with the unique liners – one of my favorites from him was, “The time you love to waste is not wasted. He would have been fantastic on Twitter.
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