00:00:00
foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign
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[Music] please [Music] it's been placed in total perspective for us I'll finish this they're in the
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hurry up offense third down four Ormond it'll be fourth down foreign will let it run down for one final
00:02:28
attempt he'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever timeout let's call three seconds
00:02:37
remaining John Smith is on the line and I don't care what's on the line Howard you have got to say what we know in the
00:02:45
booth yes we have to say it remember this is just a football game no matter who wins or loses an unspeakable tragedy
00:02:54
confirmed To Us by ABC news in New York City John Lennon outside of his apartment building on the west side of
00:03:02
New York City the most famous perhaps of all of The Beatles shot twice in the back rush to Roosevelt Hospital Dead on
00:03:12
Arrival hard to go back to the game after that news flash which in Duty found we have
00:03:20
to tell Frank indeed it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1935 marked the start of a severe uptick
00:03:52
in international conflicts invasions Mass death and War across the globe first it was Italy's invasion of
00:04:00
Ethiopia and then the Spanish Civil War in 1937 Japan invaded China and in the mid to late 1930s Japanese forces had
00:04:11
sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union in Mongolia and Europe Germany and
00:04:17
Italy were becoming more and more aggressive and then on September 1st 1939 Germany invaded in Poland the
00:04:27
United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations but this was ignored so
00:04:36
France and Britain declared war on Germany and thus began World War II a little more than a year later during the
00:04:45
deadliest conflict in human history a global war that would result in 70 to 85 million fatalities both civilian and
00:04:54
Military a baby was born John Lennon was born October 9 1940 and Oxford Street maternity hospital and
00:05:05
Liverpool England during a German air raid Liverpool is located on England's Northwestern coast and is a bustling
00:05:14
Port City the city has a reputation for toughness culture and diversity John would be born
00:05:20
to both of his parents Julia and Alfred Lennon Alfred Lennon was a merchant Seaman and John was named John Winston
00:05:30
Lennon after his father's Father John who went by Jack Lennon and the prime minister of course Winston Churchill
00:05:38
during and after the birth the German air raid raged on this means bomb warning sirens going off and screaming
00:05:47
can you imagine bringing a child into the world in your city heck the hospital you are in is under heavy threat of
00:05:55
being bombed the hospital was sending patients and guests to the seller for better protection they were also sending
00:06:02
people home they were putting the babies under the beds for better protection John's mother Julia was for the most
00:06:10
part a single mother during John's childhood he saw very little of his father who went by Freddie most of his
00:06:18
life who went AWOL while serving in the Navy after Julia's sister complained to Liverpool's Social Services twice Julia
00:06:27
gave custody of John to her sister so for several years John was brought up by his mother's sister Mimi there was
00:06:35
some more time spent with living with his father and then his mother again but ultimately John would be returned to
00:06:43
Mimi and she and her husband would raise John for most of his childhood in his early teens he got his first guitar and
00:06:52
spent many hours learning and playing at the age of 15 Lenin formed a skiffle band called The Quarry man this named
00:07:01
after his school Corey Bank high school well in skiffle would be the type of music they would be playing it's
00:07:07
old-timey music then on July 6 1958 John and a young man maybe some of you have heard of this is some guy named Paul
00:07:16
McCartney the two met for the very first time Paul joined the band and shortly after Paul recommended that his friend
00:07:24
George Harrison joined the band as well and soon The Quarrymen became an early version of The Beatles sadly John
00:07:32
Lennon's mother Julia passed away before John was 18. Julia Lennon was struck by
00:07:38
a car while she was walking home now this tragic event led to Lenin drinking heavily and often getting into fist
00:07:46
fights and a lot of aggressive behavior this Behavior would continue for about two years or so
00:07:54
in May of 1960 the ban was renamed the silver Beetles b-e-e-t-l-e-s and of course later
00:08:03
renamed Again The Beatles b-e-a-t-l-e-s I think there has always been some debate on who named the band
00:08:12
and why the unique spelling I've heard different sources say different things the story that I like the best is John
00:08:22
said something like a flaming man or a man in Flames appeared and spoke to him in one of his dreams and said you'll be
00:08:31
called The Beatles with an A and so it was well I think any time that you have the biggest band in the world and the
00:08:39
biggest band in history there's a lot of folklore that goes along with a band of
00:08:44
that size if I were in the band Captain I would certainly be taking credit for having come up with the name I'm just
00:08:51
whether I did or not even if you are a Ringo the the last to join after they already named it the Beatles I I have no
00:08:58
shot at being in a band like the Beatles so I'm just I'm just making weird comments at this point the Beatles
00:09:05
first concert was at the cavern Club in Liverpool in March of 1961. the following year in 1962 a man named
00:09:15
George Martin signed the band to a record deal years later Martin said he was not particularly impressed by the
00:09:23
band's demo tapes but he liked their wit and their humor on August 23 1962 John married his
00:09:31
pregnant girlfriend Cynthia Powell this was a very simple very small ceremony after the ceremony John and the Beatles
00:09:40
left Liverpool to play a show out of town spending their wedding night apart was fitting as it would set the pattern
00:09:48
for their life together John was away all of the time and was on the road when Cynthia gave birth to their son Charles
00:09:57
Jillian Lennon who was born April 8 1963. yeah they're mainly signed because of their manager Brian Epstein and also
00:10:08
Epstein would be the one that would kind of manage them on all their decisions you know one being if you have
00:10:16
a girlfriend or a wife we don't answer questions about that we just act like it doesn't exist that same year in 1963 the
00:10:25
band really took off and would go on to be one of the biggest and most popular bands in the world ever hear of the term
00:10:32
beetlemania in 1964 The Beatles toured the United States of America for the first time during which they appeared on
00:10:41
The Ed Sullivan Show I think this level of popularity in a band was something that people never seen before the
00:10:48
closest thing was possibly Elvis and they were so huge that people actually called them the four Elvises John Lennon
00:10:56
was no stranger to controversy in 1966 he made an off-the-cuff remark in an interview with the evening standard
00:11:04
saying Christianity will go it will vanish and Shrink we're more popular than Jesus now I don't know which will
00:11:13
go first rock and roll or Christianity and I think this is where his honesty starts shining as far as he's willing to
00:11:23
say what he actually believes and I think one of the things that people get twisted is I think there was a part of
00:11:31
him that was saying look we're bigger than Jesus and I don't know if that's okay I don't know if that's the way it
00:11:37
should be yeah I don't know that he was bragging which I think some people took it to be
00:11:43
that way at the time I think we just have a situation where this is a young man who's making an observation and
00:11:50
threw it out there again and off the cuff remark well words have meaning and sometimes consequences so this led to a
00:11:59
Beatles boycott in the U.S especially in the Deep South and a quick internet search you can find images of gatherings
00:12:07
with bonfires and people a lot of them teens really burning Beatles albums this seems like an over reaction
00:12:17
especially looking back on it now I remember Captain when I was 14 I had a newspaper out a smaller route
00:12:24
and I took my whole first paycheck and I used that paycheck to purchase Ozzy Osbourne's live and Loud album
00:12:35
and about the same time I was going off to this this other church with my friends for evening Gatherings or and
00:12:44
weekend Gatherings and they did a lot of social activities for young teens at that time as well so I was intrigued by
00:12:51
the friendship and by this new church and very quickly after going there I get this flyer we're
00:13:00
having this get-together where you can bring your rock and roll and heavy metal albums and we're going to burn them and
00:13:08
I thought I just spent my whole paycheck right to buy this album that I that I'd
00:13:13
wanted for months and I I couldn't see the connection between that church and why I needed to burn the album so that
00:13:20
was the last social gathering at that church for me and of course in typical John Lennon quick wit fashion he had a
00:13:28
remark for that as well saying that if people wanted to burn the albums they had to buy them first well and what's
00:13:36
funny to me about this is the early Beatles music was so pop and was so friendly there wasn't any
00:13:44
controversy going on and the music itself right I think it was just simply that statement again this seems to be
00:13:52
more of something that was going on in the deep south of America where I've heard other people say that it was kind
00:14:00
of a mixed bag of reaction for other parts of our country where maybe mom or dad was on the side of you can't listen
00:14:08
to The Beatles no more son or daughter but the other was like hey this is just a 25 year old kid saying something silly
00:14:17
he doesn't really mean it it's not a big deal it's just it's just music right but
00:14:21
this would change the Beatles forever because their touring was getting so out of hand and at the time we didn't have
00:14:28
the technology to have these big sound systems so these guys were going and playing in front of all these screaming
00:14:35
fans and they couldn't even hear themselves play and then on top of that because of these remarks we had groups
00:14:42
showing up like the KKK to stop these concerts to protest and also there was threats against their
00:14:51
lives from groups like the KKK and at a lot of these concerts we have something that I think is just bizarre but hey
00:14:59
there are big big Die Hard fans out there for everything in this world but you see when you look back at the
00:15:06
footage you see teenage girls fainting and passing out in the audience yeah that's normally what happens when I go
00:15:13
to Crime Con on November 9 1966 John met a Japanese American artist named Yoko Ono her art was on display in
00:15:25
London both John and Yoko were married to other people but a connection was made and the two were determined to stay
00:15:33
in touch in 1967 The Beatles manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose and many marked this event as the
00:15:42
beginning of the end for the band and obviously we're just going over some bullet points I mean the history and the
00:15:49
details of the Beatles career their lives in the band and out of the band is so extensively researched because they
00:16:00
are the biggest band of all time so obviously we're not going to cover every single point of The Beatles career in
00:16:07
1968 John Lennon's marriage was over he admitted to Cynthia that during their marriage he had many Affairs and his
00:16:15
friendship with Yoko was now becoming a romance well and I just want to be clear
00:16:20
on something because I think as somebody that is such a big icon like Lenin one of the things that's
00:16:27
overlooked is you know he was abusive towards his first wife he was physically and verbally abusive and that's not just
00:16:38
coming from his son saying so Julian but that's also he admits to that John even
00:16:45
goes as far to say check out songs like better on Sergeant Pepper's and he's talking about himself within
00:16:54
that song and how he needs to uh change and and not do these things and it's not
00:17:00
an excuse in any way but when your mother is taken from you uh from off-duty police officer when your father
00:17:08
isn't around and you're raised by your aunt you're going to have some kind of early trauma that can affect the way you
00:17:18
behave in relationships well and he's mixing that anger with drugs and alcohol as well with uh self-medication in
00:17:27
November of 1960 68 the band released the album titled The Beatles which would also later be known as The White Album
00:17:35
one I think this is one of the reasons why the Beatles became one of the biggest bands of all time because like I
00:17:41
said they're too big to tour so all they could do is spend time in the studio and
00:17:47
they were doing this at a at a time where technology was catching up so now you didn't have just like a four track
00:17:54
you could put more like instrumentation make something bigger and they were able
00:18:00
to create so many records per year because that's all they had to do well speaking of which Captain It is believed
00:18:10
that on August 18th when the band got together collectively to record a song called the end
00:18:18
this would be the last session with all four members together in the recording studio
00:18:25
and then this is followed by John telling the group in a band meeting in September of 69 that he was leaving the
00:18:36
band it seems like this information did not make its way to the public who knows for what reasons but it wasn't
00:18:45
until the following year when Paul McCartney stated in an interview in April that the band was breaking up yeah
00:18:54
there's all these again it's such a big band there's so many conflicting stories
00:19:00
but one of the things I think is interesting is they were doing a documentary their last record was going
00:19:06
to be Let It Be and they just thought we're going to strip it down go back to like the
00:19:13
original rock and roll style that we're doing and then they felt like it was disappointing so they actually made a
00:19:21
conscious effort to go back in the studio and record Abbey Road which is amazing piece of work and quit so yes
00:19:31
maybe John was the one that said hey I'm leaving or maybe Paul was the one that said I'm leaving first but
00:19:38
all four of the members knew this was coming to to an end and regardless of how it went down you could see for
00:19:47
months and months the four of them slowly going their separate ways yes they were going their separate ways but
00:19:53
it was also interesting because they're setting out on a bigger business venture together under Apple
00:20:00
music then in 1970 John Lennon's debut solo album John Lennon slash plastic Ono band was released
00:20:11
soon after Captain we have Lennon and Ono who moved to New York City in August of 1971. I found one source that said
00:20:21
that Yoko was taking too much criticism in the papers in London and that was one
00:20:29
of several reasons why the two chose to relocate again because the ban was so big there was a blame game going on some
00:20:37
people blame Paul McCartney for breaking up the ban and a lot of people blamed Yoko Ono a lot of people blamed Yoko Ono
00:20:44
for breaking up John Lennon's first marriage as well if it seems like if people did not like Yoko they just
00:20:51
blamed her for everything and we know that Lenin's marriage was pretty much doomed because of his own
00:20:57
actions for many years anyway a thing that's not talked about a lot because again he has such this iconic symbol to
00:21:06
him that people never want to talk about the negative stuff but during the last few years of The Beatles he was a heroin
00:21:12
addict and so was Yoko so the fact that that had a major play on on their business relationships their
00:21:22
personal relationships and and people putting blame on on her because they were seeing their friend be a drug
00:21:29
addict basically when the two moved to New York City they immediately embraced the U.S politics
00:21:37
and became involved speaking they were activists for a peace movement and the couple released their happy Christmas
00:21:45
War is Over single in December of that year John Lennon was not greeted with open
00:21:53
welcome Arms by everyone here in the states when he chose to relocate in fact it was the Nixon Administration that
00:22:02
took on what was called a strategic countermeasure against John Lennon's anti-war anti-nixon propaganda this
00:22:11
would lead to the administration and some involvement with the FBI as well to surveil John Lennon to keep tabs on him
00:22:21
it's even suggested that they were tapping wiretapping his phone and they were threatened by Lenin why would would
00:22:30
Nixon be threatened by somebody like John Lennon Well there's going to be an election coming up and they were afraid
00:22:39
that this guy who is involved in politics he's vocal that he has the ear of the American
00:22:48
Youth and that he could drive if he wanted to he could drive masses of people to the
00:22:57
left to join the Democratic party and vote that way against Nixon in the upcoming election that is a very scary
00:23:06
thing to see that this guy all by himself has more control and more influence than the president of the
00:23:14
United States one this is during the whole Peace Love hippie movement and so they were doing this to a lot of artists
00:23:22
they were having the FCC come down hard on shows that lean left artists that lean left but also during this time him
00:23:32
and and yokaro aren't getting along too well and and he's having his what they call the Lost weekend but even before
00:23:40
that we have the Nixon Administration what they're going to try to do Captain is they don't want Lenin to stay in the
00:23:48
United States right so you can't set up residency here and we have our reasons this would lead to several years of
00:23:56
legal battles with the immigration authorities and the Very basics of it are this they
00:24:04
did have reasons to not allow him to stay one he had overstayed his welcome so to speak when he first got here you
00:24:14
have to start filing for things and applying for citizenship and and the right to stay in which he didn't do so
00:24:22
in a timely manner and that all seems a bit arbitrary especially when we're talking about an individual that they
00:24:28
didn't seem to want to be here second of all there was an arrest that took place back in London and they would
00:24:37
often cite that as well that's further reason that we don't want this individual to be in our country he
00:24:43
couldn't obey the the laws of his own country before coming here and I think you pointed this out well and so have
00:24:51
several others that the simplest reason what Lenin believed and what is probably
00:24:56
correct is that he was outspoken for peace and against the war they didn't want that to have an effect on the
00:25:07
upcoming election and then we have the situation where where you're right him and Yoko Ono are
00:25:15
not getting along and a lot of that is again some of John's self-destructive behavior and his well irresponsible and
00:25:26
Unfaithful behavior and this leads to the Lost weekend which was about an 18-month period of time where the two
00:25:34
were were separated from about roughly 73 till 1975. yeah and what's interesting is
00:25:42
Yoko actually yeah basically told uh hooked John up with May ping and they basically had a relationship
00:25:53
for a couple years I believe they got back together at the Elton John concert that Elton John had in New York
00:26:01
basically Elton John played on a John Lennon song and said if it ever got to number one you're gonna have to come out
00:26:06
and and do a live performance and that'd be like John Lennon's first live performance in years
00:26:13
and that would be when Yoko and John would get back together yeah so you have this period of roughly 18 months and
00:26:21
it's all kinds of debauchery most of it taking place out in LA with other friends and other stars as well title it
00:26:30
the last weekend the two get back together John and Yoko Ono and they are going to have a baby together on October
00:26:40
9 1975 and this is a very unique thing here we have Sean Toro Ono Lennon who is born on October 9th
00:26:53
1975. this shares the same birthday as his father John Lennon also born on October 9th well this is going to create
00:27:03
a big shift in John's life he's going to remove himself from the spotlight he's not going to write any songs he's going
00:27:11
to be a stay-at-home dad and raise his son like he did not do with his first son yeah on his 35th birthday John
00:27:21
Lennon would step away from music and he would decide to become a father and be a real father for
00:27:28
the first time come down [Music] [Music] I want to ask you about writing I mean writing 10 songs in a week is I believe
00:28:08
you did we mentioned it earlier for the walls and bridges album that seems to me
00:28:12
to be an awful lot of pressure how exactly do you go about writing John these days or both of you in fact as a
00:28:18
combination which of those two is the more important and looking back at it whenever I comment about writing all
00:28:24
seem to have been suffering whether it was right in Day in the Life or whatever it's some kind of sufferings I always
00:28:29
seem to have an intense time writing and thinking this is the end and nothing's coming and this is dumb and this is no
00:28:36
good and all that business so not writing for the five years which I didn't I didn't pick up a guitar or
00:28:42
anything I'm not trying to write not making attempt to write or anything like that
00:28:48
so what you said about wars and bridges applies to double fantasy I was in Bermuda and Yoko was in New York doing
00:28:55
some business I was in Bermuda with Sean and The Nanny and that kind of stuff and then when we made a tentative
00:29:02
decision to make a record I didn't have any material then suddenly it all came to me all the songs that are on Double
00:29:09
Fantasy all came within a period of three weeks I mean in Bermuda after five years of nothing not trying but nothing
00:29:16
coming anyway no inspiration no anything then suddenly boom boom boom boom boom he's a very fast writer because it's an
00:29:22
inspiration he just comes through him so it's just a matter of writing it down almost when we do Double Fantasy I was
00:29:30
in New York and he was in Bermuda we were sort of communicating on the phone I would say well what about this and
00:29:36
then he would call me maybe four hours later and said what about this be singing to each other and that was the
00:29:41
dialogue it was very strange and we went through sort of like uh paradoxical feeling of well half resisting well I
00:29:49
don't want to hear a song now I'm very tired but well I mean I've heard yours I was like well let's hear it then you
00:29:56
know that sort of thing I went through that and then we were going to go to studio and because of that I felt we're
00:30:03
both big-headed people and so maybe we're gonna fight like crazy over remix or this and that you know because we
00:30:09
both have very definite ideas and I'm sure that John felt that way too John must have felt well can we really work
00:30:15
together but somehow we were so well and we were all prepared to maybe have a difficult time but don't you think yeah
00:30:24
it was the easiest session I've ever done I think five years is an awful long time what sort of mental discipline did
00:30:29
it involve resisting picking up a Guitar well it wasn't a matter of resisting the
00:30:34
first half a year or year I had this sort of feeling in the back of my mind that I
00:30:39
ought to I ought to and I'd go through periods of panic because I was not in the enemy or the billboard or being seen
00:30:46
at Studio 54 with Nick and Bianca I mean I didn't exist anymore that I got a little fear of that would come like a
00:30:54
paranoia and then it would go away because I'd be involved with a baby or involved with whatever other business
00:30:59
that we're involved with but that only lasted about nine months and then it was suddenly like a oh
00:31:05
it just went away and I realized there was a life after death you know I mean there was a life without it did you
00:31:11
enjoy that realization great it was like oh my God I would sit around thinking what does this remind me of what does
00:31:17
this remind me of I thought this reminds me of being 15 I didn't have to write songs of 15 I wrote it if I wanted to or
00:31:25
I played rock and roll if I wanted to I didn't have to do it I would I didn't have some imaginary standards set up by
00:31:31
me or some group of critics or whatever in other words back to the days before the pressure so I sort of got back to
00:31:37
that and then that's when I suddenly could do it again with ease the most enjoyable thing for me apart from
00:31:44
putting them on the tape when you first put them is the inspirational in the spirit because when the songs really
00:31:51
come and you're not sitting down like a Craftsman writing I can do that you know you want a song
00:31:57
about bananas for a movie I could do that okay you know I'm quite capable of turning it out like that I wouldn't
00:32:03
enjoy it so much maybe but I could do it on that level but my joy is when you like possessed like a medium I mean I'll
00:32:11
be sitting around and it'll come in the middle of the night all the time when you don't want to do it you know that's
00:32:15
the exciting part so I'm lying around and then this thing comes as a whole piece you know words and music and I
00:32:22
think can I say I wrote it I don't know who the hell wrote it I'm just sitting in this whole damn song comes up so it
00:32:29
you're like driven and you find yourself over on a piano a guitar and you put it
00:32:33
down because it's been given to you or whatever it is that you tune into there's John Lennon discussing his break
00:32:39
from music and then the Rejuvenation of his music career which took place in 1980. before we get to that there
00:32:50
Captain let's give a little more background here we have the Linens John and Yoko who were living at the Dakota
00:32:58
which is also known as the Dakota apartments this is a building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and
00:33:07
Central Park West in Upper West Side of Manhattan they were subleasing an apartment from actor Robert Ryan for a
00:33:17
brief period of time now Ryan passed away in 1973 and after that event the lenins wanted to purchase the unit that
00:33:26
he was living in well the board is a little particular at this apartment complex the Dakota and they weren't so
00:33:35
hip to the idea of the Linens living there purchasing an apartment in the beginning that might have had something
00:33:42
to do with John having trouble getting residency here in the United States eventually that goes away and what we
00:33:51
have is John and Yoko they purchased five different apartments at the Dakota two of them were living quarters for
00:34:01
John on Yoko and their son together Sean and they had a unit that was purchased for Sean's Nanny and her husband so that
00:34:10
they would be in the same building on call they could tend to Sean's needs whenever it was necessary and they also
00:34:17
purchased two other units these were simply used for storage yeah John had a lot of Endeavors when he talks about all
00:34:25
these other business things going on while some of these business things were real estate transactions and to show you
00:34:34
how picky the board has been over the years for the Dakota first off we should probably point out that this is a very
00:34:42
old building I mean the Dakota was constructed between 1880 and 1884 and it was a historical
00:34:51
landmark even well before Lenin's death now the board denied living quarters to people such as Gene
00:35:02
Simmons from Kiss Billy Joel and Carly Simon now some other famous people that have lived there throughout the years
00:35:09
are John Madden Rosie O'Donnell Joe Namath and Judy Garland what I always find interesting about this time period
00:35:17
is when his friends say that they talked to John how happy he was staying at home
00:35:23
and I think some of that has to do with the fact that he wasn't there obviously for his first child and to to try to do
00:35:30
it correct and be the guy he wanted to be and that he was able to do that for his second son Sean yeah there's nothing
00:35:40
more fulfilling than being a good father a good husband and I also think some of
00:35:45
that too is a certain level of sobriety that he did not partake in for many years of his
00:35:53
life and you have what is an Angry Young Man Who is fueling some of that anger with drugs and alcohol and you can't
00:36:02
start to let go or work through that anger and grow until you start to let go of that drugs and alcohol while also
00:36:10
being one of the most famous people in the world I mean that has to be I'm sure there's a burden that
00:36:17
comes with that as well yeah right right and I and then I also think as an artist
00:36:23
um having a situation where you're supposedly the best so then your competition is yourself so you always
00:36:29
have to top yourself and then after the breakup there's a competition between the members and I think there's
00:36:37
something nice about just going hey I'm going to let all that go and like he says in the interview it's like
00:36:44
when it's all over with there's actually a life after that right one thing that I find fascinating is the
00:36:52
clip that we played there you can hear Lenin in his own words saying look there was not
00:36:59
a resistance in an effort put forward on my behalf to not create music there was
00:37:06
simply a lack of creativity and a lack of anything coming through a lack of that that energy that I once had and he
00:37:15
describes it in many ways as a job but where he's going to find inspiration and that renewed sense of creativity it will
00:37:26
be from a trip that he takes to Bermuda in the summer of 1980. now something very interesting happens to Lenin on
00:37:37
that trip he's aboard a yacht this is like a 43-foot sailboat with a crew well they're out there and the Seas get rough
00:37:47
my friend the storm is coming in and this is a pretty powerful storm the crew is experiencing seasickness
00:37:55
John Lennon is not he is the only one that can really pull it together in hold the wheel and try to keep the craft
00:38:03
steady well let's go back a little bit because he wasn't part of the crew he was basically cooking for the crew
00:38:12
saying hey look guys I'm not I'm not the manly guy I can't do this stuff but hey
00:38:17
I can cook for you well like you said they all get sick and then the guy that's saying well I'm not I'm not manly
00:38:23
enough to take over the ship has to take over the ship and for several hours he has to fight
00:38:30
his way through the storm sailing this boat through the storm there and he said this was one of the
00:38:38
most profound experiences in his entire life if not the most and it was that moment followed by his
00:38:47
stay in Bermuda that was really the inspiration that the light switch just clicked right back on for him and all
00:38:57
this stuff just pouring through all of this good music just pouring through but I also think there's probably a little
00:39:05
bit of fear too like look I'm being a good husband I'm being a good man I'm being a good father can you do both can
00:39:14
you be a great artist and be all those things I also think that there's a bit of the
00:39:22
weight of the situation when you're out on that boat there's a possibility that you and the
00:39:29
rest of the guys are not going to survive that storm right there's a certain fragility to life that becomes
00:39:37
very you become very aware of and maybe that was a bit of a kick in the pants for him to get him back on his
00:39:46
horse again in October of 1980 we have another special event in John Lennon's life he turns age 40 and on that same
00:39:56
day his son Sean turns age five and Yoko surprised both of them with having a you know where you have the plane and
00:40:06
they write in the sky she wrote a message to both of them that says happy birthday
00:40:13
to John and Sean love Yoko they were able to view this out their apartment Window
00:40:19
in November of 1980 is when they would release the album Double Fantasy this is John Lennon's return to music and the
00:40:30
album is taking off it very quickly went gold well at this time too he's doing a
00:40:36
lot of interviews he did a big famous Playboy interview and one for the Rolling Stone magazine
00:40:44
yeah on the evening of Friday December 5th 1980 John Lennon spoke to Rolling Stone editor Jonathan cot for more than
00:40:53
nine hours at his apartment in New York's upper west side and this interview was so long nine hours that's
00:41:01
a long long time to be sitting down and have a discussion it continued on at the
00:41:05
record plant recording studio and that brings us up to December 8th 1980. that morning John Lennon and Yoko
00:41:15
Ono woke up in their apartment as they did most mornings they went out and had a nice breakfast they typically would go
00:41:22
to a cafe or someplace within walking distance of the Dakota for their breakfast or maybe hop in a limo and go
00:41:31
grab something to eat out in the town while out that day John decides to get a haircut this is important because he has
00:41:41
a photo shoot that they will will be doing at the couple's apartment at the Dakota the photo shoot was scheduled for
00:41:49
11 A.M on that day on Monday December 8th Rolling Stone magazine photographer Annie Leibowitz arrived at Lenin's
00:41:58
apartment for the photo shoot this is going to go with the interview that he had just done three days prior
00:42:08
and the plan was to run this interview with some photographs for the interview as well as a
00:42:16
photograph for the cover of the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine this is
00:42:22
going to one fly off of this the newspaper stance for the magazine great for the magazine but it's also further
00:42:29
promotion for the Double Fantasy album that is recently been released during this photo shoot Annie Leibowitz she
00:42:39
thought that you know what would be a good idea I would like to snap a photo of John and Yoko both in the nude right
00:42:47
let's get something where people were out there talking spread the word do something controversial a little bit
00:42:53
it's going to be good for the magazine good for the album well Yoko says I'm not real comfortable being fully nude
00:43:01
for this photo shoot so what we have is what would become the the Rolling Stone magazine
00:43:10
cover was a Polaroid shot a single Polaroid shot of Yoko Ono lying fully clothed
00:43:19
on her back and you have John Lennon who is completely nude and he's kind of holding his wife in a way that he's
00:43:28
almost in like the fetal position yeah it's become one of the most iconic pictures of John and Yoko
00:43:35
at 1pm San Francisco radio producer Dave sholin arrives at the apartment to conduct what will become John Lennon's
00:43:44
last interview this is about a three hour session where John talks and the thing is when you look back at this
00:43:56
interview as well as the one that was conducted three days prior there are some kind of Haunting statements that
00:44:02
John makes only because we now know these are the last interviews right but in this
00:44:08
interview with Dave scholin John says quote we're either going to live or we're going to die I consider that my
00:44:17
work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long time I believe that John felt a great deal of
00:44:25
admiration towards the 60s because that was his Heyday that was his Pinnacle and
00:44:30
then dealing with the breakup of The Beatles the competition between members this lost weekend I think he looked down
00:44:39
upon the 70s and thinking okay well now things are better we're getting things together
00:44:46
the 80s are going to be a really special time one of the quotes from the December
00:44:52
5th Rolling Stone interview that I wanted to point out too is John says quote Give Peace a chance not shoot
00:45:00
people for peace all we need is love I believe it end quote after the interview at 4 30 John and Yoko were scheduled to
00:45:10
go to the recording studio they had a session scheduled where they were going to record a track that they were working
00:45:16
on together now when John and Yoko first go outside of the Dakota they observed that their ride is not there they would
00:45:25
typically travel by way of limousine and this seemed to upset John a little bit he didn't like to wait around especially
00:45:34
not out front of the Dakota because as we already pointed out we got famous and interesting people
00:45:42
that lived there so you get these people that gather and hang out and they're looking to see somebody famous and many
00:45:51
of these people are looking to catch a glimpse of John and Yoko in particular as well as try to maybe snatch a an
00:46:00
autograph from John while outside of the Dakota so the Dave schullen who did the
00:46:07
interview he offers a ride to John and Yoko and I think he was a little surprised when when they decided to wait
00:46:17
around for the limo that was was arriving late now during this time we have a young man
00:46:25
who approaches John Lennon and he hands John a copy of the Double Fantasy album wanting his autograph
00:46:37
John signs the young man's album and he signs it John Lennon 1980 gives it back to the young man and now he's going to
00:46:47
get his ride they're going to go off to the studio while he is writing or signing his
00:46:54
autograph on the cover of the Double Fantasy album somebody snaps a picture which captures John Lennon looking down
00:47:02
at the album cover and the young man standing just over his left shoulder looking down as John is signing the
00:47:10
autograph we would later know the man in the picture with John Lennon to be that
00:47:16
of Mark David Chapman I'll post all these pictures on our Instagram at True Crime garage and also on Twitter and
00:47:25
Facebook at the recording session things seem to go exactly the way that John and
00:47:31
Yoko wanted they loved the outcome they loved the result of their hard work at the record Studio
00:47:39
and before they leave the recording studio John makes sure to get a cassette of what they just recorded because he
00:47:47
and Yoko would like to listen to it again and again they're very pleased with the outcome of this then they're
00:47:54
going to be picked up by a limo at 10 35 from the music studio to head back to the Dakota
00:48:00
at 10 48 pm the limo stops just outside of the Dakotas Gateway and Yoko climbs out of
00:48:09
the limo followed by John who's carrying a tape recorder and several cassettes John walks past the man that he had
00:48:19
signed the autograph before just hours before Mark David Chapman and he passes by the
00:48:26
man and he moves on at this point Mark Chapman and there's some debate over this Captain if Chapman
00:48:34
said anything or if he didn't say anything most sources that I found seem to say
00:48:40
that he said Lenin or Mr Lenin to which John may have started to turn but it didn't matter because by this point Mark
00:48:50
Chapman has already put himself in a a stance where he is ready to shoot at John Lennon he gets into combat stance
00:49:02
pulls out a gun from his coat pocket and fires five shots at the most famous man
00:49:10
in the world John Lennon was hit with 38 Caliber hollow bullets at Close Range four of the five shots would hit Lenin
00:49:20
and Lennon would stumble up a set of stairs into the building's office where he collapsed falling face down the night
00:49:29
Watchman is in this same office and he sees all of this go down so he hits the alarm which is going to a media
00:49:37
immediately summon the police and within just a minute or two we have the street
00:49:43
in front of the Dakota is now full of cop cars and Sirens going off very quickly Mark Chapman is cuffed what
00:49:53
Chapman did was as soon as he shot Lenin apparently there was somebody that said
00:49:58
something to him like what are you doing do you realize what you've just done get
00:50:03
out of here just get out of here and Chapman says to that person where would I go
00:50:09
and I've seen reports that say that he set the gun down and then he also took off his coat he
00:50:18
had on a big coat right and Chapman took off this coat apparently for the reasoning of he wanted police to know
00:50:27
right away that he was not armed he's not holding a gun he's not concealing a weapon and he starts
00:50:34
thumbing through the pages of his favorite book The Catcher in the Rye he's arrested and cuffed without
00:50:43
incident to which we have the police officer when the police walk up to him and approach
00:50:51
him Mark Chapman says to the officers I'm sorry I ruined your night and one of the cops says what do you mean ruined
00:50:58
our night you just ruined the rest of your life right Mark Chapman tells the officer that there's a big person and a
00:51:07
little person inside of me today the little person won and again when he's asked if he knew
00:51:15
what he just did do you know what you just did Mark Chapman replies I killed myself I'm John Lennon they stepped out
00:51:24
of limousine and they went inside the gate panel and then all of a sudden they heard five six shots and that was it
00:51:29
four cops pulled John Lennon out and put him into the back of a police car and his mouth he was bleeding from his mouth
00:51:34
and he it was a terrible sight Mr Chapman came up behind him and called to him Mr Lennon
00:51:41
as he arrived at that doorway and then in a combat stance he fired he emptied the Charter Arms 38 caliber gun that he
00:51:51
had with him and shot John Lennon the news spread quickly within minutes fans the curious and
00:52:00
reporters are at the Dakota apartment building waiting for news from Roosevelt Hospital John Lennon was brought to the
00:52:07
emergency room of the Roosevelt site St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital this evening shortly before 11 pm
00:52:16
he was Dead on Arrival the first reaction disbelief why would someone stalk and kill John Lennon and
00:52:25
why now when Lenin was just coming out of five years of seclusion almost immediately a vigil of stunned fans
00:52:32
gathered at the Dakota [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining us here in
00:53:04
the garage if you need more True Crime garage check us out on the Stitcher app all of our old episodes are there for
00:53:12
free and we also have a bonus show called off the Record and that's on Stitcher premium see you back here in
00:53:18
the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't leave foreign [Music]