Music nostalgia
Saturday, December 8, 2018 was the 38th anniversary of the murder of former Beatles John Lennon by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building where he lived in New York City.
It was a Monday. The murder happened late at night, after 11:00 p.m., so I didn't learn about it until I woke up on Tuesday the 9th and was listening to the morning radio - 1050 CHUM in Toronto - while I prepared my breakfast, getting ready for school. Lennon’s murder is one of those John Kennedy moments, I mean, people of my generation remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. It was such a shock that the effect of it is still noticeable in my personality.
In December 1988 I visited New York City on a kind of pilgrimage with my girlfriend of the time. We stood outside the Dakota building at the murder site until a doorman shooed us away. Then we trekked into nearby Central Park to visit the Strawberry Fields “Imagine” mosaic and leave flowers there.
The death of John Lennon that school year, plus the deaths of two students, 15-year-old Lisa in October 1980 and 19-year-old Bruce in May 1981 helped cultivate my yearbook photo comment, “I really thought that love would save us all. I was wrong. Now the dream is over. It was beautiful but now it’s sour and everything has come to pass away leaving nothing but death and the glory of deeds.”
So I was thinking about John Lennon on Friday, December 7, 2018 when I heard the news that English musician Pete Shelley died at his home in Estonia. Shelley is most famous for his punk band, The Buzzcocks. But to me he is important for his 1981 solo album “Homosapien.” My last year of high school was 1980-81. In addition to the entire Beatles catalogue, Pete Shelley's "Homosapien" album was among a list of music that consumed my mind at the time. Music like:
* John Lennon’s 1971 “Imagine” album
* The Clash's "London Calling" album (1979)
* The Monks' "Bad Habits" album (1979)
* The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" album (1979)
* Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album (1977)
* The Ramones' self-titled debut album (1976)
* Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album (1977)
* the soundtrack to the 1973 "Jesus Christ, Superstar" movie (directed by Norman Jewison and starring Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson)
* the Cat Stevens soundtrack to the 1971 movie “Harold and Maude,” starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, directed by Hal Ashby
* the 1975 soundtrack to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” movie, starring Tim Curry, directed by Jim Sharman
* “The Fine Art of Surfacing” by The Boomtown Rats (1979)
* Generation X’s 1978 self-tiled album, featuring a young Billy Idol
* U2’s “War” album (1983)
* The Monks “Bad Habits” album (1979)
Capitol Records released The Beatles Red and Blue double-album anthologies in 1973. I memories the hell out of those double albums, backwards and forwards, every lyric, every note, every pause, every scratch and skip of the vinyl. I even memorized their smell and texture. In addition, in 1977 “The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl” LP was released featuring cleaned up live recordings of two separate shows there in the summers of 1964 and 1965. I was crazy for that. Again, I memorized every song, every word, and every scratch and hiss on the vinyl.
I realize now that I didn't understand Pete Shelley. Oh, well, it's a good song with a strong beat. Listening to it is like a time warp back to my ex-girlfriend's basement, where we listened to music together.
Yesterday's Not Here
Looking back on life is such a retrospective thing
Hoping for some nice advice that only you could bring
But you came as in a storm when the woolly dreams were shorn off my back
Suffer cold reality's sting
All my life that I remember was a drag
Even though it wasn't so good it was all that I'd had
Now I've seen it slip away and tomorrow's just another day
To find relief from feeling sad
Yesterday's not here no more
It's gone for good and I'm glad 'cause it made me sore
All the things that might have been
Are seen by me as regrets that my memory stores
All my life that I remember was a drag
Even though it wasn't so good it was all that I'd had
Now I've seen it slip away and tomorrow's just another day
To find relief from feeling sad
Yesterday's not here no more
It's gone for good and I'm glad 'cause it made me sore
All the things that might have been
Are seen by me as regrets that my memory stores
But from all my time the things I have seen
Have I seen you or have I been
A mirror of what you wanted to be
Just almost like you were to me
To me, to me, to me
Yesterday's not here no more
It's gone for good and I'm glad 'cause it made me sore
All the things that might have been
Are seen by me as regrets that my memory stores
Yesterday's not here no more.