Reflecting on John Lennon's death, 35 years later
Like many music lovers, Kenneth Womack has this date circled in his mind's calendar.
Thirty-five years ago, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was gunned down outside his New York City apartment. The tragedy left a great unanswered question: Had Lennon lived, what course would The Beatles and the culture have taken?
“The effect of time almost makes it worse,” said Womack, a Monmouth University dean and a leading scholarly authority on The Beatles. “On a micro level, his life was destroyed and his family was destroyed because of his assassination. On a macro level, we were all denied the opportunity to see how he would have grown and matured through some really turbulent and at times buoyant times.”
It's tantalizing to theorize what might have been. Womack, dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences and author and editor of several books devoted to The Beatles, shared his thoughts on the subject with the Asbury Park Press.
For starters, would the Fab Four have gotten back together?
“I absolutely do think they would have,” Womack said. “John had remarked before his death that it was getting very difficult to pass up the dollars.” Not just dollars for him, but for charity. In the late 1970s, the benefit-concert concept was taking off, and no benefit would have raised more than a Beatles reunion.
By: Jerry Carino
Source: Ashbury Park Press
