Hard to imagine

Twenty-five years ago today, then-IU graduate student Glenn Gass sat in front of his television when a friend called and told him to switch to ABC. The friend, who was watching Monday Night Football, heard from Howard Cosell in mid-broadcast that rock 'n' roll icon John Lennon was shot.\n"There was so much confusion and shock," said Gass, adding that news reports were conflicted as to whether Lennon was dead. "My friends and I were such big (Beatles) fans that it really hit us hard. It's hard to imagine the death of a pop star seeming so much like the death of a family member, but that was how closely we related to John and his music."\nJohn Winston Lennon, who was shot and killed by a deranged fan outside his New York City apartment on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, was noted for his singing and songwriting, both as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist.\nBack in Bloomington, Gass and other Lennon fans congregated in Dunn Meadow to honor the wishes of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who requested 10 minutes of silence in remembrance of her dead husband. Gass said he and friends considered Lennon's death a "fourth assassination," after '60s icons Martin Luther King, Jr., and John and Robert Kennedy.\nThe next class day, Gass attended class with a black band wrapped around his arm as a tribute to a man who had had a profound effect on his life. When members of his classical music course laughed at his show of grief, Gass said he was amazed that musicians would treat Lennon's death so lightly.\n"I was really angry that these grad students in the School of Music grew up with the Beatles and yet either couldn't or wouldn't appreciate them," he said. "And these were people who were about to become professional musicians and composers."\nA quarter century after his tragic death, Lennon continues to have a tremendous impact on the music world. Now an IU Music professor, Gass, who teaches Z401, "The Music of the Beatles" in the Jacobs School of Music, believes that Lennon continues to influence musicians and devotees of his work to this day. \n"The Beatles have really stood the test of time as one of the great bands of their era," Gass said. "I would not hesitate to compare them to the likes of Beethoven, because you didn't need to experience them in person to love their music." \nFreshman Whitney Wyckoff, who is in Gass' "History of Rock and Roll in the 1970s and 1980s" class, agrees. \n"Lennon's lyrics are just so personal and so powerful," she said. "He wrote from his life and from his soul, and it's so easy to understand and relate to him as a musician and a person." \nLennon often wrote from his personal experience, authoring songs like "Cold Turkey," which the former Beatle reportedly wrote about his addiction to heroin.\nBorn Oct. 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, Lennon reached his greatest fame with the Beatles in the 1960s and 1970s, when the band took the rock music scene by storm. Lennon, along with his friend Paul McCartney, was a key member of the band as both a guitarist and lead singer. He was also instrumental in the band's success due to his talented songwriting. He and McCartney co-wrote several popular songs, including "I Am the Walrus" and "Getting Better." \nLennon met Ono in 1966 and the two wed in 1969, a year after Lennon's divorce from first wife, Cynthia, according to www.lennon.net. Soon after recording "Abbey Road," the band separated, and Lennon immersed himself in a solo career. Lennon penned numerous hits, including "Imagine," the title track to his most successful solo album, and "Give Peace A Chance," a song he and Ono cut together before the Beatles split. Lennon was a major voice against the Vietnam War, and also involved himself in feminist and racial equality and acceptance movements, according to the Web site.\nSenior Zack Bubness said the generational divide between current college students and those who remember the day Lennon died does not hamper student's respect for Lennon's work.\n"The majority of us in the class weren't alive when Lennon was shot, and it's difficult for us to understand how traumatic his death was at the time," Bubness said. "The Beatles class has given me a different perspective on Lennon. I had respect for him before, but after the class it has increased tremendously."\nLennon's greatest accomplishment, Gass said, is his ability to outlast his death. He said losing Lennon was tantamount to losing a rock legend and a man who had stood for peace and equality his entire life.\n"Losing John meant we lost any hope of the Beatles reuniting, but it also meant that in a way we lost our innocence," Gass said. "We lost the '60s. We lost everything John Lennon represented."\n-- Arts editor Kacie Foster contributed to this report.