MADRID, Spain.- This December 8, 42 years ago, John Lennon, considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, was assassinated at the door of his house, located opposite Central Park, in New York.
Lennon was returning with his partner Yoko Ono from a recording session when Mark Chapman, an alleged fan, shot him five times.
Chapman, 25, detained at the time 40 years later during a parole hearing, stated: “I murdered him because he was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason. I was very, very, very focused on seeking personal glory.”
The death of John Lennon deeply affected Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, former members with Lennon of the iconic British rock band The Beatles. In the same way, it shocked Yoko Ono and fans from all over the world.
John Lennon and The Beatles
John Lennon, born on October 9, 1940 in the English city of Liverpool, before the emergence of The Beatles had created the group “The Quarrymen” with some friends, with whom he sang and played the guitar at neighborhood parties.
At a performance of “The Quarrymen” he met Paul McCartney, who was already a guitar virtuoso. McCartney, invited by Lennon, joined the group and brought his friend George Harrison with him.
After a performance in a Liverpool bar, they decided to change the band’s name to The Silver Beatles, which ended up being The Beatles.
His first album, Please, please me was published in March 1963. This was the first of many and the beginning of a road to fame, which would leave great songs in the history of music, among them “Help!”, “Ob-La-Di, Ob- La-Da”, “Yesterday”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Hey Jude”, “Let it be”…
In 1967 Lennon met Yoko Ono, a Japanese conceptual artist, for whom he separated from his wife Cynthia Powell, and with whom he was united until her death. Also for many, the cause of the separation of John Lennon from The Beatles, in 1969.
After leaving the band, Lennon developed his solo career, which includes around 40 songs, including “Imagine”, one of the most covered songs in history.
John Lennon in Cuba: From forbidden to being replicated in a central park
Like so many artists who have been banned by the Cuban government, the music of The Beatles was banned during the 1960s, a time when the repressor Jorge “Papito” Serguera was president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.
Those who wanted to listen to The Beatles, or music in English in general, had to do so hidden in their homes, as it was considered an “ideological weapon of the enemy,” an “imperialist symbol.”
Years later, the censorship was lifted, and from being banned, Lennon went on to be honored with a massive concert in 1990, in a park located on 6th street in El Vedado. Since then the park has been known as John Lennon Park.
In 2000, a statue of the musician was inaugurated in this place. At the inauguration, in addition to intellectuals, artists and politicians, Fidel Castro attended.
The replica of Lennon’s glasses on the statue was stolen several times, so it was kept on guard during the day and night.
Currently, foreigners visiting the island take photos next to Lennon’s sculpture, many of them probably unaware that for years his music was banned in Cuba.
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