Luis,
Thank you for starting this thread. I kept meaning to but just had little time to spend here today.
I was a Beatles fan, had a few of their albums. As a teen, Paul was my favorite, but then again that opinion was formed when I was 9. As I got older, I realized how very important John Lennon was to the music community. He has inspired thousands and thousands of musicians all over the planet. We know of many local musicians who pretty much all state the same opinion - the Beatles and Lennon were their reasons for sticking with music. The best band there ever was, IMHO. And it's shared by many.
I remember waking up the next morning, walking outside for my newspaper, opening it while still on the sidewalk to our front porch and reading the tragic news - Ex-Beatle Slain. If I had watched the 11 p.m. news the night before I would have learned of the very sad news. I immediately turned on the TV, every station was covering the story. As I drove to work, each radio station I tuned to, was playing Beatles music. Even talk radio stations, all devoted to the Beatles and to John Lennon's memory.
It is a day I will never forget. And that said, I still say December 8, 1980 is the saddest day in Rock n Roll history. Even more so than Elvis' death. John Lennon was living a peaceful lifestyle, bothering no one, and he was ripped from us.
Mary