Locals discuss life, legacy of Lennon on 40th anniversary of his death

WILKES-BARRE — Several local Beatles fans/experts Tuesday discussed the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder and how that event impacted them, the world — and why.

Attorneys Jim Gillotti and Garry Taroli, along with music journalists Edd “Beatledd” Raineri and Alan K. Stout, took time to reflect on the milestone — Lennon would be 80 today — and why we should still be talking about a man that was one-fourth of, arguably, the greatest rock and roll band in history.

In 2014, Gillotti and his wife Cindy, traveled to England and spent a week there on an official “Beatles Pilgrimage Tour” of London and Liverpool — the city in which the Fab Four grew up in the 1950s that was economically depressed, and slow to recover from damage inflicted during World War II.

“The Beatles came from working-class families that struggled to make ends meet,” Gillotti said. “None of their parents owned a car when they were teenagers. In those early years, the Beatles rode buses to their concert venues, carrying their instruments on public transportation. In spite of those challenges, they set out to be exceptional, and by 1963, their dreams became reality in England.”

Gillotti watched The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, just a few months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“Our country was very much in need of a lift, and these ‘four lads from Liverpool’ provided it in a big way, with their youthful energy, enthusiasm and wit,” Gillotti said. “Despite only being in their early 20s, they displayed incredible talent and confidence. And, they were so original.”

Gillotti said it quickly became clear that John, Paul, George and Ringo had stirred up something very powerful.

“There was a sense that the genie was out of the bottle, and that the world would never be the same,” he said. “John Lennon was the sharp-witted, sometimes cynical leader of the group. He was my favorite Beatle.”

Gillotti said the Beatles greatly influenced music, hairstyles, fashion and popular culture,” Gillotti said. “More importantly, the music promoted personal freedom and the community of mankind.

Raineri said back in 1980 he was a songwriter and would go into New York City often for meetings with music publishers. He was in the city on Dec, 9, 1980, and he went straight to The Dakota Apartment building where Lennon and Yoko Ono lived. He said the streets were jammed with thousands of fans.

“As a songwriter, you could have written the greatest song in the world and brought it in for publishers to listen to that day, and no one would have really heard it,” Raineri said. “That is, their ears were completely numb. Lennon’s sudden death by gunfire just stunned NYC and the world. It was my most depressing visit to and from New York ever.”

Raineri has been friends with Lennon’s half-sister, Julia (Baird), and she appeared on Raineri’s radio show — “The Beatledd Fab Four Hour” on WRKC-FM & fab4radio.com worldwide — in October for what would have been John’s 80th birthday.

“We still exchange emails quite a bit” Raineri said. “Interestingly, she knew John in two different ways — as the ‘brother’ that she grew up around — and as John “the Beatle,” who was always in the newspaper and on TV.”

Taroli said he clearly remembers the day Lennon died.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Taroli said. “Just very sad and totally ridiculous that such a creative person would be pointlessly killed by a delusional maniac.”

Stout said over the years, he has thought more about the loss of Lennon, the man, rather than just the loss of the musician.

Stout, who covered rock music for The Times Leader for nearly 20 years, said, “As fans, we all feel that we lost so much more music that might have still come, but the greatest loss was for Yoko, Sean and Julian. She lost her husband and they lost their father. It was so senseless. Especially since he was at such a great place in his life, which you can hear on ‘Double Fantasy,’ the album he had just released shortly before his death.”

But, Stout said, we all lost something, too.

“His influence remains strong,” Stout said. “When I talk to musicians about their influences, the Beatles and John’s name still come up constantly. And that’s not only with songwriters from his generation, but with every generation since, including people in their twenties and thirties.”

Mark David Chapman

In August, the Associated Press reported that Mark David Chapman, the man who gunned down Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980, was denied parole for an 11th time.

The AP story said Chapman was denied after being interviewed by a parole board Aug. 19, according to corrections officials. Chapman, 65, is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Wende Correctional Facility, east of Buffalo.

Chapman’s next parole hearing is scheduled for August 2022.