John Lennon Did Not Die a Slow Death: Dislodging an Urban Legend About a Legend

by Jim O'Donnell

JOHN LENNON'S LAST MOMENTS The title piece in this 10-story book tackles the question of whether former Beatle John Lennon died a swift death in seconds when he was shot in 1980, or an appallingly slow death over several excruciating minutes. Urban legend has it that Lennon was actually able to speak within minutes after being shot. But through many interviews with police officers and doctors, and a thorough look at various reports, author Jim O’Donnell dislodges this urban legend about a legend. Although some of the details about Lennon’s death are graphic, they serve to show that Lennon most likely died a fast death, not a slow, tormented one. For example, there were two officers first on the scene where Lennon was shot. One of them told O’ “His [Lennon’s] face was right into the floor, actually, face down. He wasn’t turned left or right. His arms were spread out in front of his head, almost like you were taking a dive. He was actually turning white at that point.” The remaining pieces in the book present the stories of nine other deceased people from the world of rock, including six rock stars, a DJ, a TV host, and a writer. CONTENTS 1. John Lennon Did Not Die A Slow Death 2. Jim Rock’s Wildest Celebrant 3. Elvis Presley ( Pop Singer) 4. And the Wind Cries Jimi 5. Janis Lone Star 6. Getting Zapped by Zappa 7. Bill Rock’s William the Conqueror 8. The Freed Kingdom 9. A Dick Clark Special 10. Ray Author, Journalist, Mentor Excerpts On John “It is time to put to rest the story that after being shot John Lennon was living, talking, conscious. Actually, he was dying, moaning, unconscious. This man who lived a fast life died a fast death, not a slow, tormented one.” On Jim “No singer before or since has had such a gift for embodying and dramatizing the search for self. He ate up every deep, dark aggression in the room, and sent it back in the emotional colors of his art. He was a natural. All Jim Morrison did for stardom, claimed Jim Morrison, was stop getting haircuts.” On Elvis “It is the face that sailed a thousand hips. Twentieth-Century man—and woman, especially—knows the first name better than any other two names that ever graced the lips of humankind—Charlie Chaplain and Beethoven, Walter Cronkite and Sandy Koufax, Jane Fonda and Harry Truman, notwithstanding.” On Jimi “He raised the performance level of rock ‘n’ roll in one blazing fell swoop. He was virtuosity AND flash. And once you saw him put the two together, the image was harder to shake than dandruff. You couldn’t help demanding more from every performer you saw thereafter.” On Janis “Some performers let off steam on a stage. Janis Joplin let off lava. She was so volcanic, her back-up bands functioned mainly as rumbling blue clouds harboring her lightning bolts.” On Frank “Ugliness objectively correlates Zappa’s thoroughly anarchic notion that acting and thinking strictly within society’s unwritten rules prevents you from being fully and freely you. (Whew! What a long way of saying nicety is the mother of prevention.)” On Bill “Bill Haley was a he smuggled rock ‘n’ roll past adult customs and into teen toyland. He had a diamond in his shoe—though he didn’t really know it, or intend to break any laws. It was just that the commodity he offered was as freakoid to his public as fifty years earlier the horseless carriage that Barnum and Bailey Circus offered was to their public.” On Alan “He is the reason the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland—not in Memphis or Liverpool. He gave rock ‘n’ roll its name by using rock to do what it’s supposed to free the spirit. And he freed many.”

74 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Jim Cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim O’Donnell’s “John Lennon Did Not Die a Slow Death” is a rather inelegantly titled book because there is more to the book. It contains nine more articles on everyone from the rock ‘n’ roll trinity of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, to Elvis, Alan Freed, a much overlooked personage in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

Being only a casual fan of The Beatles I was a bit nonplussed by the title story which debunks the myth that John Lennon was able to respond to police en-route to the hospital after being shot on December 8, 1980. This might be an important distinction for hardcore Beatles/Lennon fans, but it seems the tragedy of Lennon, who worked towards goals of love and peace became the first rock ‘n’ roll assassination. This is the larger picture to remember.

O’Donnell who has been writing about rock ‘n’ roll since 1969, and is an acolyte of Richard Goldstein, who was one of the first rock writers to consider rock ‘n’ roll an art form worthy of serious critique and criticism. O’Donnell’s credentials range from books on McCartney and Lennon to Queen, and the articles contained in “John Lennon Did Not Die a Slow Death” are contemporaneously written articles. The article on Jim Morrison was written on the day his death was announced in the U.S. The article on Elvis is nothing short of a stunning review and summing up of Elvis’ career to that point (1974).

“John Lennon Did Not Die a Slow Death” is a fast read coming in at about sixty pages. However, the articles are congruent, insightful pieces and I’ll take O’Donnell’s sixty pages over other writer’s couple of hundred pages any time.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 1 out of 5]

a lazy-as-all-fuck hop-skip-jump through simple profiles of 10 musicians no longer with us. Some of these profiles were hacked out much nearer the time (obits/memories from the early/mid 70s) and christ it's pretty fucking shitty writing, the chief trick is this song-title pun-gimmick, work as many of their song titles into normal sentences as possible. Dull. Poorly done. Hacked out for a quick buck no doubt.