The song David Gilmour wrote about John Lennon’s murder: “The eyes that just stared”
There has never been a more history-defining band than The Beatles. Four young lads from Liverpool paved the way for an entire generation to follow in their footsteps. During their tenure, they matured from boys to men in the limelight while relentlessly expanding their sound and leaving every other group trying to chase their tail. Yet nobody could keep up with their frantic pace.
The Fab Four’s impact transcended music, and it’s increasingly likely no other musical act will ever compare in terms of cultural cache. For Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, they were a key source of inspiration during his teenage years and a vital reason why he followed his dreams to become a musician.
Gilmour, like millions of others around the world, is firmly of the opinion that The Beatles are the greatest band ever to exist, as he revealed in 2018. While this is purely subjective, in terms of numbers and their role at the forefront of a musical revolution in the 1960s, the Fab Four are undeniably the most important group in history.
Following The Beatles’ split in 1970, each member achieved phenomenal individual success as solo artists. They all had their unique appeal, as well as sound, which was reflected in their solo endeavours. However, it was always expected that the Fab Four would eventually reunite, but tragically, this dream was brought to a cruel end in 1980 when John Lennon was brutally murdered outside of his New York home.
The killing of Lennon was a defining historical moment of its era, sending shockwaves across the world much like the assassination of JFK. Gilmour, who was always inspired by The Beatles, was particularly heartbroken by Lennon’s death and used songwriting as a tool to navigate his grief.
As a result of the devastating event, Gilmour wrote, ‘Murder’. The song featured on his sophomore solo album, About Face, and begins with the Pink Floyd guitarist setting the scene outside of the Dakota building, where Mark Chapman took Lennon’s life.
Gilmour begins ‘Murder’ by singing: “Some of them standing, some were waiting in the line, As if there was something that they thought they might find, Taking some strength from the feelings that always were shared, And in the background, the eyes that just stared.” Despite Lennon’s murder inspiring the track, Gilmour didn’t want it to be too on the nose. Therefore, in the lyrics, he swapped Chapman’s pistol for a knife, as he sang: “On your own admission you raised up the knife, And you brought it down ending another man’s life.”
Explaining his reasoning for doing so, Gilmour once explained: “If I’d left a gun in it, then it wouldn’t have rhymed. And also it would have made everyone say, ‘Well that’s obviously John Lennon’. That would have been more misleading because–although Lennon’s murder is part of it–it isn’t nearly all of it. It’s just murder in general really.”
Even though Gilmour claims Lennon’s death only partly influenced the track, it was the instigator for initially making him record ‘Murder’. Without being incensed with rage and anger following the tragic event, he wouldn’t have felt compelled to write ‘Murder’. In the song, Gilmour tries and fails to understand how one human could do such a hideous and evil act to another, especially somebody who they claimed to hero-worship.
Lennon left an unfillable void in the world, compounded by the twisted circumstances. For famous musicians like Gilmour, while losing a talent of Lennon’s stature was a travesty in itself, it also made them wonder whether a crazed so-called fan would attack them. Understandably, the music community mourned immensely, with Freddie Mercury and Stevie Nicks also dealing with Lennon’s death through song. His murder was not only the loss of a musical great, but for his fellow artists such as Gilmour, it also represented a potentially bleak look at their future.
