Did John Lennon predict his own death?
Few celebrity deaths are as culturally significant as the murder of John Lennon by Mark Chapman in 1980. The fact that Lennon, arguably one of the most famous musicians of all time, was gunned down highlighted several things about society.
Firstly, gun control laws in America needed to be tightened – which sadly has not been taken care of, even today. Secondly was the fact that our Western society had become obsessed with celebrity culture. Even after these two things lies the fact that even though Lennon was a proponent of bringing peace to the world, it had done little to sway those who sought his death.
On December 8th, 1980, Mark Chapman approached Lennon under the archway of the Dakota – the building that housed Lennon’s apartment – and fired five bullets at the former Beatles singer, four of which hit him in the back. He was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital after being rushed there in a police car.
Chapman had planned Lennon’s murder for a couple of months, having been enraged by Lennon’s 1966 comments that the Beatles “were bigger than Jesus.” He was also angered by Lennon’s luxurious lifestyle, which was juxtaposed with his ‘peace and love’ modus operandi. Chapman had reportedly been influenced by Holden Caulfield, a character from J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, who despised the hypocrisy of adults. Chapman later told police, “I felt that by killing John Lennon, I would become somebody.”
Interestingly, John Lennon may have predicted the nature of his death. Firstly, there is the fact that on the Beatles’ track ‘Come Together’ – from 1969’s Abbey Road – Lennon can be heard whispering at the start of the track, “Shoot me”, which is strange considering that is exactly what would happen just over ten years later.
Another instance of Lennon’s suspected clairvoyance surrounding his death came in ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun‘. Lennon wrote the song after he saw the song’s title on the cover of a gun magazine. The notion behind it was “happiness having shot somebody”. Arguably, Lennon’s happiness, though it was coming and going throughout his life, was what led Chapman to believe that he was overly luxurious, and as such, he shot him.
Yet, the most interesting instance of John Lennon predicting his own death came in a 1965 interview, in which he told a reporter, “We’ll either go in a plane crash or we’ll be popped off by some loony.” Sadly, this was the case. Elsewhere, Lennon’s track ‘Borrowed Time’ – released posthumously – contained the line, “Living on borrowed time without a thought for tomorrow”, which perhaps best sums up Lennon’s tragic and sudden death.
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