maybe I'm amazed ❤️‍🔥

BROKEN WINGS

Gerry McGee: In August 1980, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono) also returned to the studio to record Double Fantasy, his first album in five years. In 1975, Lennon had decided to help care for his newborn son, Sean, and had thus retired from the music scene. Now that his son was no longer an infant, Lennon felt comfortable enough to return to making records. The Double Fantasy album and its first single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," were climbing the charts during late autumn. Both Lennon and Yoko Ono were enjoying favorable press for their joint effort, especially Ono, whose work was considered progressive like the punk/ new wave style that was popular at the time. After working on additional recordings the evening of 8 December 1980, Lennon was shot by a deranged fan while entering his New York apartment complex, the Dakota. Although she miraculously escaped injury, Yoko Ono endured having to witness the incident. Lennon died en route to the hospital.

Philip Norman: Early on the morning of 9 December, Steve Shrimpton phoned him at Peasmarsh with the news that John had been shot outside the Dakota at around midnight New York time and had died soon afterwards at Roosevelt Hospital. Linda happened to be out, driving Mary and Stella to school, so Paul was alone in the house. When she returned, she found him standing in the front drive.

Danny Fields: 'God, it was horrible that day. I remember everything,' Linda said, as we talked on the back terrace of her house in Long Island in 1992. 'I'd just taken one of the kids to school, and Paul was home. I drove into the driveway and he walked out the front door; I could tell by looking at him that there was something absolutely wrong. I'd never seen him like that before. Desperate, you know, tears. I can see it so clearly, but I can't remember the words. I just sort of see the image. It's like a picture. Like it's a snapshot. Soul's camera. And then he told me what happened, and we were both crying. Later, we sat there with the kids watching it all on the telly. God, it's a weird old world, isn't it?

'I was reluctant to call you in London,' I remembered. 'So I called your brother and asked, "Are they all right?", something stupid like that. He said, "Of course!" I wondered how it could be "Of course!", but what could he have told me? You must have been freaked out, I didn't know what to say to you.' 'But it was lovely of you to call my brother. Freaked out? Slightly. It was awful. Can't you imagine? Paul was in so much pain. Then he started wondering if he was going to be next, or if it would be me, or the kids, and I didn't know what to think. At least Paul and John had been on really friendly terms at that time - they had talked on the phone about John's son, and they were laughing, and Paul felt good about their friendship.'

Gerry McGee: The morning after Lennon's death, Paddy Moloney, leader of Ireland's band the Chieftains, flew into London to help with Paul's album session. "Paul looked stunned," Moloney recalled. "He said it was tragic and useless, and it didn't make any sense. I don't think at the end of the session that it had really penetrated either . . . that John was dead, gone forever. I'm sure it took a few days before that finally sank in." Paul spent part of the day in the studio working on the song "Rainclouds" with Denny Laine. When Paul left the studio to return home, the press descended upon him like vultures and expected a statement. Still shocked by Lennon's death, all Paul could say was, "It's a drag." Although he meant Lennon's death was 'the unholiest drag of all drags,' as Paul later explained, the original statement hit the news and portrayed Paul as uncaring, even flippant. Photographs taken at the time of the statement, however, reveal Paul with a pale, drawn face; he appears to be in shock.