Why post on the 9th of December when he was murdered on the 8th. Simple - I live in South Africa and we are six hours ahead of New York. Lennon was pronounced dead at 11:15 PM NY time. Which would have been 5:15AM South Africa time.
To say that that incident is the singularly most significant moment of my life would be an understatement. To reference Bruno Kirby from City Slickers, "it was the worst day of my life, and it was also the best day of my life". I can clearly remember sitting in my bedroom listening to Radio 5 at our smallholding in Sunninghill Park. I seem to remember Gordon Hoffman being the anchor at the time. Someone came in and announced that John Lennon had been shot - so it must have been about 5:30 our time. A few minutes later he told us that Lennon was dead.
That was it. My life now revolved around the Beatles, I had to get hold of everything they recorded. I stand corrected here but I think the Beatles were banned on the SABC because of Lennon's comments in 1966. We were pretty much starved of Beatles music and videos at that time. A few weeks later I bought my first Beatles' album - Abbey Road.
The focal point of my musical journey is the Beatles. I can trace everything I have ever listened to back to them. Take Peter Green. Green replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, Clapton played the solo on "While my guitar gently weeps". Clapton listened to Robert Johnson, Johnson was influenced by Son House, Charley Patton, Kokomo Arnold etc.
You can trawl the internet for tributes, memories etc of John Lennon, so I won't post much more than this, other than to say I was immensely influenced by him in almost everything that I am now. I have possibly assimilated the less attractive features too.
And to keep with tradition I will post another Hamburg track
22 - Ask Me Why
Ask me why is the only other original track recorded at that gig.
Also if you are interested in the last Lennon interview, you can listen to the whole thing here.