By Cheryl Herman
On this day, 1980, legendary Beatle John Lennon was shot dead outside Dakota Building an apartment complex overlooking New York’s Central Park. Just three months earlier Elton on stage at New York’s biggest green site, would call out on the concert PA Lennon”s name.
There have been too many concerts during which I had to rely on video screens in order to catch the action onstage.
Happily, this wasn’t the case the first time I saw Elton. It was on 13 September 1980, at New York’s Central Park, and sponsored by designer Calvin Klein and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The aim was to encourage people to keep the parks green. Admission was free, but donations were encouraged. Fans could also purchase tee shirts, and I still have mine . . . a depiction of keyboards with trees on each side, with a blue bird hovering over the scene.
A keyboard motif was used, as well, for one of Elton’s stage outfits. For his other looks, Elton dressed up like Donald Duck and a glitzy cowboy.
Highlights of the set list included Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting), Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance), and Little Jeannie, from 21 at 33, which had recently been released. In fact, one of Elton’s 21 at 33 collaborators, Judie Tzuke, was that afternoon’s opening act.
In retrospect, the most poignant performance was a cover of John Lennon‘s Imagine. Elton was thinking of his friend since he lived nearby. They hadn’t seen each other for a long time, but Elton knew John was working on a new album. That turned out to be Double Fantasy, Lennon’s final recording, because he was murdered three months after Elton’s Central Park appearance.
I remember that when I first heard the radio announcement, it didn’t register. As I rushed about, getting ready for the day ahead, I thought the man who was shot just happened to have the same name as the former Beatle.
I am reminded of all of this when Thanksgiving rolls around. Lennon’s last performance was with Elton on Thanksgiving in 1974, at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Elton had asked John to join him onstage, should their song, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night, hit #1. John agreed, never dreaming this would happen.
