John Lennon 9 Octubre 1940 8 Diciembre 1980 today Diciembre 8 2020(40 años después)

Paul McCartney, George Martin & The Wings

The phone rang at Paul's house. I was alone. Linda, his wife, had taken the boys to school. He ate late breakfast; in a while he would be leaving for the study. One more day of work. When he answered, he heard his manager's broken voice. At first he did not understand what he was saying. Or, maybe, he didn't want to believe what he was hearing. “John is dead. They killed him with several bullets, ”said the man.

McCartney stayed by the phone for a few minutes. Without knowing what to do. Until he heard Linda's car. He went looking for her. She saw his face and knew that something bad, something very bad had happened. The couple spoke for a few minutes. Paul wanted to go to the studio as planned. A cloud of journalists awaited him at the studio door. The flashes, the microphones, the urgent questions.

"I can't accept it, I don't know what to say," declared Paul, looking down and hurrying his step to lose himself in the building.

In the study, the rest of the people were affected. They greeted him with regret. All eyes were on him and his reactions. Paul McCartney only wanted to see one person, George Martin, his old producer, the fifth Beatle. The meeting, at first, did not need words. They hugged and cried for a few minutes without letting go. Then they locked themselves in and talked for hours while an assistant left them liters of tea and whiskey. Martin, a father figure to the greatest compositional duo in history, was the right company to start the duel. “We talk for hours. It was our way of watching over it. And it helped us a lot ”, said George Martin.

When they had been filming for several hours and while they were smoking against a window, Denny Laine saw a truck by on the street. The vehicle had a green tarp covering the box. It was from a furniture store. The canvas read: Lennon’s Furnishing. When Laine elbowed his partner to get his attention, he realized that the other had seen him first. Paul McCartney's eyes were full of tears.

Before leaving for his home, Paul called New York, the Dakota department. He asked to speak to Yoko Ono. The artist attended him. He cried and repeated that he did not understand who had killed him, what their motivations might be. Then he told Paul that John spoke fondly of him in private. They were the words McCartney needed to hear at that moment.

John Lennon 9 Octubre 1940 8 Diciembre 1980 today Diciembre 8 2020(40 años después)-[b]Paul McCartney, George Martin & The Wi

Ringo Star, Cyntia Lennon & Maureen

Ringo enjoying the Bahamas until the phone rang. It was the daughter of his wife. The girl told him that John had been shot. Ringo cut off and was outraged. He was not overly concerned. He assumed he had only been injured. He was convinced that he would have an injured arm or leg. ten minutes later the phone rang again. Again it was his stepdaughter. Hearing what he was saying, he froze and the receiver fell from his hand. Ringo was, perhaps, the first Beatle to know.

He began to cry uncontrollably. But he overcame the shock in a few minutes. He called Maureen, his ex-wife. She knew that Cinthya Lennon, (John's first wife) was spending a few days with her. She told Maureen, who without looking into her eyes, handed the phone to her friend. "Ringo wants to tell you something." Cinthya knew what was happening when she heard Ringo cry on the other end of the line and began to scream in despair.

He did not know what to do. Until, once again, his heart followed. He left the Bahamas and took a plane to New York at that time. Upon arrival, he headed for the Dakota. He broke through the tide of curious and disconsolate fans, and went up to give Yoko Ono a hug. "What can I do?" He asked. "You have to distract Sean," said the recent widow. And Ringo, heartbroken by the death of his friend, spent the entire afternoon playing with the four-year-old and making him laugh. “Anyone would have done it. That's what friends do ”.

Ingo had seen John three weeks before they had gotten together, laughing as always. John had engaged him to record with him during 1981 in his reborn solo career. Also while resting in the Bahamas he received a cassette with a song that Lennon had composed and wanted him to sing.

George Harrison, Olivia & Sister

George Harrison was asleep in Friar Park, his English mansion, when the phone rang in the middle of the morning. His sister called him from the United States. He broke the news. George didn't say anything. He hung up and went back to sleep. As soon as he woke up a few hours later, he thought it had been nothing more than a nightmare. But seeing the way Olivia, his wife, looked at him, he realized that the call had existed. And that he had gone back to sleep just to escape the situation, to try to make it unreal.

Some friendly musicians went to accompany him to his house. After trying several times, he managed to get on the phone with Ringo who was about to fly to New York from the Bahamas. The journalists had already posted themselves in front of Friar Park and the phone would not stop ringing. George decided to release a statement: “After everything we went through together, I had and still have great love and respect for John. I am shocked, ”he said and then continued with a series of reflections on the nature of the murders and the atrocity of the use of weapons.

When it was not yet known what John's farewell would be like (Yoko Ono, finally, ordered that there be no ceremony and that the body be cremated), George decided that he would not leave his house. He didn't want to expose his pain.

On the afternoon of December 9, George, like Paul, went to the studio. I was serious and sad. In a break with all the session sitting around a table, they talked about life and death. George laid out his vision, charged with spirituality and acceptance, spoke of the difference between body and soul, and recounted, without even being able to smile, some anecdote about John.

Months later he was able to create his own tribute to his old partner. He composed the song All Those Years Ago. He invited Paul and Ringo to the recording. The three Beatles honored John with this song that became a huge hit