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| Yoko, John (L) and Carl Claudio (R), summer '71 |
Forty years ago today, John Lennon was killed. The next morning, 19-year-old college-sophomore-me had a radio show to do, and all the other Boston stations were playing "Give Peace a Chance" and "All You Need is Love" and "Imagine."
Well, I felt darker than that. I played "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "Run for Your Life" and "Help!"
Forty years later, I see Above Us Only Sky on Netflix, the Yoko-driven documentary about the making of the "Imagine" record at an English country house in the summer of 1971.
The proceedings are shaggy and fun, George Harrison dropping by, Phil Spector at the helm, and then suddenly this unkempt, clearly troubled Vietnam Vet named Claudio shows up and insists on meeting Lennon because he believes Lennon wrote all his songs for Claudio.
The encounter is - amazingly - on film, and Lennon patiently hears Claudio out and tries to reason with him - "How could I know you?" - and that he, like Bob Dylan, just writes things hoping people will relate.
The encounter ends - even more amazingly - with Lennon telling Claudio he looks hungry and bringing him into the house for a meal.
And when the album Imagine is released it includes the song "I don't wanna be a soldier mama/I don't wanna die."
I read up on (Carl) Claudio (here) and he worked on farms and a Ford auto plant and when it closed he bought himself an ultra-light airplane, flew it too low and slow and the plane stalled, landed in a tree and tore his aorta from his heart. Dec. 22, 1981 - dead at 33.
In light of what happened a year earlier, when another obsessed fan came with the same kind of delusional narcissistic energy and took John away from every one else -- the Claudio scene was so moving and chilling and I don't even know what.
John, we miss ya.
