Yesterday, in New York, precisely at the Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park dedicated to John Lennon’s memory, dozens of people found themselves for the 45th anniversary of his death. Strawberry Fields was inaugurated in 1985 as an official commemorative area of the city, partly funded by the municipal income and partly by private donations, and has become one of the most visited points of the park, like the Bethesda Terrace or the Belvedere Castle. Every year the gathering on the occasion of John Lennon’s death recalls hundreds of fans, all of different ages, from historical enthusiasts to younger ones, who commemorate their disappearance through homages and live music.
Lennon, born in Liverpool in 1940, started playing in the Quarrymen before founding the Beatles along with Paul McCartney and George Harrison in the late 1950s. With the arrival of Ringo Starr in 1962, the group consolidated the formation with which he would release albums like “Revolver”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road”, which became one of the best-selling albums in record history. Total copies estimates vary according to methodologies: the industry considers a total of more than a billion units plausible, including vinyls, CDs and digital formats. After the dissolution of 1970, Lennon continued with a solo career during which he published classical songs such as “Imagine” and “Instant Karma!”.
John Lennon, however, was not killed there where the memorial stands, but at the entrance of the Dakota Palace, a few meters from the park, on the evening of 8 December 1980. The murder was accomplished by Mark David Chapman, who fired four times to the artist after signing an album a few hours earlier. For the murder, Chapman was sentenced in 20 years and life. He is still in prison and, after the first twenty years of detention, he demanded parole twelve times, always denied. This led to a heated debate in America on the criteria for the release of probation for those who commit violent crimes.
Strawberry Fields remains a reference point for music tourism today. It is included in many guided tours dedicated to the cultural history of the city, along with other places related to popular music such as the former CBGB at Bowery or the Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. During the commemorations, visitors leave flowers, photographs and copies of albums, but also objects related to the Beatles culture, such as special editions of “The White Album” or posters of reprints curated by Apple Corps.
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