December 1, 1980 -- New York City

 

In NYC before life changed

 

November 26, 1980 

These photos have always been difficult ones for me.    Ringo and Barbara look great together.  They are newly in love and in New York City, staying at the Plaza.    It was a happy time for them.   As the story goes,  they met up with John and Yoko this day.    It had been a very busy day for John and Yoko, and yet they still managed to have a meal with John's old friend.    This is when Ringo introduced Barbara for the first (and last) time to John.    Supposedly they were to just have a meal together and go their separate ways, but the two friends were enjoying each other's company so much, that they spent a long time chatting.    

It makes me so sad to think that these photos are the last day that Ringo got to see John before he was murdered.   If the conversation was like any other that friends have, they most likely parted saying something along the lines of "we need to do this again sometime,"  or "next time you are in town, come by the Dakota and I can show you how I make bread."    I don't know the exact wording obviously -- but you know -- they probably left each other with open plans to see each other the next time Ringo came to New York.    Ringo and Barb had plans for a December holiday in the Bahamas.   Of course, John's death cut those plans short.   

So I guess the bottom line of all of this is that you just never know when the last time will be that you spend with someone.    I am sure Ringo did not think after his meal with John, "that's the last time I will ever see him..."    But I also bet that Ringo was glad to have met up with him and spent that extra time chatting.    So the next time you get the opportunity to see a good friend -- maybe spend a few extra minutes with that person because (to quote Ringo) tomorrow never knows.  

 

An Apple a Day

Photos by Allen Tannenbaum 

November 26, 1980 

Amazed to meet John in Central Park

 November 21, 1980

Leaving the Cafe

Photo by Laura Porcell who worked by the Cafe La Fortuna and saw John frequently.
Taken August  29, 1980
Found on Facebook

Just like Starting Over

 

October 24, 1980 -  This was the day that John and Yoko first heard (Just Like) Starting Over on the radio.  John was in a great mood that day and got his photo taken with a Polaroid camera with many of the people that were in the Hit Factory.   He even used the camera himself to take a photo of Bob Gruen.  (Anyone else wish they had a Hit Factory Shirt???)  

Waiting to see Jimmy Carter

 

October 13, 1980

Double Fantasy: A Heart Play

 

September 15, 1980 

First Day Back

Photos by Paul Goresh 

August 7, 1980 --  John and Yoko return to the studio!!!   If Blogger wasn't impossible, I would have put these photos in the correct order so that it would look like John and Yoko are walking out of the building.   But yeah -- Blogger does not like me to do that.  They like to put photos however they want. 

Still -- I love these shots. 

The Painting

40 years ago this artwork of John and Sean was painted while they were in Burmuda.   The painting as far as I know, is still hanging in the Dakota.   Please don't comment on John's weight. Yes, he looks thin in these photos.   However --- I hate talking about people's weight.  I want John to be remembered for so much for than what he weighed the last year of his life.

Here is the story I found online from the artist the drew the painting.

John Lennon's arrival on the island was quite a shock for the American artist Nancy Gosnell, who ended up painting a portrait of John and Sean. John had seen her paintings at a house that he rented from her friend Rolf Luthi, she explained. "He said: 'John would like to have a portrait of Sean painted as a present for Yoko.' I said: 'Oh wonderful, I can do that.' Then I heard John wanted to have his portrait in the painting as well," says Gosnell, who was always fully booked.
Lennon and Sean – both wearing shorts and T-shirts – came to the door of the rented house. "They both sat down on the rug in the living room where I had set up my easel. Their house was on the water so I painted the scene [below] right outside their house so it looked like they were sitting on the beach. They had a big grand piano. John would call Yoko on the phone and play [songs on] the piano." These ended up on Double Fantasy.
"He spoke about his life and the Beatles and how Yoko had been his saviour, and he had been a mess and overweight and she had put him on a brown-rice diet. He did impersonations for me. I remember him doing Henry Kissinger, and he sang a little. One of the songs he sang was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
John told her he "got tired of being a Beatle" because "he was writing music for teenagers", and now he wanted to "write for adults". He also asked for Gosnell's teacher's name in New York so that he could take lessons in portrait painting. Back home, the picture hung in his Dakota apartment, above his piano. "It almost seems like a fantasy in retrospect – John Lennon – probably the most famous person in the world," she says.

Forty years have passed

Freedom!

January 27, 1980 --  Paul is out of jail in Japan and is happy back at home.   Thumbs a loft and promises never to smoke pot again. 

Scrunched together