Episode #13 | 7.10.18

The Death of John Lennon (Pt. 1): “John Lennon, I’m going to kill you, you phony bastard.”

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In this episode

John Lennon was a walking contradiction: a violent pacifist and a creative genius marred by creative inconsistency. He was gunned down just as he was getting his groove back by Mark David Chapman, a self-loathing narcissist obsessed with his contradictory hero, John Lennon, Lennon’s musical rival, Todd Rundgren and J.D. Salinger’s angsty, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye. Hear how all of these factors and more contributed to the musical icon’s senseless murder in a two part Disgraceland episode. To hear part 2 of John Lennon in Disgraceland entitled, "The phony must die said the catcher in the rye" click here.

Sources

Let Me Take You Down, Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon by Jack Jones

The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman

Last Days of John Lennon by Frederic Seaman

Chapter 27 Directed by J.P. Schaefer

Esquire: John Lennon Where Are You?

Playboy: An Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Rolling Stone: When John Lennon's 'More Popular Than Jesus' Comment Turned Ugly

Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Extra Credit

Big thanks to John Powhida for pushing me into the deep end on this one and for spearheading the writing for this episode entitled, "The Ballad of John and Todd: Can't Sleep At All", which will be available on Spotify and iTunes shortly.

Writing assistance for this episode by Pat Healy, who I forgot to mention in the credits because I'm dumb sometimes. Pat does great work and I'm lucky to get to work with him.

Music

Score by Jake Brennan.

Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.

Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.

This episode featured the song, "The Ballad of John and Todd: Can't Sleep At All" featuring John Powhida by Jake Brennan, Adam Taylor and the Disgraceland Players written by John Powhida with Jake Brennan and Mike Gent. Produced by Jake Brennan and Adam Taylor.

*illustration by Avi Spivak @avispivak