The night Lennon was shot
Sometimes you have no recollection what you were doing during a life-changing moment in history, but I can tell you precisely what I was doing the night Lennon was shot. I was in New York City. And I was waiting for Jim Lauderdale to start his set. At the time he wasn't Jim the Grammy winner, he was Jim the talented, but largely unknown musician by night and office worker at Rolling Stone Magazine, by day. For me, it was the year I took off from college in 1980, when I lived in a sublet on Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side. That particular night I remember very well, Jim asked if I wanted to come hear him play an acoustic set at the East Side YMCA. I did, naturally, and invited another college friend to join me. We met at the Y and took our seats in the echoey hall. I believe it was on 72nd street. Well, I think it was 72nd, it might have been 79th. I know is that it seemed to be directly across Central Park from and the Dakota, where the Lennon's li