Today is the 8th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. As a youth I was always more enamored with musicians and writers than with sports figures and actors, and like nearly every other youth in America I was a big Beatles fan. Rock and roll in this country was stagnant, and on the verge of death, when a group of four foreigners revived it and set the standard for all rock groups to follow. And while you can argue that Paul McCartney was the more tuneful songwriter, John Lennon was the foundation of the group with his cutting edge lyrics and musical innovations that pushed the group–and rock music in general–far beyond its simplistic childhood.

John Lennon also showed that a popular artist can become an important influence on others when he put himself and his reputation on the line with his anti-Vietnam War activities. It has become commonplace for popular artists to “stand up” for causes, but not when John Lennon almost found himself exported from the United States permanently for his actions.

The only other popular culture figure whose death moved me as much as that of John Lennon twenty-five years ago was the death of writer Roger Zelazny a decade ago. In many ways Zelazny was to science fiction what John Lennon and the Beatles were to rock and roll. It is hard to imagine my world of popular culture being what it is today without either of them. I feel sorry for today’s youngsters who missed the excitement of Beatlemania that I enjoyed as a youth.