December 9, 1980. St. Louis, Missouri. A bus of grammar school students. Destination: a private school, denomination undisclosed.

Most rides, the kids talk soccer, basketball, or baseball; the current sporting season decides the conversation. Today it’s current events. Last night someone died. A big someone, who mattered with a Capital M.

The kids know his songs, but not his face. They know his melodies, but not his music. They don’t understand what that dead man meant to their parents, but they do know he was important. Others say, they will never understand this connection, because his was the voice of another generation.

Critics said his music would never last. A flash in the pan, they said. Forty years later, John Lennon’s pan is still on fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah.