John Lennon on the radio, 30 years ago today

John F. Kennedy, Diana Princess of Wales, Marilyn Monroe - deaths that sent nations, continents even, into a time of mass mourning. But the death that trumps all these (though which, the man himself might agree, probably doesn't quite trump the death of Jesus Christ) was John Lennon's assassination on December 8, 1980, and the feelings about him and his passing that feel so intensely bittersweet even now, 30 years later.

Curtiss A still feels it, and will likely tap into these emotions at his tribute show tonight. I still feel it - only a month old when he died, I grew up with Lennon perhaps as large a part of my life as if I'd been born 30 years earlier. I don't know how to describe it other than as a wrinkly feeling... a sadness, tempered with the knowledge that I didn't know the man so what right do I have to make claim on this collective sadness, tempered again with the fact that we as humans feel some innate need to connect with the sadness of others, finally tempered with a recognition of the beauty and joy in Lennon's art, his life, and ultimately, his death.

Want to tap into this wrinkly feeling? Check out this short audio clip courtesy of WFMU, a radio dial scan of New York City's FM band, recorded shortly after the news of John Lennon's murder broke.

That wrinkly feeling? It'll give you chills, I guarantee.