The Song John Lennon Was Working On the Day He Died

There has been much discussion around John Lennon‘s final day on earth. His shocking assassination has bewildered fans for decades now. Many questions have been asked about Lennon’s senseless death, but we’re here to pose one more: What was he working on the day he was murdered? Learn more about what song Lennon delivered the day he passed, below.

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The Song John Lennon Was Working on the Day He Died

Walking on thin ice
I’m paying the price
For throwing the dice in the air
Why must we learn it the hard way
And play the game of life with your heart?

Lennon had a relatively normal day prior to his death. According to reports, most of Lennon’s final day consisted of housework and quality time with Yoko Ono and their son, Sean. However, they rounded out their evening by hopping into the studio. They recorded an Ono dance track that day, “Walking On Thin Ice.”

Though this Lennon-assisted song is markedly upbeat, some of the lyrics feel oddly prescient, given the tragedy that would unfold shortly after its completion.

I May cry some day / But the tears will dry whichever way / And when our hearts return to ashes / It’ll be just a story, Ono sings. Though she wasn’t singing about her grief, these lyrics could easily apply to those emotions. In the aftermath of Lennon’s death, Ono began to see this song in a different light. She began to see herself as the main character in this story.

The Song John Lennon Was Working on the Day He Died

“The spoken part, ‘I knew a girl…’ and all that, that feeling came to me after we recorded it,” Ono once told American Songwriter. “But I wasn’t sure about it. I just knew it had something to do with a girl who is walking. Then I sang the song, and I was still sitting in the chair by the mike, waiting for them to change the tape. That’s when it just came. So I just wrote it down quickly. I said, ‘I got it!’”

After recording this disco-tinged anthem, Lennon would make his way back to The Dakota, where Mark David Chapman would fatally shoot him. It effectively marked the end of an era and dashed any chances of a full-scale Beatles reunion. Though it isn’t Lennon’s most famous effort, “Walking On Thin Ice” is a powerful send-off for a music legend. Revisit it, below.

I gave you my knife
You gave me my life
Like a gush of wind in my hair
Why do we forget what’s been said
And play the game of life with our hearts?

(Photo by Jan Olofsson/Redferns)