The news that former Honolulu resident Mark David Chapman had gunned down John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980, shook a generation that had grown up on the playful, soulful lyrics of Lennon & McCartney.

The murder generated an icy numbness at the improbability of it all: Why would anyone want to kill John Lennon?

For those born after the former Beatle's death — many of whom listened to or sang "Yellow Submarine" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in their strollers — the full breadth of Lennon's legacy may never be fully understood. As with almost everything else about the '60s, you really had to be there.

Still, there's little doubt that Lennon, along with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison, hold a unique place in pop history. In 1964, when the Beatles first touched down on this side of the Atlantic, few rock 'n' roll bands wrote their own songs. And the ones that did, like the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons, were locked into a specific "signature" sound from which they rarely strayed.

The Beatles would change all that. With each new effort, they stretched and redefined themselves and, in the process, reinvented rock 'n' roll, changing the course of popular culture.

From the early '60s on, the Beatles would inhabit an exalted place in the new culture they were so instrumental in shaping, and Lennon quickly became that movement's leader — a rebel, an outspoken social critic, a lightning rod for controversy. His 1966 comment to a reporter, offhandedly comparing the Beatles to Jesus, caused an uproar that Lennon tried — but failed — to finesse his way out of.

But the insanity only added to the Lennon mythology, which continues to this day. "The irony of it all is that John Lennon is bigger in death than he was in life," says journalist Larry Kane, who knew the rocker for 15 years. "And believe me, he was big in life."

Kane's new biography, "Lennon Revealed," is one of almost a dozen books about the former Beatle that have been released in recent weeks to coincide with the 25th anniversary of his death. Each of these books — including "John," a less-than-flattering account by Lennon's first wife, Cynthia — attempts to explain the rocker in some new way. But each reaches the same inescapable conclusions: That he was brilliant, larger than life and very complicated.

Attempting to sum up her husband after his death, Yoko Ono said that Lennon was an idealist who "tried to change the world with his songs." But she was quick to add that, artistically and emotionally, "he was a very complex person."

Murdered just two months after his 40th birthday, Lennon was shot with a .38-caliber revolver by Chapman, an addled "fan" who, mere hours before the slaying, had gotten Lennon's autograph. Chapman wanted to become famous by killing someone famous. When police arrived at the crime scene, they encountered Chapman crouched on the pavement, reading J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," waiting to assume his dubious place in history.