@Bliss Sort of weaving two stories together around December 8, 1980, which is the "when I first heard...night that it happened" The "what happened to those people" can refer either to John and Yoko, or the narrator (ok, me) and his now lost love, and many of the other images can be applied to both stories, which is the idea - small tragedies and large tragedies that intertwine in life and memory. Details and which is which left to the listener.