Mike Derrico

Autumn and Everything After Mike Derrico

The fateful events of the consequential last months of 1980, how they changed music & politics, and set the tone for today's toxic climate. A story about rock and roll, murder, war, politics, the cultural divide and the current assault on democracy in America.




Fall 1980...a growing distrust for government and a rejection of the counter cultural values of the 1960s bred the rise of a multi-layered conservative movement that results in Ronald Reagan winning the presidency. The coming decade would manage to alter and redefine the political landscape of America, having a direct impact on world events well into the next century.




Fall 1980...former Beatle John Lennon returns to the music world after a five-year absence. With a successful new album, Double Fantasy, Lennon at the age of 40, is attempting to reconcile adulthood with his radical past. It is a celebrated comeback with high hopes for the future until he is murdered in early December.




Fall 1980...31-year old rocker, Bruce Springsteen releases The River to the commercial success that will turn him from a critically-praised cult figure to a worldwide superstar. Unlike John Lennon, however, Springsteen stays out of politics and has never made his views known...until November 4, when he is so profoundly transformed by the election of Ronald Reagan, that it will serve as the dividing line pointing toward the artist he would become while informing his work for the rest of his career.




The last months of 1980 were a political and artistic crossroads for three of the most influential people of modern times. In this critical exploration into a pivotal period of musical and political history, these three lives inadvertently intersect and intertwine during the last months of 1980 and beyond, in ways in which the influence is still felt today. In essence, it is where the 1960s really ends, and the 21st Century begins. Rock and roll's past, rock and roll's future and the future of America with the entire world at stake