Bob Dylan was in a mischievous mood, answering the telephone by saying ‘This is Beatlemania here.’ He also attempted to discuss music with John Lennon, but the two songwriters had differing priorities.
He’d be saying, “Hey, John, listen to the lyrics, man”. Forget the lyrics! You know, we’re all out of our minds, are we supposed to be listening to lyrics? No, we’re just listening to the rhythm and how he does it.
Anthology
Derek Taylor was still in the hospitality room. After several hours of being pressured for an audience with the Beatles, he called the suite to see whether some of the other guests might be admitted.
A madman with the lowest of low Liverpool accents answered: “Ay, doanbingennywon inere kozweerorl oussuvaredz.” It was impossible to identify the source, though it could only have been Neil, a Beatle or Mal – no one else in New York could do that accent except me.
Fifty Years Adrift
Eventually Taylor left the hospitality suite, a bottle of Courvoisier cognac in hand, only to encounter Epstein in the corridor. The manager’s mood had darkened since the earlier hilarity, and he scowled at the press officer: ‘You’ll pay for that bottle, Derek. That is to go on your bill.’
Taylor returned to fend off the celebrity guests and deal with the incessant phone calls, until a call came from the Beatles for him to come, alone.
The room was quite dark, lit only by a couple of lamps and some candles; the atmosphere was thick and fragrant with incense. Epstein, reeling around holding a flower, appeared to have gone mad. The visitors stood in a mystic threesome by a small table. The bearded and stout Aronowitz, my dear practical friend, was still recognisably sensible, though silent, immobile and beaming. The saturnine Maymudes was a romantic figure in exotic clothes; while between the two of them, thin and beaked, with the beady-eyed gaze of a little bird, stood Bob Dylan. Strange, thin cigarettes were being passed round and everyone looked very happy. Brian came over to me and said I must try it, this wonderful stuff that made everything seem to float upwards. Paul enveloped me in a bear-hug and told me he had been “up there”; up there, he repeated, pointing at the ceiling. George offered me a smoke. I refused: “Not for me, thanks. I’ll stick to drink.” I was fairly alarmed and saw it as my duty to “stay normal” – whatever that meant at this stage of my life. George said, “We’ve been turned on,” and from then until I left, maybe 15 minutes later, it was a smoky, murky muddle of strange new expressions – “turned on, stoned, way out” – peppered with the more familiar “incredible, wow, fantastic, fab, gear, man”.
Fifty Years Adrift
Reporters and photographers were all strictly barred from the Beatles’ suite that night. ‘None of us travelling with the Beatles was even aware,’ said Larry Kane, one of the travelling press pack. The following day, and throughout the rest of the tour, no mention was made of their experimentation with cannabis.
The band knew the personal significance of the experience, and delighted in the fact that they felt no ill effects.
It was such an amazing night and I woke up the next day thinking, “What was that? Something happened last night!” I felt really good. That was a hell of a night.
Fifty Years Adrift, Derek Taylor
Paul McCartney was proud to have been turned on by Dylan. “That was rather a coup,” he said in Many Years From Now. “It was like being introduced to meditation and given your mantra by Maharishi. There was a certain status to it.”
The meeting with Dylan was a game-changer, for the Beatles and for popular music at large. Although they would almost certainly have met at some point, the timing was perfect: in 1964 both acts were on the cusp of a major artistic breakthrough – the Beatles in their pursuit of more introspective songwriting and greater artistic credibility, and Dylan for his adoption of electric instrumentation and retreat from the purist expectations of the folk world. As their two worlds collided, the repercussions would be heard for many years.
Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs
This is an edited extract from Riding So High, the only full-length study of the Beatles and drugs.
The book charts the Beatles’ extraordinary odyssey from teenage drinking and pill-popping, to cannabis, LSD, the psychedelic Summer of Love and the darkness beyond, with a far-out cast including speeding Beatniks, a rogue dentist, a script-happy aristocratic doctor, corrupt police officers and Hollywood Vampires.
Available as an ebook and paperback (364 pages). By the creator of the Beatles Bible. Click here for more information and to order.
Also on this day...
- 2010: John Lennon’s toilet sells for £9,500
- 1998: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Salle Des Etoiles, Monte Carlo
- 1992: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Waterloo Village, Stanhope
- 1969: George and Pattie Harrison travel to the Isle of Wight to see Bob Dylan
- 1969: Apple holds a launch party for Radha Krsna Temple
- 1969: Mary McCartney is born
- 1968: Recording: Dear Prudence
- 1966: The Beatles live: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
- 1965: The Beatles live: Balboa Stadium, San Diego
- 1964: The Beatles live: Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, New York
- 1963: The Beatles live: Odeon Cinema, Southport
- 1963: Television: The Mersey Sound
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1960: The Beatles live: Indra Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Yes, Bob Dylan introduced pot to the Beatles, and the Beatles popularized pot, for the world….but dig deeper…. Canadian country music singer Ian Tyson, in the CBC documentary, Songs from the Gravel Road, claims that HE introduced pot to Bob Dylan, who is an old friend.
So, a country singer from the Canadian province started it!
It was Paul Clayton and Van Ronk who got Bob started…….. Commissioner
No one, “started it”, like music, it’s passed from soul to soul.
Hm, I don’t think the Beatles were popularizers, particularly, no more than any other popular musicians of the time – it’s not as though they went around advertising it! At least not until that ’67 pro-legalization newspaper advert, by which time the stuff had become popular enough on its own.
It was Suze Rotolo one of Dylans early girlfriend who said it was Canadian folk singer Ian Tyson who introduced pot to Dylan.
I am kind of pissed the LAPD lost Evans notebooks
Yeah, me too but really things don’t ever get lost, they only change owner.
Alistair Taylor, (who may not be a credible source, given his account of Raymond Jones), in his 2003 biography ‘With the Beatles’, casually remarks that “The Beatles rolled a joint or three” in the car after their gig at East Ham Granada, which was on 9 November 1963!
Can that be right?
Sounds like nonsense to me. I haven’t read Taylor’s book, but all other accounts suggest The Beatles were completely naive about cannabis prior to August 1964.
I heard they tried it Hamburg but didn’t like it then. Alistair Taylor is a lying, idiot who claims to be this great player in their history. He was a fail.
And where does your opinion on Taylor come from – the dumper? Maybe you’re the idiot.
The Beatles were quite familiar with various recreational drugs long before arriving in the USA.
Liverpool was far from a drug free zone for young people, especially musicians, and their gig in Germany was often fogged with various drugs.
Hm, your article claims differently, Joe!
https://www.beatlesbible.com/features/drugs/3/
Ah, so it does! But only inasmuch as they may have smoked it once in the early 60s but it didn’t seem to have had much effect. I think it’s still the case that Dylan turned them on to it, after which they became massive stoners.
That sounds about right.
So in a way, it was actually Bob Dylan who broke up the Beatles. The beginning of the end.
Or the end of the beginning?
I’m sure the facts are as they’re told here, but cannot agree with the date at all! It must have been when The Beatles made their two first appearances at the Ed Sullivan Show. (First one on 9th February. They also gave concerts Washington Coliseum 11th, Carnegie Hall, New York 12th, etc. That is, between the 8th and 16th February 1964.
They were in London on the 28th! There were new releases and they also made their “Fron Us To You TV show that day.
I think you’ve misread the date in question. (perhaps you were high?) The toke-up is believed to have happened on the 28th of August, 1964. Whereas the “From Us To You” program you referred to (2nd edition) was recorded on the 28th of February, 1964.
I just read Victor Maymudes book ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN. Of course, in that book, Victor’s the center of everything. According to him, HE had the pot, and when he got to the room, Dylan drank a couple of drinks and passed out. Maymudes says he had the pot, and he rolled all the joints, handed them out ,etc. Also, he said that, while Dylan slept, that the beatles one by one sat by him and asked him all kinds of questions. Dylan remained asleep the whole time. Then the next morning when Dylan’s entourage left, Paul went up to Victor, hugged him for ten minutes, (sic), and said “Its your fault that now I love this stuff”. Obviously this Victor guy was lying. He even says in the book, that the beatles were all in their matching collarless grey suits, when they got to the hotel room. This was a huge disappointment to me, cos any extra info on this occasion is worth knowing about. (ps. Victor Maymudes also claims to have turned Dylan onto LSD. As if.)
I wonder what the atmosphere like when that meeting took place. It is like a meeting of six biggest oil companies CEOs.. But of course, with that smoke-filled room , I mean not the usual cigarette smoke, it must be a sublime event. I could imagine how mr Starr simply wouldn’t pass the joint to the other. and mr McCartney, the prolific one, come up with ideas during the trip. I think the Beatles working as a team, and Dylan has always been the lone ranger one. Artistic people…There must be someone out there try to figure out how to make those talents becoming more receptive with the other and work like machine. I bet venture capitalists already work things out how to gather a bunch of talented people and make them work together sustainably by minimizing that superstar syndrome in them.
And… thanks to the Jester… The Beatles and their collective psycho-maturity begins the swirl around around and down… This means that their humanity song writing reached its peak in August 1964… until it gets serious in effects with the introduction of LSD in 1966 – JL especially loses his ability to just be a man with artistic creative talent but becomes a ‘mind man’ only – unable to confront basic living things and skills and deal rationally with relationships – this would eventually ruin his marriage, his group, his income, his happiness, and his music. Pot is harmful, LSD 10x’s worse. and there are some effects that never wear off.
You better just you better just cancel your interest in the band then mate; they were drinking copious amounts & popping prellies by the fist full before the Decca tapes!
You are an idiot. Would these comments be from personal experience? I think not. Have you ever thought for yourself or do you just puke out other peoples propaganda.
A real walking antique! Pot really ruined Bob Dylan’s career, eh? That would be Bob Dylan who just won the Nobel. Steve Jobs, another colossal failure! Any other wisdom for us David?
Bob Dylan and John Lennon?
This photoshop has been circulating for many years and was debunked from at least 2011.
In the link below is the original photograph of John Lennon, with Paul McCartney in the background, backstage at a Beatles’ concert at the Grugahalle in Essen during the German leg of the Beatles’ final world tour, 25 June 1966.
No Bob.
The picture of Dylan is a reversed and cropped version of a photograph by Tony Gale of Bob Dylan in London, 1966.
The original pictures are in the gallery on the website.