The day after his arrival in the United States, Paul McCartney spent the day in San Francisco.
He and Mal Evans had flown into the city from Los Angeles in the early hours of the morning. The city was experiencing its first snow for 42 years, and the temperatures were much colder than the pair had been expecting.
The trip was to surprise McCartney’s girlfriend Jane Asher on her 21st birthday the following day. With a free day McCartney and Evans saw the sights, photographed the Golden Gate Bridge and bought records.
They also visited the Fillmore Auditorium, where Jefferson Airplane were rehearsing. Afterwards they accompanied Marty Balin and Jack Casady to the Oak Street apartment they shared with the band’s road manager Bill Thompson, where McCartney played them an acetate of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. They also attempted a jam, but McCartney had trouble playing the band’s right-handed guitars. He is seen below playing a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar which probably belonged to Paul Kantner.
McCartney smoked cannabis with Jefferson Airplane, but declined an offer of DMT mixed with cannabis. Despite this, rumours persist in the city that he did partake in the hallucinogenic drug. At the end of the evening Jack Casady took them back to their hotel.
Also on this day...
- 2009: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunite for benefit concert
- 2009: George Harrison to get Hollywood Walk of Fame star
- 1990: Paul McCartney live: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe
- 1967: Mixing, editing: Within You Without You
- 1964: The Beatles occupy the Billboard Hot 100 top five
- 1963: The Beatles live: Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School, Buckingham
- 1963: Radio: Side By Side
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
“The Jefferson Airplane was practicing at the original Filmore in San Fransisco in the afternoon when in walked the Beatles assistant Mal. He was in a suit and tie and very British when he said “Master Paul McCartney would like to visit with you”. I said “show him in”. He went out and came back with Paul McCartney leading the two of them back in. He was also in a suit and tie. He sat right down with us and talked a bit. Then we invited him to Jack and my apartment in the Haight Ashbury. So we went to our apartment and Jack and Jorma kept trying to get Paul to jam with them but he didn’t really want to. So he came over to my side of the apartment and we sat and started to talk. I said “so what’s up with the Beatles?”. Paul casually pulled a cassette from his pocket and said ” I happen to have a track from the new album”. I pulled out my cassette player and popped it in. Out came A DAY IN THE LIFE OF. Imagine the first time hearing that song……and I was sitting there with Paul McCartney hearing it….I was stunned and knocked off the universe. I just praised the heck out of it…and him…and the Beatles and knew that it was part of a magnificent wave of new music led by the Beatles.”
MARTY BALIN
I was 14 at the time and hung out in Golden Gate Park hearing the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, etc. though hadn’t attended the Beatles concert in ’66. I did buy a copy of Sgt. Pepper’s album the day it came out in the SF area [on my birthday 24 May]. I had know idea what was coming when hearing A Day In The Life for the first time. I loved the whole album besides the cover and the conceptual elements to it. That when I took up photo-collage for the first time though didn’t revisit it until 1992 on my 40th birthday. Besides achieving some notoriety as a conceptual surrealist, the body of work presented by The Beatles, opened horizons, inspiring and challenging me in many ways. I also looked up to Paul like a big brother and wanted to experience raising a family and experience living in nature which I had the privilege of experiencing in ’86 when living in a cabin above the Yosemite and in the Oregon rain forest. Am appreciative of those who follow their dreams and challenge others through example.
Paul isn’t wearing a suit in this picture.
Paul typically wore suits or trousers with a sports coat-style top. All the Beatles (and British bands in general) dressed quite smartly. To Marty Balin and most other younger Americans that would likely be perceived as a suit. In the photo Paul appears to have removed his jacket, and instead of a tie he is sporting a scarf, which was the thing to wear at that time.
So yes, a ‘suit’ would be an appropriate description.
Does anyone know the address of this Oak Street apartment? Have been trying to figure out.