John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet in Santa Monica

Paul and Linda McCartney paid a visit to the Santa Monica house rented by John Lennon on 29 March 1974.

The encounter came the day after a jam session involving Lennon, the McCartneys, Stevie Wonder, and various others.

Lennon and May Pang were renting a house at 625 Palisades Beach Road, Santa Monica, for $5,000 a month. It had been built by Louis B Mayer, and was leased to Lennon by its then-owner, actor Peter Lawford.

The McCartneys brought their daughters Heather, Mary, and Stella.

Lennon’s partner May Pang took some photographs of Lennon and McCartney relaxing by the pool. Later in the afternoon the party moved to the living room, where McCartney began to play old songs at a piano.

We showed Paul and Linda the house and then sat down in the living room to talk. While we talked Paul kept staring at the piano. He couldn’t stand it anymore and got up and headed for it. The minute John saw Paul go to the piano he ducked out of the room and Linda followed after him. Ringo also made a quick exit.

John later told me Linda had questioned him about me. She wanted to know who I was, where I came from and what we planned to do with our futures. She also wanted to feel John out about business. Her questioning had made John very uncomfortable.

I remained in the living room while Paul began to sing and play a group of 1930s standards. While he was playing, his five-year-old, Mary, said, ‘Daddy, are you some sort of pop star or something?’ Everyone burst out laughing.

The concert continued, and Harry [Nilsson] and Keith [Moon] began to sing along with Paul.

When Linda returned, I noticed she was wearing platform shoes. Our house, like so many houses in Southern California, was shag carpeted, and I noticed that she kept tripping on the rug. ‘Linda, why don’t you take your shoes off? Make yourself comfortable,’ I told her.

‘I’m fine. After all, these shoes are British-made,’ she replied in her ultraprecise English accent.

Later we all went for a walk on the beach and then sat in the sun while the girls went for a dip. The conversation remained casual, since John and Paul did not discuss any controversial issues; there was not much gossip, and the afternoon went by pleasantly. After a late lunch, Linda launched into a long paean to the joys of living in England. When she was finished she turned to John and said, ‘Don’t you miss England?’

‘Frankly,’ John replied, ‘I miss Paris.’

The girls had begun to yawn, and it was getting late. Paul and Linda gathered their belongings.

‘Let’s see each other again,’ Paul said right before they left.

‘Let’s,’ John replied.

‘Good-bye, Duckie,’ Linda said to John.

We walked them to their car, waved good-bye as they pulled away, and then went back into the house. ‘I had a good time,’ I told John.

‘It was interestin’.’

‘What do you think is on Paul’s mind?’

John didn’t answer.

McCartney’s reason for visiting was partly to convey a message from Yoko Ono, from whom Lennon was estranged in early 1974. McCartney offered to give a message to Lennon on her behalf.

When they split up, Yoko came to London, looking like a widow, a little diminutive sad figure in black. She came around to Cavendish, and she said, ‘John’s left, he’s off with May Pang.’ So, being friendly and seeing her plight, Linda or I said to her, ‘Do you still love him? Do you want to get back with him?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ We said, ‘Well, what would it take then?’ because we were going out LA way. We would often go there for Capitol Records or just for a laugh. It was a logical place to be in the record business. In this case we were on our way to a holiday. I said, ‘I can take a message. What would I have to tell him?’ And she gave me this whole thing: ‘He would have to come back to New York. He can’t live with me immediately. He’d have to court me, he’d have to ask me out. He’d have to send me flowers, he’ll have to do it all again.’ Of course, she’d sent him off with May Pang, but that wasn’t the point at that time.

So I went out there and he was doing Pussy Cats with Nilsson and Keith Moon and Jesse Ed Davis, to name but three total nutters. Three beautiful total alcohol nutters plus John, forget it! Even the location is perfect. We went round to a session and sat there for a bit. It was a little bit strange, John and I, seeing each other at that time. But then we dropped by their house the next day for a cup of tea or something. I remember Harry Nilsson offering me some angel dust. I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘It’s elephant tranquilliser.’ I said, ‘Is it fun?’ He thought for about half a minute. ‘No,’ he said. I said, ‘Well, you know what, I won’t have any.’ He seemed to understand. But that’s how it was there.

Keith Moon was very sweet, we had a nice chat with Keith. He was very complimentary about Band on the Run, which was out recently. He asked, ‘Who drummed on that, man?’ and it happened to be me. So I said, ‘Me, man.’ Moonie is my second favourite drummer of all time. Ringo, Moonie, John Bonham would be my three main drummers. Not technically the best by a long shot but for feel and emotion and economy, they’re always there. Particularly Ringo.

So I was having fun with the guys sitting round the pool, and eventually John got up. Linda and I had kids so we’d be up early. We wouldn’t be just lying in bed till three in the afternoon, which is what John was doing. He was a teenager again. It was everything he’d always wanted to do in Liverpool. He was just being his old Liverpool self, just a wild, wild boy. The Brendan Behan thing. He was involved in all sorts of punch-ups with Harry Nilsson, and Spector was there letting his gun off in the control room, apparently. I mean, those are not sessions I would want to be at.

But I took John in the back room of the house, sat down – ‘How you doing? Great. Lovely to see you…’ He was in quite a mellow mood. It was early morning for him, early morning in the afternoon. I said, ‘Yoko was through London and she said she wouldn’t mind getting back together. How about you? Would you be interested in that?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ That he still loved her and stuff. So I said, ‘Here’s the deal. You’ve got to go back to New York. You’ve got to go get a flat, court her, so-and-so…’ and that’s just what he did. That’s how they got back together again.