It wasn’t just the first time that the Fab Four and Bob Dylan met. After playing a concert at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in nearby Queens, The Beatles returned to their suite at the Hotel Delmonico at Park Avenue & 59th Street in Manhattan.
Journalist Al Aronowitz had arranged the summit. Dylan brought along the weed. (Actually, like any self-respecting rock star, he had his road manager Victor Maymudes carry the bag of marijuana.)
When Dylan offered to get them buzzed, he was surprised to learn they hadn’t smoked pot yet, as he thought they were singing “I get high” in the chorus of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Lennon explained to him that the misheard lyric was actually, “I can’t hide.”
Related: Reviews of Dylan and McCartney at 2016’s Desert Trip
The Beatles had smoked a joint during their time in Hamburg but felt no effect. Dylan started rolling a joint but flubbed it. He handed off the pot and papers to Maymudes, who twisted up a doob and handed it to Lennon. John passed it off to Ringo, saying the drummer was his “royal taster.”
Starr lit the joint and took a few hits. He then held onto it, not realizing the ritual was to pass it along. So Maymudes then rolled everyone their own joint.
What happened next? “We got high and laughed our asses off,” Starr told late night TV host Conan O’Brien in 2012. Duh….
Listeners detected a Dylan influence in Rubber Soul, released the next year. Lennon called it The Beatles’ “pot album.”
Listen to the Beatles mess around in the studio with “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationLove Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Would have loved to being able to chill with them. Awesome article!
Actually the Bob Dylan Forest Hills show was August 28, 1965, a year later.